The Purge: Election Year
Universal Pictures
Written by: James DeMonaco
Directed by: James DeMonaco
Starring: Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Mykelti Williamson, Betty Gabriel
The Good
I loved the fact that they teased about how much the influence of the purge has spread. We only get to hear about this from a few characters, but it was nice to hear about. (I wish they wouldn’t actually shown it rather than just mention how far it’s spread). Frank Grillo was just as good as he was in the last The Purge Anarchy (My Review), and continues to win as an action star in my book. Along with him, Mykelti Williamson (played “Joe”) attempted to steal the spotlight with his off handed, stereotypical comic relief. It was entertaining for the most part, but be prepared for some major eye rolling too.
The Bad
The writing overall seemed cheap, rushed, and underdeveloped. It felt like they just wanted to stretch what happened in Purge 2, rather than expand a richer story. In some cases, the story relied a little too much on just how demented people got with their creative purging. It won’t take you long to figure out that the characters were stereotypical and over the top; which led to them doing a lot of over acting. The bad guys were the most extreme bad guys you could think of, and the good people were as naive as ever. Some of it didn’t even sound believable. Some of the lines the characters were saying were just ridiculous and were probably just in there for shock value.
There were other moments in the film that were simply unbelievable. The more you actually sit back and think about what was going on, the dumber the movie gets. Rather than keeping the serious tone that the previous Purge films had, this one tried too much to be comical. The sense of urgency, and suspense are just diminished as you can tell this film didn’t take itself seriously at all.
The Reason
Overall, as a huge fan of the Purge films, Purge Election Year was a disappointment for me. They didn’t even get that deep into the politics or any of the substantial impacts of what made the Purge so unique. This didn’t even feel like the Purge 3; it was more like the Purge 2.5. If you want to see it, do it as a DISCOUNTED matinee at the very best. But don’t be afraid to just wait for this and watch it at home. -_-
