There are so many things wrong with The Purge franchise that should be right. The concept for the films are great. A new law in America allows all citizens one 12-hour night to commit any and all crimes without punishment. This, in turn, has made the unemployment rate down to less than five percent and crime down to almost 99 percent. It seems to be a good incentive to Americans who need to commit crime in order to purge their darkest desires in one government-decreed night. There is SO much potential here to make a riveting film. Unfortunately, in the first film we have all of America out doing whatever the hell they want to do centralized into a single home. Not exactly the best of scenarios, but it could've worked had a few pieces actually fit together to make a decent movie. It did not. So, writer/director James DeMonaco actually took the criticisms from the first movie and expanded the universe out into the streets. Yes, if America is out purging on the night of the purge, we want to be everywhere. We want to see every crime committed by heinous human beings acting out their government-given right. We want to see how terrifying it would be if someone's car happened to break down miles from their home, just minutes before the purge is to begin. We want to see how innocents escaping from purgers handle themselves outdoors while trying to survive the night. We want to see any and all purge scenarios (and there are limitless amounts) because the concept is so great. And while DeMonaco does a great job in this sequel with his newest concepts... much like the first film, it isn't executed well at all.
This may be the first time in my life's movie history that I despised an original film, then, less than a year later saw a trailer for it's sequel and got excited about it again. Fool me twice, DeMonaco, that's on me. It seemed like for everything DeMonaco did right in this film, he did three things wrong. Perhaps under the guise of a studio (and I will hardly ever say anything like this) it may have been a better film. But, this falls under the case of the director and the writer being the same person, so there's no one with better judgement looking over the shoulder offering better ideas. This time around, yes, we have expanded the universe from a house to the streets. We are following a mother and daughter who's apartment is under siege from men dressed all in black with automatic weapons. There's also a fighting couple who's car has broken down on a bridge right before the purge begins. Then, finally we're following a single man, willingly outdoors during the purge with an agenda not made entirely clear. Somehow... and this is where credulity is strained... these people all end up together in the same car and forced to stick together to stay alive during the night.
It's a stretch to put the only five alive innocents on the streets of (I think) LA. The film would've served better if it was a series of vignettes put together to show different purge stories and actually give us some cool characters and some truly evil characters put together. However, we were given three interwoven stories, so we'll stick with these. The first thing everyone in the theater should notice about this film is how atrocious the dialogue is. Again, if the director is also the writer, there's no one standing over the shoulders explaining that the dialogue truly needed a beefing up. It's really bad. Not one character is apparently allowed to have an independent thought in their head without expelling it out of their mouths. "I'm scared." "I think they're here." "I'm running." "My heart is beating." "My acting choices are questionable." It's all exposition. We, as an audience, are apparently not allowed to infer anything in the film, instead we have to be spoon fed all thought and emotion spoken by each character which makes for some sloppy writing.
The next huge problem I had with the film was with the new political motivations added in by DeMonaco in order to explain the law of the Purge a little more fully. This is something that was totally unnecessary. We don't need to know that America is no longer a Presidential dictatorship, but has essentially turned into a society in which the upper class elite run everything through a group of a few men known as the "founding fathers" who are represented mostly as cult leaders rather than political figures. I know we have a pledge of allegiance, and in certain settings can sound almost cult-like when spoken aloud, but now, apparently, all rich people have resigned to "praise" the fathers and America. So, before acting out a kill, we get this very cult-like prayer about the fathers and America and the right to Purge the shit out of people. I get how he wanted to explain why America would allow such a law to be passed, but it's more silly than explanatory. We didn't need an explanation. We've already strained believability with the concept of the film and accepted it. No need to add some culty political overtones in order to give a little more credibility to a film that, astoundingly, didn't need it.
Then, it's just a series of poor choices and miscues. Situations are set up that even during the Purge, I'm inclined to think is just unbelievable. We don't care about any of the characters, and when we start to, they do something that takes away any credibility they'd briefly earned. It's a script that could've benefited greatly from an edit and a re-write. It's also not that scary. There are a few quick scares in the beginning, but then genre lines are crossed and we've gone from horror film to action film to tense thriller film to attempted grindhouse film. The concept, yes, is terrifying, but then this is what we've been talking about all along-- failure to do anything right with a brilliant concept. When the film begins to lose steam and become almost laughable, the ability to scare anyone goes right out the window.
Like I said in my review of the first film, had this idea been an episode or two of The Twilight Zone it would've knocked it out of the park. The film is already doing very well box office-wise, so we can assume that this isn't the final entry of The Purge series. Perhaps, if the reigns are handed off to someone a little more capable, maybe, then, we'll have the film we've been hoping for since last year. It does make me wonder, though, how many times I'll be fooled by the concept of the Purge before giving up on it altogether. Depending on the trailer, I'm guessing at least one more.
D
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