Review of The Purge (2013) by Jesseh — 09 Jun 2013

I can't say that my expectations for this movie were very high at all, but nonetheless I was disappointed. You'll hear everyone, even critics, praise The Purge for the original premise, but it's really a silly concept at its core.

The concept of the annual "purge" serves best as a symbolic meaning, but in reality, making all crime legal for one day would hardly do anything to improve the overall situation. It is a logistical nightmare and it is never once explained HOW the annual purge improves day-to-day life.

I thought the underlying tones of religious oligopoly and the clear discrimination present in society would have been much more interesting to explore. You can't just introduce such a new concept as an annual purge and only dedicate a few scenes to its exposition.

A small scale home-intruder thriller does not fit this sort of concept, in my opinion. This also has to do in part with the fact that The Purge is a bad movie front and back, in almost all senses. The acting is unremarkable, although I'm pleased with the limited amount of overacting by the leads.

The lead delinquent character was well thought-out and acted, but the writing was awful. Everything has extremely heavy-handed and there was no concept of subtlety with the plot. Events were foreshadowed a scene or two ahead of time, and the pacing was awful.

I found myself getting more enjoyment out of the reactions from fellow moviegoers, rather than the film itself. I found that the movie was awkward and each twist seemed more forced than the last. And honestly, I have never been more frustrated at characters' choices than I have during this movie.

The best part of the movie was the very beginning, when the stock footage of people killing and being killed during the annual purge is shown. It's truly chilling and helped hash out the world that the average American at the time would be living in.

Of course, the rest of the film worked as hard as it could to undo all of this.The Purge is bad enough to be universally recognized as a poorly-made horror flick. Unfortunately, it really isn't bad enough to be worth screening at a Halloween party for good humor.

It's too mediocre to be taken seriously, but not bad enough to be remarkable. It was a horrible limbo to be caught in, and I wish that the admittedly interesting concept was taken on at a larger level and scope than the cruddy thriller we got.