Review of The Purge: Anarchy (2014) by Thequietgamer — 26 Nov 2014

It delivers the anarchy the title implies, which is good considering it was what the first needed and was sorely lacking in. This sequel takes the great concept of the first movie, the annual "purge" where all crime is legal for 12 hours, and uses it to bring unique, crazy, and occasionally tense scenarios. It's political and social commentary is still lacking, but overall there's still enough fun here to make it worth a watch.

Watching a group of people trying to survive unprepared during a time when psychos are everywhere is quite entertaining. Even better is that the characters you will follow are much more intelligent than the ones from the first movie. I actually found myself wanting to see most of them make it through the night. The inventive scenarios and constant threat of danger kept me entertained. Even though it fails to deliver any fear it provides plenty of thrills.

The themes that are behind the movie though could still use some work. It's political/social themes are so simple and presented in such a heavy-handed manner that it just comes off as dumb. The way the movie has it's fractions limited to only one racial group is ignorant. All the rich purgers and government agents are white, all the anti-purge revolutionaries are black, and various groups of psycho purgers are all comprised of only one ethnic/racial group united. Honestly I think this series should quit trying to say something deep and strictly focus on the craziness of it all, because every time it tries it just ends up making the people behind making the movie look stupid.

It does manage to be a lot better than the first by delivering on some of the promise the whole "Purge" setting that the first just failed to do. There are still some issues when it tries to come off as more intelligent than it actually is, but overall the increased sense of anarchy makes it still worth a watch. Here's hoping that the next "Purge" ditches it's political and social commentary altogether and just focuses more on the craziness like this one did. It's what makes it work.