Last summer The Purge was released and it was based on an incredibly awesome concept; murder and all crime is legal within a 12 hour period. The sequel to that titled The Purge Anarchy has been much better received by people, but to me the movie just did not work and I can sum up my feelings towards the movie with 5 reasons.
1) It's characters
Don't get me wrong, Frank Grillo was actually good in the movie and his character (while he was nothing incredible) was actually well realised and you could understand why he was the way he was and why he was doing the things he was doing. However the rest of the characters were hollow, the acting was wooden and the actors portraying them spat out stupid dialogue. Stupid characters make stupid decisions throughout the movie. Early on in the film a teenage girl yells at a murderer who has entered her apartment "we're in the closet! But don't come near we have guns". I can't explain to you just how stupid that is with words.
2) Is it horror movie? Or is it an action movie?
So you could argue that this movie is an action movie. But then how do you explain the awful jump scares that happen at the start of the movie, which by the way don't work at all and are 100% unnecessary? You could argue that this movie is a horror movie. But then how do you explain the endless amounts of gunfire, slow motion and shaky cam? I'll just settle with it being an action movie... a bad action movie.
3) It's themes
This movie is filled to the brim with social commentary about how the upper classes people of society can exploit the lower classes in awful ways. As soon as it looks as if the movie is going to delve deeper into this issue and make the audience think more about it, it cuts to a mad, masked maniac screaming and setting homeless people on fire.
4) It's predictable
I said before that you understood where Frank Grillo was coming from as a character but he never says why until near the end of the movie. However, when you really start to think about it the answer is staring you in the face. SPOILERS.... he's avenging the death of a loved one. I saw it coming. Also the end of the movie has no tension because it is also pretty predictable.
5) It's just plain dumb
The concept for these movies is undeniably cool... until you think about it for longer than 5 minutes. Why would the fire/ambulance services be disbanded for 12 hours if an old man is on his death bed or a pregnant woman goes into labour? Are the people purging purely evil? Do they not have a conscience? If crime is legal for 12 hours, why not fly to another country and spend a week there during the purge, especially if you're so terrified of it? If someone pissed you off 6 months before the Purge, would you really hold that vendetta against them for that long? Oh I really don't know.
The Purge: Anarchy was made on a budget of 9 million US dollars and has grossed around 84 million dollars as of when this was published. We're going to get more of these movies every single year! If you like the movie that is (obviously) completely fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion. But I'm entitled to mine as well, and if I were to give the film a grade it would be a D.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment