I've seen a lot of movies that had really cool concepts with tons of potential, but never reached any higher than mediocrity. One of them actually came fairly recently, in the form of last year's The Purge. The core idea behind the movie ― that for one night a year, all crime (up to and including murder) is legal ― sounds very promising. But The Purge ultimately proved to be just John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 reimagined as a home invasion thriller.
The movie was a big hit at the box office though, and Universal Pictures quickly approved a sequel that was rushed into production and arrived in theaters just a few days ago. With the trailers promising that we'd get to see more of the Purge, I'll admit that I was drawn into seeing it. Alas, The Purge: Anarchy ended up following in its predecessor's footsteps by being just okay at best.
The sequel takes us to Los Angeles circa 2023, mere hours before the annual Purge is scheduled to begin. And as this period of carnage and lawlessness commences, the lives of five strangers will be drastically altered forever...
First, we're introduced to Eve Sanchez (Carmen Ejogo) and her teenage daughter Cali (Zoë Soul). While they believe they'll be safe in their fortified yet meager apartment in the projects, a heavily armed squad of mercenaries arrives in they neighborhood and starts attacking. They open fire on some of the residents, rounding up others into a paddy wagon for reasons unknown. And in all the chaos, Eva and Cali find themselves caught in the crossfire.
Meanwhile, a squabbling couple named Shane (Zach Gilford) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez) are driving across town to a safehouse to wait out the Purge. When they briefly stop at a supermarket to pick up some supplies, Shane is accosted by a gang in the parking lot. They leave without incident, and Shane and Liz think nothing of it. But then disaster strikes when their car breaks down just as the Purge begins. The couple realizes that the gang has tampered with their car, and they're now being stalked by that same group of punks. Shane and Liz are forced to flee and try lying low if they're going to survive the night.
While the people we've met so far have been victims of circumstance, there's one who specifically intends to participate in the Purge. Police sergeant Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) has armed himself to the teeth and ventured out into the urban war zone, seeking revenge against the drunk driver that killed his son a year earlier. He coincidentally passes Eva and Cali on the way, and impressed by their attempts to fight, steps in to rescue them. But when they return to Leo's car, they find Shane and Liz hiding in the back seat. The five are forced to band together and fight for their lives, hoping that they can survive when a violent death awaits them at every turn.
I went into The Purge: Anarchy hoping for the best. They were going to take us into the streets during the Purge and see all the madness it brings. That idea got me really excited. But I walked out of the theater thinking that the movie still failed to live up to its potential. There were some really cool moments and a few decent elements, but when the credits rolled, all we were really given was just another ho-hum action thriller.
Like its predecessor, the movie was written and directed by James DeMonaco, whose work here just feels kinda generic at best. I mentioned that there are some cool moments and that's true, but there's nowhere near the amount of tension or excitement there could (or probably should) have been. Far too often, DeMonaco gets close to something often only to trip over his own feet and stumble along instead.
I will say that to his credit, I liked DeMonaco's attempts at making the Purge feel broader in scope than it did in the first movie. We get to see more of the bedlam, experience it on a grittier urban level. But it doesn't help that the movie's story is dull, full of flat, one-dimensional characters that never inspire one to care about them. It's basically what would happen if you replaced the titular gang from The Warriors and replaced them with the Punisher and four idiots. DeMonaco's attempt at working some sort of political subplot, incorporating corrupt oligarchs and an anti-Purge resistance faction, is just too much. The climax (which borrows from The Most Dangerous Game) is a neat idea, but the anti-Purge faction is just there for a lame deus ex machina during the climax. The whole "rich vs. poor" thing in movies is getting kinda played out too. The Occupy movement is over, so can we move on? Or at the very least, could you try something that doesn't come off like you're cribbing bits and pieces from Catching Fire?
And bringing up the rear is the cast, the majority of whom are just as bland as the rest of the movie. Zoë Soul is definitely trying, but the true standout is Frank Grillo. As I said earlier, his character is all too reminiscent of the Punisher, and I've heard that his best scenes were edited from the movie due to pacing and time constraints, but Grillo actually makes a pretty cool badass. I honestly wish DeMonaco had done away with the other four characters and made Grillo the movie's sole focus. That's a movie that could have been pretty cool.
Unfortunately, the movie that's playing in the theaters right now is the one that we got. It's watchable, and it's not as offensively bad as some other movies I've seen in the past, but The Purge: Anarchy is just another movie I left wishing had turned out better. I still think there's a lot of potential and promise left in the Purge franchise, though I'm just waiting for something or someone to really bring it out.
Final Rating: **½
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