Review of The Purge: Anarchy

The Purge: Anarchy is way better than its predecessor, 2013's The Purge, but it's still an outrageous concept that takes itself too serious. It was alright watch for the most part. Honestly, the movie directed and written by James DeMonaco, has potential, for more, if the movie tries to be a dark satire, but it fails because it takes its ridiculous premise too seriously. Like my previous review on the Purge, the sequel movie does also a poor attempt to explain why the Purge works. It's kinda explains that the Purge is there to eraser the poor, but it never explain how killing the poor, make the economy, great. The upper rich are stereotype cartoony villainous. I doubt that the rich is that willing to kill, the people that drive their business, going. There is nothing to gain. Honestly, if people had the right to purge, I think the rich would be more of a target, than the poor, anyways. If unemployment is 1%, how many poor people are there, anyways?? The movie doesn't explain how the country went from bankruptcy to prosperity through violence through Social Darwinism. I guess, we can say, the government of the new founder fathers were lying, about the purge working, but it doesn't explain why people would wait to vent their negative emotions for one day that crime is all legal, and emergency service are suspended. Anger, Lust, and Greed is an impulse reaction that some human cannot control. People will act upon it, no matter if it's the day of the purge or not. It's all crime with passion. It doesn't explain, how crazy people with mental instability, are able to wait for the Purge to commit crimes. It doesn't make sense. Murder, Rape, and Stealing will happen, any day. There always going to be rule-breakers and people that act on impulse. This can't stop crime. I'm glad this movie got away from the normal home invasion of the first movie, and went into the lawlessness anarchy of the streets. Indeed, this movie got a bigger budget, and it shows with the action. The movie has more of it. One thing, the movie does better is not to have all the action in the dark. It's more like an action movie thriller than a horror movie. The movie indeed had more interesting characters. Frank Grillo as a Sergeant Leo Barnes is a badass. My favorite part in the movie is him, yelling at the old woman. He has a lot of good-one liners. I hope to see him in more action movie, besides this as the lead. This guy is going places. The female leads of Carmen Ejogo as Eva Sanchez and Zoë Soul as her daughter, Cali, are a big annoying, but for the most part, works as the moral compass character arch preacher. Still, there were a bit too many characters in this film. I think the couple, Shane (Zach Gilford) & Liz (Kiele Sanchez) were pretty weak characters. Honestly, they could had be cut out from the film. It was nice to see Edwin Hodge reprises his role of Dwayne from the first movie. I'm also glad, there wasn't a lot of over the top overacting like Rhys Wakefield's Polite Leader from the first movie. The ending is a bit anti-climax for a movie call, the Purge: Anarchy. I really thought, the government will be overthrown or something by the end. It didn't happen. I know the movie, explain the rules of the Purge, like not using high tech weapons like dirty nuke bombs, chemical weapons, and Biochemistry warfare, but you would think that somebody would say, screw the rules, it's the purge, go crazy, and attack the government that made this dumb law. If you going to make a movie about anarchists, at less, have them fight more against the fascist government. Honestly, I think the movie play it a little too safe. It could had dealt with more controversial issues like terrorism, school-shootings, and others. Still, the movie did had some type of a society commentary. The movie is clearly influence by the 1967 episode of Star Trek call 'Return of the Archons' with a similar plot, in which an otherwise placid society is allowed pre-scheduled 12-hour periods of lawlessness and violence. This movie was also influence by works like Koushun Takami's Battle Royale, Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game, Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games and John Carpenter's Escape from New York. It was pretty entertaining shoot it up movie. Remind me of Grand Theft Auto: Free Range mixed with the politics of Bio-Shock. Due to the movie success, a third movie will probably be made. I'll be looking forward to that. Overall: If you don't nitpick the weird concept too much, you might find this movie worth the time, watching. It's a good watch.