The Purge: Anarchy

By: Robert Murphy

When I first laid eyes on The Purge about a year ago, I was excited to see a film that had such a great idea going for it where the United States finally solved it's problem with job employment, civil unrest and various other issues plaguing us at the moment. The results after the first film though weren't what I expected, it played more off the role of the well to do side of the purge where wealthy people hid behind fancy security systems, high fences and enormous homes. The Purge: Anarchy however, brings what I had hoped for from the film showing just what happens to those unfortunate enough to be trapped in the unsafe chaos that is purge night. The poor and somewhat middle class are not so lucky on purge night because they cannot afford the protection needed to survive the night and this shows the ugly side to America's new success found through the ashes of purging. This America isn't all it's cracked up to be for everyone it seems and you'll find out just how wrong it can all go for the people being hunted. 

The story as I said takes the action to the streets this time around and their are oh so many different kinds of hunters out on the streets to see. Many people enjoy the rush of purging for the most part, even the aspect of dying doesn't really seem to faze many of them as they all take to the streets, armed to the teeth with various weapons and tools of their trade. It was particularly enjoyable to see all the unique figures hidden among the film, some were a bit religious in their slaughter, others created crazy dune buggies heavily armored and even more mysterious were some strange looking semi trucks with high tech gear inside. The unfortunate people being hunted tonight meet with a bit of bad luck as their car stales, some foul play may be involved and Shane (Zach Gilford) and his wife Liz (Kiele Sanchez) are stranded in the streets fleeing for their lives. In their attempts to survive they come across a gruff man Sergeant (Frank Grillo) who is also armed to the teeth out on purge night but has appeared to be a guardian angel, saving them and Eva (Carmen Ejogo) and her daughter Tanya (Justina Machado) from God knows what kind of torture. Whatever their reasons, the five end up being grouped together in their attempts to survive the remaining time left till sun rise but this night will be something that never wants to end. 

Now while I should be over the moon that I finally received the purge movie that I always wanted from the first time I saw the trailer for the original, I just wasn't pleased by what it turned out to be. I said earlier that I enjoyed the purging and the unique ideas placed on the characters who were out hunting, it all becomes moot when you see that that is all their is to it, they're cool and then they die or we move to a new scene. The main characters spend their time somehow avoiding the insane amount of bullets flying then jumping to the next scene as they walk one by one often trying to squeeze out some poor dialogue. The somehow super soldier Sergeant character, who is dressed like he's from The Matrix, seemingly knows everything about purge night and how to survive every encounter their little group comes across, it's almost like he sees everything coming a mile away and makes things feel staged, the poor acting doesn't help too much either though. The other characters are just there, literally they stand their through the film for the most part trying to force an awkward conversation into each brief moment of no gunfire. They all do have their own stories but as quickly as they were introduced they're forgotten such as Eva's father, Rico (John Beasley) being sick and dying and them needing money to pay for the medicine, it gets dropped about twenty minutes into the film.

I know that you can't expect much of a story with a movie like The Purge: Anarchy but even when you look at the guts and gore of the film, you don't feel like you're enjoying what is happening. There isn't a whole lot of fun that went into the writing of the script for this film, it was just a bunch of flash without the bang it needed to really shine. There were a good amount of ideas that were apart of the film that I liked such as the propaganda campaigns strewn throughout the story featuring an anarchist to the purge Carmelo (Michael K. Williams). If only some of the good ideas in the film came into the lime light a bit more then there really might have been something to The Purge: Anarchy but sadly that isn't the case and hopefully someone picks up the pieces and makes something great out of all this mess one day. 

Good:

- An improvement to the last film

- Crazy hunters who are out on purge night were pretty cool

- Has some good ideas and potential hidden away in it

Bad:

- Has no sense of direction with it's story

- Very poor acting on all the main cast part

- Action seemed staged when it came down to the main characters being attacked

- The gore, guts and grit are lack luster and all flash with no follow through 

Scully Rating: 4.5 out of 10