The Purge (2013) Review

"Just remember all the good the Purge does."

-Mary Sandin

In the not-so-distant future of America, the country has never been better.  Unemployment and crime are down and the economy is booming.  This is attributed to the annual Purge, where all crime, including murder, is legal for 12 hours, to allow the citizens to get all the anger and hatred out of their system.  Security system salesman, James Sandin (Ethan Hawke), plans to spend the night in his home, which has a very expensive security system installed, along with his wife, Mary (Lena Headey), his daughter, Zoey (Adelaide Kane), and his son, Charlie (Max Burkholder).  Charlie dislikes the Purge, and when he sees a stranger (Edwin Hodge) screaming for help outside, Charlie lets him in.  The Sandin's quickly realize the stranger is being hunted by a group of well-off Purgers, who threaten to break their way into the house, and will kill all of the Sandin's to get the stranger.  As the Sandin's struggle with the moral dilemma, Zoey's boyfriend, Henry (Tony Oller), is also in the house, and he has a bone to pick with James.

What Works:

So, this was the first time I have ever seen any of The Purge movies.  I know the general premise, and I was aware that this first movie is mostly just a home invasion movie with the Purge serving as a backdrop.  I knew it going it and it didn't bother me.  I actually really liked the setup and the background to this story.  It was very interesting and I'm glad the sequels delve into this more.  I can understand why people who saw this movie in theaters would feel ripped off, having such an isolated story, but that was one of the few things that didn't bother me.

I also enjoyed Ethan Hawke's performance and he is the only character I like in this movie.  He's trying to do the logical thing for most of the movie, it's not his fault the rest of his family are a bunch of idiots.  He's easily the smartest character and it's a shame that he is the only one of the Sandin's to die.

What Sucks:

My biggest problems lie with the rest of the Sandin family.  They are all pretty useless and make terrible decisions.  I totally understand having a moral problem with the Purge and wanting to rise above it.  Totally fine.  But fight that battle on the other 364 days of the year.  On this one, doing the right thing will usually get you killed.  Just wait it out and do the right thing the next day.  Charlie letting the stranger into the house was incredibly stupid.  For all he knew, it could have been a trap to get a rich person to open their doors.

The family all turning on James when he ties the stranger up to give him to the Purgers also pissed me off.  Like, what do you want?  Either he dies, or you all die!  They got extremely lucky things worked out the way they did.  It was really frustrating watching all these characters make choices that were not in their best interest.

And when Mary had the chance to murder all of their neighbors who tired to kill them, she should have seized the moment.  Now she has four people, who already wanted to kill her, who are even more pissed off.  She bought herself a year.  Next year, they will come back with greater weapons.  She had the chance to take them out and remove a threat from her existence.  Plus, they tried to kill her kids.  I simply don't buy that a mother would let these people walk away from that.

Another problem was the kills.  Apart from one guy taking an axe to the back, none of them were anything special.  It's mostly just gunshots.  Come on, you have one night free to kill people, get creative.

The lighting was also a major problem, as I could not tell what was going on the majority of the time.  I get that the power is out and the characters can't see, but the audience still needs to know what's going on, otherwise it just gets frustrating.

Also, the leader of the Purgers, played by Rhys Wakefield, was way too pretentious.  The writing for that character was ludicrous, and not in a good way.  It felt very fake, and while I couldn't stand him, it wasn't for the right reasons.  He was more irritating than anything.

Finally, I don't think the movie did enough with Henry the boyfriend or the stranger.  Henry is killed almost immediately, and that takes out one interesting component of the the movie.  Having another threat inside the house, one who actually wants to harm James, would have increased the tension dramatically.  It also could have given Zoe something meaningful to do.  It also would have been nice if James had talked to the stranger some more.  They could have bonded about...something, anything really.  Give them some sort of relationship, a reason to fight.  Then we could have had them all stand together to fight the Purgers.  That would have made for a much more interesting movie.

Verdict:

The Purge is a movie that had a solid premise and a decent protagonist and completely wasted them.  This movie was like watching potential go down the toilet.  The side-characters are stupid, annoying, and unlikeable, it's poorly lit, the kills are nothing special, and it simply didn't do enough with what it had.  The setting wasn't the problem, as some people say it is, it's virtually everything else, and The Purge certainly does not have it going on.

 2/10: A Complete Waste Of Time