I wasn't a fan of The Purge. I thought it was an interesting premise that never really went anywhere. The idea of allowing 12 hours for people to let loose and get all the crime out of their system is kind of silly, but could provide for a fun romp for 90 minutes. While the movie was trying to more intelligent, which I respect, it ultimately devolved into a by-the-numbers home-invasion thriller with an annoyingly dysfunctional family. But the movie was made for a ridiculously low budget ($3M) and made a huge profit (raked in $64.4M at the box office) so the sequel is here. Anarchy does have a significantly higher budget, but still incredibly cheap, $9M, and it made over $28M opening weekend. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a third Purge movie either next year or the following year.
The Purge: Anarchy is more or less what I want sequels to do. The first movie had some interesting concepts that were never really explained or expanded. The most intriguing things in the first movie were some of the world-building aspects. Neighbors who seem like such nice people talking about what kind of atrocities they're going to do during the annual purge like it's no big deal. One of my favorite moments of the first movie was two characters seeing their neighbor sharpening a machete in his back yard. One character looks at the other and simply says, "Looks like someone's getting ready to have fun." It's creepy to think that the person next door has these wild urges that they have to keep held up under any normal circumstances, but given a way to let them go, you can see what people's true colors are. Unfortunately, The Purge never really goes anywhere with it.
Unlike the first film, The Purge: Anarchy shows more than it tells. It's taken a couple of the more political ideas that the first film would just talk about in passing and puts you right in the middle of it. In this world, there's a new American government calling themselves The New Founding Fathers of America. It seems more like an overthrow of the original government and now a totalitarian state. The NFFA are almost like gods. They're referred to multiple times as divine or blessed.
The biggest problem with the first movie is that it just told us about its political agenda. It's just mentioned in passing, but some believed that one reason why the purge exists is to have the citizens commence "population control" on themselves and "cleanse the country of the poor, unproductive members of society." Here, we actually see this happening. Instead of following a rich family in a rich neighborhood, we follow a group of people stuck in the middle of the city surrounded by purgers. The lower-class families can't afford all the high-tech stuff to protect their homes, the expensive weapons or armor to defend themselves. Homeless people have almost no chance other than to hide, and even that doesn't work. The first movie just told us (in passing) about this side of the purge. Anarchy puts you right in the middle of it.
Director James DeMonaco has definitely improved in every aspect from his first film. He's got 3 movies under his belt as a director (2 of the are The Purge movies), and a few more writing/co-writing credits, including The Negotiator, Assault on Precinct 13, and.... Jack starring Robin Williams? OK.... Anyway... Everything is improved in The Purge: Anarchy. The cinematography is better composed, the action is better captured and has more urgency, the pacing is much quicker, the political message is more clear and poignant, and it's simply more fun.
Instead of trying to connect with a rich family, we're following your everyday people, and a bad ass played by Frank Grillo (who you may remember from the recent Captain America movie, or that guy as that one character along side that bigger actor in that one movie that you can't quite remember the title). This does wonders for the story because the characters are much more relatable and they're more suited for the film's political message. We got the mother and daughter (Carmen Ejogo and Zoe Sould), the boyfriend and girlfriend who may or may not be breaking up (Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez), and the Punisher (Frank Grillo). Well, he's actually an ex cop or ex military, but it really doesn't make a difference.
Grillo's character (not given a name, credited as Sergeant) is trying to find a guy who killed his son. The mom and daughter's house was raided by seemingly government soldiers trying to capture them. And the boyfriend/girlfriend are being chased by a bunch of guys in masks and what seems to be an ice-cream truck. They all come across each other, and of course the people who don't want to be out there want Grillo to help them survive the night. He reluctantly accepts, so we follow them trying to navigate the city without getting killed. It almost reminded me of Escape from New York. Through their trek through the city, we get to know them and they all are given enough character for us to care about them. Even though we don't spend as much time TRYING to develop them as the first movie did -- I emphasize trying because the first film wasn't successful at it -- we still get to know them enough to feel a sense of urgency when shit goes down.
Another huge improvement from the first movie is the action here is actually fun. While the first Purge tried to have this slow-burn build up, the payoff wasn't satisfying enough to justify the long wait to get there. Anarchy doesn't waste as much time getting to the purge's commencement, and it keeps it steady once it gets there. It didn't just remind me of Escape From New York in the sense that it's people trying to navigate their way through a city, but it had that same feel of B-Movie fun. I know a lot of people were excited for The Purge because they wanted to see people go crazy for a night. The Purge: Anarchy actually delivers on that. But it aspires to be more intelligent and thoughtful than your typical violence splurge of a movie.
Remember how I said this movie has a political agenda? Anarchy is basically showing us an extreme version of what happens when country's government is run by the wealthy and for the wealthy. We see them using media outlets to say what a great thing the purge is while using it to manipulate the lower-class citizens to kill each other. We also see the people who are in dire situations sell themselves off to be killed by wealthy families so their loved ones can live a better life. The poor and homeless can't afford to defend themselves, so they get picked off easily. We also see what seems to be S.W.A.T.-like government-paid soldiers kidnapping and killing people in poor neighborhoods. They even throw in someone supposedly like a Malcom X and a resistance that's using the Purge to fight back. It's a tad heavy-handed, but it's doing this in an action-horror movie for an audience that didn't come for things like subtlety.
While James DeMonaco definitely got better the second time around, it's not quite where I think he wants to be. I definitely enjoyed The Purge: Anarchy much more than the previous film, but it's still not much beyond a fun, B-movie. There's still a lot of silly moments and contrived, "oh, how convenient" moments. But there's less stupid decision making for the sake of plot, and it does deliver on a lot of what The Purge didn't. If the next Purge movie proceeds to improve, we might actually get something of what I imagine DeMonaco is trying to convey.
SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED
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