The Purge: Election Year
Rating: 4/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
With the first two films in the Purge franchise, there was something lacking from both that really held them back. I was wanting more of a world-building story for the first movie, and then I missed the character-building and storytelling that the first film offered in the second. But, with The Purge: Election Year, it seems like writer and director James DeMonaco found a nice blend between the two, allowing for there to be genuine character connections and a vast view of what America looks like on this night every year. While I still do have some minor problems with it, there is no doubt that this is the best entry into the franchise.
The film follows Leo Barnes from the second movie, who is played nicely by Frank Grillo, as he now serves as the head bodyguard for presidential candidate Charlene Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell). With the upcoming election, the nation is split on who to vote for, with people who despise the Purge voting for Roan to eliminate the national holiday and the other half wanting to do anything to stop her from ridding the country of the Purge. When the New Founding Fathers decide to make everyone vulnerable to the Purge and the politicians lose their immunity, Frank must stop at nothing to make sure this important political figure stays safe for the next 12 hours.
I think what I truly love about this one is that there is a genuine story set throughout this movie. The other two films were just tasked with showing how our group of characters is going to survive throughout the night. With this one, we have massive stakes at hand here with the character of Roan and why it's important to protect her. DeMonaco really does a wonderful job of making this film feel more important than the rest, and why her survival actually matters. At the same time, as a viewer, we already know Grillo in this series and why we want him to make it out alive. The stakes for these characters are so much higher than previous installments, which I think is the reason why this story works so well.
At the same time, I had a problem with the character development with the second film, believing that adding in too many characters ultimately bogs the movie down and make it hard to fully relate to or find empathy with our characters. With this one, he really sticks to his main characters, and does a great job of bringing in these side characters that easily become fan favorites. I really enjoyed deli shop-owner Joe (Mykelti Williamson) and his employee Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria), and I think them individually and their relationship that is set up throughout this movie works wonderfully. This movie is able to make the viewer actually feel something when a character we like perishes, which I think the second film was void of.
However, with that being said, this movie is too cheesy at times. There are some incredibly cringe-worthy moments in this picture. A big one that stands out to me is the side-plot that focuses around Joe and Marcos having to defend their deli from a group of murder-hungry girls who are targeting the store due to Joe kicking them out for stealing a chocolate bar. In a way, this plot line really takes me out of the film. I find it interesting how we go from a sort of modern-political thriller to a movie where a character literally says something along the lines of "I'm going to get my candy bar." I'm wondering if DeMonaco was trying to find some way to inject some humor into the movie to prevent it from being too dark, but this simply wasn't the way to go.
Also, for me, the kills in this movie and the events that are taking place throughout this world work the best here. I think there are some genuinely disturbing moments that make the viewer feel incredibly uncomfortable, and there are some great one-liners here that can sit with the viewer for quite a while. While I did criticize the character of the young girl who wants her chocolate bar, she makes a comment in the movie about murdering both of her parents that makes you uncomfortable in the sense of her actually killing her parents and how easy it was to say that in passing. While I can't stand some of the cheesy moments here, there are times where DeMonaco does a great job of making the viewer uncomfortable.
The Purge: Election Year is my favorite movie in this series, and I think it definitely works with what they were trying to do for the most part. DeMonaco really took the best things about both of these movies and combined them to deliver a really interesting political thriller that is also a great commentary for the time we are living in. It's far from perfect, but it is a really good attempt from DeMonaco as a whole.
Comments
Post a Comment