The Purge: Election Year Review

The big American election is fast approaching and it seems that a certain Senator (Elizabeth Mitchell) is gaining grounds on the current running party with a single goal of ending The Purge. This is driven by a passion to do better and seeing her entire family being wiped out on a Purge night many years previous. If you haven't seen any of the Purge fills the concept is that each year for 12 hours all crime is legal particularly murder as the sirens always mentions that.

It's basically a way to clean the social system of the US government as all the poor are the biggest target of the cleansing. The movie starts off with showing a tide of change towards the Senator and this obviously makes the current party a bit terrified so they decided to make it that anyone in the country can be killed as some were exempt due to government status.

Thus begins a fun night of a new Purge where the Senator is being guarded at home like regular people with only her key security guard (Frank Grillo) being someone that's trustworthy. Things go quite bad and eventually the two end up out there on the streets in the middle of a Purge. The streets are filled with violence, some horrific scenes and bright imagery. Nothing was actually too particularly gory so it was actually rather tame in that regard.

Aside from the core two members there's also an extended cast of others involved as well which weave into the story. The first section takes place in a deli with the odd awkward relief from Joe (Mykelti Williamson) a store owner and his worker Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria) which need to defend the story from crazy girls.

These girls were a bit overly sexualized and just strange as they were a bit too over the top, I did like their LED lights car though. The deli group is also friends with Laney (Betty Gabriel), a badass that drives around as a medic during Purge nights. The acting was fine in the film helping to capture the spirit of the messed up event and the comic relief had some questionable lines that were awkward, yet funny to some degree.

For the most part the story went along well making perfectly fine sense considering the world they were in. The cinematography of the film was actually well done with some nice chilling scenes used mostly as transitions between areas and well done lighting as it was night so there was room for that feature to do nicely.

The Conclusion

The Purge: Election Year was certainly better than I had anticipated, it's by no means an amazing movie yet it works well within the concept the series has built upon. The story was also decent making sense and filled with a good balance of horror with action.

There were also some alright laughs to be had and only a couple over the top moments which fit fine into the film. If you've seen the other films then this is probably an improvement for the series adding some more emotional attachments for the characters around why this Purge event needs to end.

The Purge: Election Year Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by NBC Universal

Rating Overall: 6.8