Review of The Purge: Election Year (2016) by Dan H — 10 Nov 2017

I like that there is more focus on plot and message, and that DeMonaco adds a few more layers to The Purge mythology and the world it resides in. I also really liked Elizabeth Mitchell as our heroine (She is essentially a young, hot, female Bernie Sanders), and it's nice to see Frank Grillo again (He's still a major bad-ass and is every bit as enjoyable here as he was in the previous outing). Mykelti Williamson (aka Bubba from Forrest Gump) stands out in a cool supporting role. The film feels very current/timely thanks to the current political and social landscape. There is some cool violence, neat set pieces, and striking visuals as well.

A Govt. hired mercenary group are our main antagonists this time around. They are indeed fairly scary, but kind of bland. The heart of this trilogy has always been the wackos on the streets during The Purge, and we still get plenty of brief scenes featuring them and their chaos in the streets (and yet it still doesn't really feel like enough). Yes, there is a fair amount of hilarious, bad acting here but that has always been a constant in this trilogy/franchise, so why complain about that now (besides, the bad acting is one of the reasons these films are so fun).

It's refreshing to see a film that's actually able to have it's cake and eat it too. The film utilizes a LOT of mindless violence, but effectively makes the case why mindless violence is bad and why, while the Purge may seem fun to partake in, doing so will corrupt your very soul. While Purge: Election Year is a pretty different film from Purge: Anarchy, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Taken as it's own, cool, timely thing Purge: Election Year works every bit as well as Anarchy did. I'll always enjoy getting to explore Purge night, and while this latest outing may seem like the last film in this very cool trilogy, hopefully that's not the case (maybe next we'll get to explore how Purge night came to be, and the first Purge night).