A dystopian future, where all movies are disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (22 June 2013)

The Purge is a home invasion movie, set in an American future-possible dystopia where citizens are given the constitutional right to spend one night of the year running about murdering who they like (supposedly as an outlet for their repressed animal urges). Sounds promising so what will you find here?
Ethan Hawke is a security system salesman and has done rather well for himself out of the Purge. He lives in a nice house in a gated community is married to Lena Headey and has a family, they all look a bit like Scientologists except the daughter who seems to always be inexplicably running around in anime schoolgirl cosplay (maybe in the future all schoolgirls have to dress stupidly). Next the Purge starts in earnest and there is a lot of inevitable violence. His Skrillex look-alike son cocks things up and then they get besieged by annoying whiney sixth formers in stupid masks, led by an adolescent John Malchovich wannabe.
I can see what this film is getting at. Like all dystopian tales it takes the paranoia and worries of a society and presents it to the audience in a way that makes the subject matter more palatable for discussion. Dystopias are a mirror for our fears when they are excellent they are both entertaining and mind expanding. 1984 however, The Purge is not. I sense that underneath a largely banal plot is the desire to discuss mistrust of government, gun control and perhaps issues of class, race and social inequality. There are also attempts at psychology pitching the idea that allowing a society one night to vent their supposedly uncontrollable inner beast results in a happy crime-free society for the remainder of the time.
Neither the idea of the internal 'beast within' or anything else is given anything more than lip service. Great dystopian stories use great storytelling and the everyday to make these themes prominent, universally easy to understand and often terrifying. The Purge does not do this successfully because it has a weak plot, there is little explanation of government oppression or authority and the antagonists are simply unintimidating. The teenage Purge-gang leader I'm pretty sure is based on the psychotic youths in Michael Haneke's Funny Games, the problem being that he is not very scary or very psychotic and this is not Funny Games. He just comes across as an over- privileged brat who needs a good slapping.
All in all this is a film that should have been very clever, really wants to be clever but just is not. Neither is it scary. Psychological horror relies upon psychology, and it's pretty impossible to get into a person's brain unless you explain things either in a visual or literal way. This film does neither and it really is just a terrible mess of pointless violence and stupidity. I really wanted to like The Purge because I adore Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey too, but it really fell short of what it should be. Disappointing to say the least.
If you want to see a better home invasion movie try Funny Games, if you want a dystopian movie, there are no end of others to try. I'm not really sure who in particular would enjoy this film, take your chances if you like though.