Disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (19 July 2014)

This is one of those movies that squanders the potential of its premise. It's a great and intriguing premise, showing us an America only 9 years in the future that has no unemployment, no violence, and a flourishing economy. Of course, this is all due to The Purge, and annual event where people can commit any sort of crime they want and get away with it. It's interesting, but instead of taking advantage of this, it decides to be your standard home-invasion movie, which is very disappointing.
The other problem is with the cast. Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey are good actors, and Headey in particular does gives a good performance, but almost everyone else here is extremely annoying. The daughter's boyfriend tries to kill her father because he won't let them be together, as if killing him would solve everything. And the daughter is saddened by this, because her daddy killed her boyfriend. The son is pretty much the cause of everything, because he let someone into their home. And the main villains pretty much do nothing, with their leader again being extremely obnoxious. It's hard to care for anyone when people are this annoying.
There is some good. Despite being a generic home-invasion thriller, there's some nice horror scenes, some decent fights, and it's pretty violent. It's also short, so there's no real filler. All in all, a disappointing movie that could've been so much more. Let's hope the sequel is better.