Simplistic, Unsubtle Moralizing

Rating: 2/10 (9 June 2013)

The Purge as a movie is mediocre at best, as social commentary it is ludicrous. My son and I laughed out loud a number of times when the movie attempted profundity.
The social commentary is as subtle as a sledgehammer. It takes the most simplistic and mean-spirited caricatures of the NRA, the TEA Party, 1%- ers, and the religious right, rolls them into one dehumanized lot, and tries to sell the audience on an ultra-violent dystopian 2022 where twelve hours of state-sanctioned anything-goes mayhem is legal.
One always enters a film with a willing suspension of disbelief, but this film offers up such thin caricatures and obvious moralizing that the spell is almost immediately broken.
The only people who could enjoy this film would be those who believe the caricatures fair. Members of the aforementioned groups will find little recognizable in the situations, characters, or their motivations except the oft repeated stereotypes.
The film reveals more about the simplistic thinking of the filmmaker than it does the groups he targets.
It's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it certainly is near the bottom.