Criminal survival

Rating: 3/10 (7 August 2018)

Saw 'The Purge' due to being really intrigued by the concept, having seen home invasions being handled well on visual media and finding Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey dependable actors. Saw it without seeing reviews beforehand in order to see it with an open mind, as is always my intention.
Count me in as another person who found 'The Purge' poorly executed in almost every way. Can completely understand the mildly mixed to very negative reception and find the criticisms very similar to mine, just for the record what will be covered in this review is my personal opinion and nobody else's with the flaws being so obvious you don't need someone else's opinion to base yours on. The concept was handled in such a dumb and dull way, to near intelligence-insulting degrees, and 'The Purge' is in no way a good example of how to do a film about a home invasion.
There are a few strengths. 'The Purge' doesn't look too bad, it has a gritty and slick look that doesn't look cheap and there is a little atmosphere.
Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey and Rhys Wakefield give reasonable performances which is better than what their characters deserved.
However, nothing else worked. The rest of the acting is weak, with the two young actors Adelaide Kane and especially Max Burkholder being terribly irritating as characters that are impossible to get behind in a film full of shallow and unrelatable characters that behave so stupidly and illogically.
No tension or suspense at any point and nothing scary or thought-provoking, got nothing enlightening about the social allegory aspect. The pace dragged badly, which undermined the suspense, likewise with the excessive predictability and clichés that were tired well before the film was made. The scary aspect is cheap and never surprising, creative or scary, the violence being gratuitous, the situations so ridiculously dumb that it insults the audience and the villains are goofy and flat caricatures, nothing menacing about them. The direction is generally indifferent.
In summary, lame and not recommended if not without redeeming merits, namely the leads. 3/10 Bethany Cox