An interesting theme, but a mediocre movie

Rating: 4/10 (17 January 2016)

The Purge certainly takes place in an interesting future. The premise was really interesting and during the first half hour I was confused why this movie had such a low rating. After the half hour mark I began to understand the low ratings. The movie turned into a mediocre horror thriller, and the backstory was more or less forgotten.
Ethan Hawke was great from the start. So was Lena Headey. They had great chemistry as a husband and a wife and they shared some good moments, in my opinion. But they couldn't save the movie.
The kids however were completely opposite to their parents. The son was perhaps the most annoying character in a horror movie ever. And how he got away with everything he did was just irritating. His character was there basically just to move the plot forward and have some kind of conflict and danger befall on the movie's family.
The movie wasn't all that well made either. The jump scares were painfully obvious and were more of an annoyance than actual scare. The movie did feature one brutal fight scene, which was well executed and shot and Ethan Hawke really shined in it. It's a shame that the rest of the second half was so bad.