A great concept that fell short because of failure to be creative

Rating: 4/10 (10 June 2013)

Let me start off by saying, I have never seen a good plot develop in a film that's only an hour and 25 minutes long. It's just not possible. This was ultimately The Purge's major downfall.
With such a creative idea came a bit of story development for the beginning of the film, which took a decent chunk of time. By the time that we had a plot going, the movie was nearly over. They got a few jumps and scares in, and before we knew it, the movie had ended.
To put it simply, the writers came up with a brilliant idea for the movie. However, once they introduced the storyline of "The Purge", the creativity was thrown out, and we just started watching another typical home invasion movie, similar to "The Strangers". After the commencement of The Purge began, all fun ideas were shot out the window, and we were left with a typical scary movie.
Thankfully, it was the film's only fault (although that is a HUGE fault). The acting was decent. The scares and the action were quite enjoyable. There were quite a few moments where the audience screamed and shouted and even cheered for the characters. However, when the credits started rolling, I could tell people felt cheated that the film didn't bring as much originality as expected.