Social Commentary & Suspense - could have been, but fell short

Rating: 5/10 (5 June 2013)

I loved the premise and the movie quickly sets up the idea that the "haves" can ride out The Purge in safety while the "have nots" become victims. This raises the obvious point that if you eliminate all of the poor, sick, mentally ill, etc. who can't afford protection, it probably stands to reason that a great deal of crime and unemployment would be eliminated leading to this society with 1% unemployment and low crime. The Purge (killing of the have nots) is just the price society pays in order to enjoy living in relative comfort the rest of the time.
I was expecting the movie to take this idea and do something interesting with it, but it really never does. It set up this interesting premise and then promptly went to suspense movie. The parts where people displayed social conscience were brief and the reasons never really explored - just "these people are monsters, do we want to be monsters too?" But no real examination of the larger social issues that would lead to a sanctioned mass killing of the poor and defenseless. "In Time" and "Repo Men" both did a better job of looking at the bigger picture issues with the system.
OK, fine so we're going to blow by the social commentary. Give me a great suspense then! The movie failed to do that too. Instead they give a very predictable plot line with bad guys who are more pathetic and disturbing than scary. It would have been a much more interesting movie if the sneaky kid with the robot had turned out to harbor homicidal tendencies and tried to take out his parents.
Maybe worth renting on video, but I wouldn't pay theater prices to see it.