This had so much potential

Rating: 3/10 (20 October 2013)

When I first heard about this movie, I thought it was going to be great. The premise was one I had never heard before; all crime is legal for twelve hours including murder and we get to witness it happen. While simple it is a premise that we have never seen before and had a lot of potential to be good. What did they do? They turned it into another home invasion movie. That's right, they take a new premise and turn it into something we have seen a thousand times. Who knew you could make a new idea feel old on the first try?
From the previews, it looks like a good movie, but when you actually watch it, the film does a terrible job in covering up the plot holes and nonsensical motivations of the characters. Throughout the whole movie, I was questioning how the Purge actually benefited the economy and people. Guess what, it is never explained. They just expect us not to ask these questions that would help us understand motivation in the movie and then it goes unexplained.
The characters in the film are horrible. The only characters I was routing for in any way was the man the man the son lets in because he did not deserve what was happening, and the father because he was the only character with an actual personality. The film kept pretending that its characters were deep when they really weren't. They were blank slates to fit in an opposing view on everything, but it was not done in a good way. All they do is question the other people and not put out any good arguments for their point.
If I were to make a suggestion of how to make the movie better, I would say do not follow the people in the house who are fighting off the invaders. Follow the person being hunted or the people participating in the Purge to see what is motivating them to take part in it. The motivations are unexplained or nonsensical, there are numerous plot holes that are impossible to look past, and the characters are uninteresting.
I would say only see this movie if you are looking for a bad film to watch at a Halloween party that everyone can laugh at because this is all this film is good for.