Nothing makes sense here

Rating: 2/10 (6 October 2013)

The Purge could be the worst movie this year -- in short, the director/screenwriter came up with an idiotic premise, dumbed down every single character, gave them bland and uninteresting dialog and explored some half-baked superficial social commentary/issues sporadically. There wasn't enough suspense to be a thriller/action and not enough blood to be horror. And when we sat through the misery to reach the end, it almost felt like the director didn't know how to end the mess he started. But by then, it didn't matter because nothing seemed to have made sense along the way, and when the story's characters don't make sense, I already stopped caring about them.
Even if I don't question the ridiculousness of the basic premise (that if we give everyone 12 hours to "purge", the rest of the year will be fantastic with low crimes and people live happily ever after), I couldn't deal with the rest of the plot. First, let's start with the son: he disarms the security and lets a total stranger into the house; gets confused about which side he's on by helping the stranger (and indirectly leading or letting his equally idiotic--we'll get there in a moment--sister be held hostage by that stranger); while hiding in the basement and knowing the bad guys are inside, wave his flashlight to give away his position and doesn't fire his gun at the bad guy when he's spotted. Mom and dad somehow never have had a conversation with their son about not to disarm the house or let strangers in, keep on losing their kids around the house (ironic for a guy who sells security/alarm systems); act indecisively about what to do when the stranger enters their home; have a sudden change of morality half way through the film; when the bad guys entered, instead of using their familiarity with the house as an advantage, they decide to leave the kids alone and split up; and why did the mom let the neighbors leave at the end (so they can try again next year?). The daughter just witnessed her bf shoot his dad and yet all she immediately cares about is that her bf is wounded and dying (again whose side are you on?)-- and when sh!t hits the fan, she runs away alone and ultimately finds the dumbest place to hide (if the bad guys would make sense at all, they would've found her under her bed right away). For the bad guys, why shut off the power if you want the parents to give up the stranger in the first place (it's harder to get him out if we can't even see him in the dark)? Why didn't they destroy the cameras outside first? Why didn't they team up to sweep the house once they made it inside (again, entering into a hostile unfamiliar place by splitting up??)? Why did the main bad guy not actually kill the dad when he had the chance? I guess if the director didn't take it so seriously, this could have been a comedy or spoof.