It had potential...

Rating: 6/10 (22 June 2013)

After watching the trailer, I was really excited to watch this. I tend to gravitate towards these kinds of sadistic, slasher-type plots where the protagonist(s) are made to feel somewhat trapped in a corner (sometimes literally) and forced to fight to survive. However, unfortunately as is the case, high expectations leaves one vulnerable to be easily dissatisfied.
The premise was extremely unique, and had the potential to be quite memorable. During the entire film, I was constantly required to think, asking myself 'what would I do in this situation?' and 'what would I do if it happened right now?', etc...and for that, I think the film was successful. The premise was also not too far-fetched either - an annual loophole/cleanse that exempted all US Americans from legal sanctions for 12 hours. Although unlikely to occur in a predominantly democratic society, the premise definitely could reflect (in an extremist manner!) the subconscious paranoid inclinations of some members of the community.
The film also successfully made me feel a sense of defeat for some of the characters. The vulnerability of people invading one's space and liberties with intentions to kill reminded me of similar intrusions as in The Strangers and Vacancy.
However, where The Purge was lacking was in its character development. Each character did exude some depth, but as a whole I felt disconnected to most of them. During some of the more 'climactic' points of the film, I actually didn't feel too concerned for the safety of some of them - except for the main protagonist played by Ethan Hawke. In fact, there were a couple of characters that I secretly hoped would be captured because they just absolutely irked me (...perhaps representative of my own subconscious feelings to purge).
Overall, the film was satisfying - but I wouldn't watch it again (except to show future generations of what not to do if a purge were to ever become reality).