'The Purge: Anarchy', a Movie Review

“The Purge: Anarchy” has been described as the sequel that better embodies the concept of the movie than the original movie did. Most sequels try to build on the first and fall flat.

I agree with Cracked.com that society could start such a Purge with undesirables like the homeless before moving up to just the poor. A similar purge of drug addicts, the mentally ill and those in nursing homes ends up reducing the number of people reliant on welfare and health services – freeing up resources for those who are struggling but more functional and more able to contribute to society. I also imagine all the violent would-be purgers getting killed in self-defense by potential victims and killed by each other also reduces the population that is prone to such violence.

The second Purge movie shows one logical use of the Purge with government sanctioned squads killing those that it thinks should be, like showing up in violent inner city neighborhoods and killing people there. Killing the families in those areas reduces the size of the next violent generation, too, while giving the survivors a very big incentive to get their lives together and move out of the projects.

This movie is somewhat believable because you can relate to poor people who just want to survive. The issue comes home when a middle class couple gets caught up in as the violence that is part and parcel of the inner city today becomes acceptable and predictable on the night of the Purge for everyone.

The executed banker probably reflects a lot of people’s sentiments about bank bailouts and Wells Fargo customer theft.

Almost all the purgers are evil whites or white police, barring an angry betrayed spouse. It ignores the reality of violent riots on any pretext in many minority majority neighborhoods. In short, the Purge Anarchy is racist in showing all whites as either evil or clueless but eventually educated, all other races hapless innocent victims or working for evil whites just trying to get by and thus innocent.

The white boyfriend is inept whereas the white girl is calmer, smarter, better. This is feminist trope. The movie is so sexist that the white woman afraid to use guns shoots and takes out all the bad guys in the subway while the boyfriend who started shooting first to protect the others gets shot and has to stop. At best, the white “hero” in these liberal movies is an anti-hero just a little better than the bad guys.

Of course the rat runs up a leg and people twist ankles at the most dramatic moments for the sake of plot.

The movie has a strong anti-capitalist streak a la Carmello Johns. This ignores the 100 million people killed by Communism last century, whether intentionally sent to die in the Gulag (death camps) in Siberia or inadvertently through government created food shortages (Chinese Great Leap Forward).

The authoritarian statement “change won’t happen until we spill their blood” is a rejection of democracy despite officially being “for the people”; this encourages violent revolution to the detriment of society.

The blessings of the Purge members isn’t so far-fetched after seeing videos of ISIS praising Allah while beheading people, throwing them from rooftops and murdering the infidels in a variety of ways. When the religion and the state gives someone permission and reason to murder, of course it gains the gratitude of those who gain legitimacy for their acts. However, in real life, the sociopaths who would enjoy such actions won’t limit themselves to one night a year.

The first Purge movie is interesting but the bad acting, characters who continually do stupid things in violation of their own rules for their very survival and flat characters make you want to see many of them die.

Purge Anarchy has enough plot and personal development, twists and revelations that you can ignore the politics and bias in the movie and enjoy it once. Three stars for this Purge movie.

The Purge: Anarchy is the second movie in the Purge series. It is stronger than the first Purge movie.

Purge 3 is considered the sequel to this movie. However, it is an inferior sequel. It is not just a heavier political allegory than Purge 2; the political messaging trumps the story telling to the point the story falls flat. The Purge 3 suffers from poorly written dialog, what a very biased liberal thinks conservatives really want to say and do. It as if the movie were written by someone who really believes those liberal commentators that say all conservatives are the worst of all the names they are called.

The anti-gun female Senator clearly modeled off Hillary Clinton is painfully trope, plus her promotion as the heroine savior of the nation and winner of the election is blatantly political.

So if you want to see a Purge movie, watch the second, Purge Anarchy, and ignore the third. Purge Anarchy is far better than the third Purge movie, a Clinton election endorsement parading as a horror movie.