Purging the Purge
Disclaimer* This was supposed to be released yesterday but Steemit was down when I attempted to post. This article is my opinion not a fact, if you enjoy the Purge movies more power to you.
So the fourth Purge movie comes out this Wednesday July 4th. Yes their have really been four Purge movies since 2013. Honestly I don't really get the appeal of these movies. If you like them more power to you but I would honestly like to know what about these movies makes you interested. The original movie was a passable horror movie with a semi-fresh concept. If you don't know, in the universe of The Purge all crime is legal in the U.S. for one night. How they think they could give people a taste of real freedom and then get them back under control I have no idea. Then they released a follow up that expanded the movie beyond the one house scope of the original. The first movie at least had some character and atmosphere going for it but when they expanded to the greater L.A. area it just became a generic murder spree like we've seen a hundred times before. I thought this would be the end to the series but just 2 years later they released The Purge: Election Year.
The Purge: Election Year is a slight step up from The Purge: Anarchy( number 2) but still falls flat in most regards. It's the standard "wacky" people killing other people in the streets movie again but this time there is even more weird things happening. A few of the scenes are somewhat interesting but it is by and large a remake of 2 with a paper-thin story draped over it. Honestly I don't think anyone is going to these movies for the story but for some reason whoever keeps making these movies insists on shoving in a convoluted plot to go along with the murder porn. And now we come to the current movie.
The First Purge is a prequel to the series. So yes on top of being a rehash of a stale concept for the fourth time it is also a prequel. It seems they aren't going to let this franchise rest until it flops hard. Much like the Paranormal Activity movies these get made on a very small budget ( between 6-12 million) and see a wide release so they are almost guaranteed to make their money back before people realize the movie is bad. I don't mind a decent horror/murder porn movie once in a while but the constant effort to inject "story" really drags it down. This next movie appears to be adding in even more backstory no one cares about, including Trump references because we don't hear enough about him FFS and less of the violence and destruction people come for. The central thrust of the movie seems to be the government hiring mercenaries to make sure the Purge is successful, I guess we are supposed to be outraged by this fictional development? And brave people protesting the purge, honestly just get to the killing. I'm anticipating a lot of sitting around in board rooms talking about purging and hand wringing and not much worth seeing. I think it's time we vote with our wallets and purge this Purge from a theater near you. Maybe then they will put it to sleep for a while and make something people actually want to see in a few years.