Barnes is promoted to head of security for Senator Charlie Roan, a Presidential candidate targeted for death on Purge night due to her vow to ban the annual traditional Purge
While I may question the logic from time to time in writer-director James DeMonaco's latest film, I found the overall story surprisingly clear, balanced and even symmetrical.
The problem with this film is that it's halfway between the action and a heavy reflection that, despite the solemnity, is still innocent. [Full review in Spanish]
The action is largely routine and the dialogue rarely more than functional, but DeMonaco, marshalling the franchise's best production values yet, shrewdly taps into the angry zeitgeist.
The Purge: Election Year definitely aims higher than its predecessors but ultimately becomes too weighed down by its nonsensical premise and over-enthusiastic political commentary to be anything close to insightful or scary.
It would be one thing to bait the viewer's blood lust and then punish them for it. But the films command an audience that's enchanted by its displays of blood-drenched yahoos in kooky masks satisfying their barely repressed psychopathy.
