MovieChat Forums > The Purge: Election Year (2016) Discussion > Not bad but the series needs to move awa...

Not bad but the series needs to move away from the action.

posted 8 years ago by scabab
10 replies | jump to latest

Just watched Election Year, wasn't a bad movie but it wasn't nearly as good as the second one.

Oddly enough there was just too much action in it. Gun fights, knife fights, fist fights, the military etc, having all that moves it away from what made the last one so good.

I know Anarchy had some of that too though but the best part of these movies is the tension before the purge begins and then a group of seemingly ordinary people struggling to stay alive on the streets while avoiding the crazed guys in masks.

This movie had some of that at first but then it moved away from it too much.

If they do a fourth movie they should move away from Grillo and focus on a new group of ordinary people, not some action hero, trying to stay alive.

[–] acompton88 8 years ago

If they do a 4th film, it seems they alluded to it being a revolt over the abolishment of The Purge from NFFA fans. I'm sure it would be all out war in the streets which would take it back to what Anarchy was, but I'd say double it.

[–] Misstep 8 years ago

I disagree. I think they tried that with the first one, and it didn't work. It's a big premise and it deserves a big execution. The only way to keep the franchise going is to keep escalating the violence. For instance, I'd like to see corporations waging industrial-scale warfare on the streets during the purge - just one idea. I'm not interested in watching some regular schmuck sit in his apartment clutching a shotgun for 12 hours. I want mayhem.

I also disagree that it "wasn't a bad movie". It was. It was made by dumb people for dumb people.

[–] scabab 8 years ago

Well it needs to have more action than the first one but less than the third one.

The second one had it right. It reminded me of the movie The Warriors which was also about a small group of people trying to make their way across the city at night trying to stay alive against a large amount of crazies.

I don't particularly wanna see soldiers and Frank Grillo kicking peoples asses. It's taking it in the wrong direction.

[–] MetalHead13 8 years ago

Exactly. The problem with the first one was it was just a run of the mill home invasion movie. You really didn't even need the Purge aspect--it would have been the same movie without it. They fixed the mistakes with Anarchy and Election Year--this concept needs a larger scale to be interesting.

[–] zmic12 8 years ago

You're a dumbass. One of the biggest criticisms of the first one was how they created this atmosphere but you never got to see any of the purge.

A night where everyone kills everyone and you would be entertained by watching a family play checkers while it is all going on outside? Wtf is wrong with you.

I have an idea for you, why don't you go watch the Brady Bunch and just PRETEND the purge is happening outside? I mean that sounds like the kind of movie you are saying they should do

[–] prgrandmasta 8 years ago

The 4th one needs to be all out war. Rebellion with people using any weapon they can. No rules just war.

[–] Misstep 8 years ago

And every other kind of crime they overlooked in the first three. The film-makers are sitting on one of the best premises ever, and they've delivered three small, weak, unimaginative movies. It's like they never had a, "What could a world like this actually look like?" brainstorming session and just shot the first draft of the screenplay each time. They should be thinking BIG - they need to recruit some visionaries and consultants, futurists, criminologists, political theorists...Otherwise, this is going to be a garbage franchise when it's all over.

[–] prgrandmasta 8 years ago

@Misstep,

They kind of tested the waters with Purge 3. We saw a guillotine in an alley beheading people. People tied to cars being driven around. We saw the candy bar girls attempting to loot. We also saw buildings on fire.

It would be cool to see someone construct a trap house in an abandoned warehouse where they capture random victims and watch them go through a maze of torture and whoever lives gets to go free.

[–] scabab 8 years ago

You're a dumbass. One of the biggest criticisms of the first one was how they created this atmosphere but you never got to see any of the purge.

I think perhaps you were a little bit too stupid to understand what I said.

[–] henrimaine 8 years ago

I agree that the second movie is the best of the series so far. It had more or less right balance of action, tension and social commentary. But I honestly don't know what would be the good way to continue the series, given that the purge has apparently been eliminated by the end of the third movie.