To begin with, this is the third part of the movie series called Purge. They all have the same setting, so I highly recommend watching two preceding films before. However, it is not mandatory. So, main idea of the film is that American government wants to reduce violence. Even though their intentions are pretty obvious, the concept of accomplishing the goal is unique. Creating "Purge" night, where every act of brutality and violence including murdering and torturing was allowed, supposed to cut down the level of crime during non-purge nights. Pretty interesting approach, huh? While first two films were mostly about characters who wanted to survive, this movie delivers us a "special" purpose. After so many years of purge, America has finally found an senator who wants to cancel "death" night. Her name is Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell). On the other hand, minister Edwidge Owens (Kyle Secor) works for the government and wants purge night to continue its existence. Debates, interviews and dialogues - all this we can see during first minutes of the movie. This part is pretty interesting and fits into the "rhythm".
During actual purge night, unlike previous films, we see the goal - make sure senator stays alive. As we all know from Purge: Anarchy, the best guy to do so is Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo). Film provides us with basic plot twists and action scenes. Even though, movie involves intriguing personalities such as Joe Dixon (Mykelti Williamson), Dante Bishop (Edwin Hodge), Laney Rucker (Betty Gabriel) and Marcos (Joseph Soria), directors do not provide us with all needed background information so you can understand their motivation fully. Other characters are mainly considered as a "crowd actors". Film mainly consists of action scenes where we only have couple of minutes to be like "huh, that was intense". After that directors make us to jump into another location. Having a few drama scenes also makes it even a better thriller movie. But it still lacks atmosphere and because of fairly "obvious" goal the ending and plot overall is also pretty clear.
To sum up, I would like to tell that I liked the movie. Despite it is not as well structured as typical good thriller, it gives us an adrenaline we need during all 100 minutes. On the other hand, I would not recommend to continue this franchise as it has said everything it needed to and making another film to "clear" all details is not worth it. Typically, I would give this film 6.5/10 marks which results in 7/10 on IMDb. However, Purge: Anarchy received 7/10 as well, so it is fair to give The Purge: Election Year its honestly earned 6/10 considering it has already gathered more than 70 million dollars domestically.
During actual purge night, unlike previous films, we see the goal - make sure senator stays alive. As we all know from Purge: Anarchy, the best guy to do so is Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo). Film provides us with basic plot twists and action scenes. Even though, movie involves intriguing personalities such as Joe Dixon (Mykelti Williamson), Dante Bishop (Edwin Hodge), Laney Rucker (Betty Gabriel) and Marcos (Joseph Soria), directors do not provide us with all needed background information so you can understand their motivation fully. Other characters are mainly considered as a "crowd actors". Film mainly consists of action scenes where we only have couple of minutes to be like "huh, that was intense". After that directors make us to jump into another location. Having a few drama scenes also makes it even a better thriller movie. But it still lacks atmosphere and because of fairly "obvious" goal the ending and plot overall is also pretty clear.
To sum up, I would like to tell that I liked the movie. Despite it is not as well structured as typical good thriller, it gives us an adrenaline we need during all 100 minutes. On the other hand, I would not recommend to continue this franchise as it has said everything it needed to and making another film to "clear" all details is not worth it. Typically, I would give this film 6.5/10 marks which results in 7/10 on IMDb. However, Purge: Anarchy received 7/10 as well, so it is fair to give The Purge: Election Year its honestly earned 6/10 considering it has already gathered more than 70 million dollars domestically.