Delayed Reaction: The Forever Purge

Premise: The Purge...keeps going.

I've mentioned before that I have a mental block where I can only go so far believing in the Purge premise. As a source of cool and wicked images, the Purge movies deliver. The less they try to convince me that a Purge could really happen, the better. I just don't buy it as a controllable event. People aren't just going to hold all grievances from one Purge until the next. Sure, reasonable people will plot revenge for the dudes who killed their family, but...I mean, there's a reason we have 1st AND 2nd degree murder. 1st degree is impulse. You can't stop impulse with a 12-hr. window once a year.

 

Anyway, that's why in a lot of ways, The Forever Purge is the easiest of these movies for me to swallow. It makes perfect sense that if you let people Purge, they'll keep Purging. Of course, the filmmakers can't help themselves from making it implausible. It makes sense that a Purge could go out of control. It makes less sense that there's a nation-wide coordinated effort to overthrow the government and keep the Purge going that no one other than those involved know about. So, that much is stupid. But whatever. The Purge is stupid.

 

I like the shift to moving this away from a big city. Even if they are all ultimately incongruous, I enjoy seeing the different depictions of the Purge in different communities.

 

There's a "Dad Jokiness" energy to this franchise at times. Dad Jokes are bad and super obvious, but you have to respect them for how transparent they are. That's the Purge too. It's never subtle. So, when I realized they were going to use this to make a point about immigration by having Americans trying to get across the Mexican border, I damn near stood up and cheered. I may not ever like The Purge franchise, but I do appreciate that they bring the same energy to these as someone earnestly trying to tell a professional wrestling fan that wrestling isn't real, like the fan doesn't already know that.

 

I guess I'll keep watching though. It's the kind of franchise that could accidentally make a great movie one day if the right person got a hold of it. Kind of like how Ouija: Origin of Evil is much better than Ouija.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend