The Purge 2: Anarchy - Ticks every generic box

I’m writing this review straight after seeing ‘The Purge 2: Anarchy’ simply because I’m guessing I probably won’t remember it in a couple of days time (and, if I ever completely forget, at least I can read my own review to remind myself that I probably don’t need to watch it a second time).  Okay, so that may sound like I hated it.  I didn’t.  Then again, I can’t really think of anything positive to say about it either.  It’s one of those films that left me with no real lasting impressions, good or bad.

If you watched the first ‘Purge’ film, you’ll know that crime has pretty much been eradicated in the America of the near future.  How has this been achieved you may ask?  By allowing all citizens to (legally) commit any form of crime they like for a short period of time (I think it’s just the night, but it might have been as long as twenty-four hours).  During this time you’re free to murder, steal and assault anyone you please and the police and other emergency services are ‘off duty’ and therefore won’t stand in your way.  The reason behind this is – apparently – to allow man’s primitive urges to be released, hence stopping them from doing it for the rest of the year.  And, if you can try not to think too deeply about that (as you’ll probably come up with plenty of plot holes in that kind of society) you’ll probably at least be able to sit through the film.

The only problem is... find yourself out on the streets during this time and you’re really in trouble.  And that’s exactly what happens to our five unwitting heroes.  So, a small group of people must survive the night against gangs of normally sane and rational people, all hell-bent on murdering for the sake of it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really think much in the way of the characters.  They’re all pretty generic.  They run, they scream.  Sometimes they fight back and there are a few reasonably well-shot shoot outs and chases.  That’s about it really.

It’s an action movie.  It has chases in.  It tries to make itself stand out with various social commentary on mankind’s primitive desires and so forth, but, ultimately, if you’ve seen any film that’s centred around people trying to survive something (anything!) then you’ve kind of seen this before.  It’s not so bad.  It’s not horrible.  Like I said, I can’t really think of anything really negative to say about it, other than there’s just nothing new here that warrants a second viewing.

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back