‘Look what we got here. A couple of bad hombres...’
The Purge franchise is not my favourite. I love the concept, and the first two movies have some good stuff going on, but as a whole, the hard pivot from horror to action was not for me. The Forever Purge has the same headline as pretty much every other film in the franchise. Great concept. Shaky execution…
The last film in the franchise, The First Purge, took us back to the start, but The Forever Purge looks forward. Forward to a time where purge night doesn’t end when the klaxon sounds. When a group of vigilantes decide that the true meaning of the purge is to get rid of foreigners (or rich people – it’s never really clear), Texas is turned into a warzone. Everardo Gout’s film follows a bunch of forgettable survivors as they attempt to cross the border into Mexico (which is only open for six hours because reasons).
So, yeah. Once again. Great concept. And for an hour, The Forever Purge does some of the best work of the whole franchise. The cast aren’t given much to work with dialogue wise but Ana de la Reguera and Josh Lucas do a good job in making us care about one dimensional characters and some of the early scenes also embrace the horror roots of the franchise with success. The final forty minutes devolve into typical, uninspired action movie fare; however, and by the end, I was simply waiting for the credits to roll on another disappointing entry in a disappointing franchise.
Some half hearted social commentary does more harm than good, and the lack of an all encompassing big bad leaves the final scenes lacking in bite and suspense. It is also an absolute travesty that this film – The Forever Purge for chrissakes – is over 90 minutes long. Surely, if ever any film should be able to wrap up in under an hour and a half, this is the one.
Having said all that, I suppose The Forever Purge counts as a modest return to form as it’s definitely better than the last two, but it still feels like this franchise has nothing left to offer. At least not while long time franchise creator James DeMonaco remains on writing duties.
As ever, a missed opportunity.