The Purge: Anarchy

By focusing on the outside world of Purge night, Anarchy is a definite improvement over its predecessor.

Any sequel with the same premise as its predecessor runs the risk of being a little tiresome. This, too, would be the case with the follow-up to last year’s surprise hit, The Purge—that is, if it weren’t so exciting.

This time around, in The Purge: Anarchy, the focus has shifted away from the home invasion set-up of the first film—and it’s a smart decision, too. Rather than being confined to one location, the stakes are automatically raised by allowing the characters to go out into the streets on Purge night. After all, who knows what kinds of lunatics are out and about on the night of the year when all crime is legal (think Halloween night but with machine guns and torches in place of costumes and trick-or-treat bags), looking to commit murder, exact revenge, or just cause mayhem?

Anarchy also expands on many of the concepts brought up in the original film, shining a spotlight on various demographics and class systems, critiquing both government, class, and offering an insight into human nature and the horrible things people will choose to do—for revenge, for love, for fun—if given the opportunity. Whereas the first film was heavy on promises and light on delivery of exploring these ideas, Anarchy really expands on the concept and morality brought up by the Purge itself; and, as a result of this and the film’s inclusion of a central mystery, the suspense never lets up.

Anarchy also uses its open-aired setting to introduce the film’s characters in an interesting way. The film spends some time with each of them (a mother and daughter, husband and wife, and a machine gun-toting stranger), almost in little Purge vignettes, before eventually bringing them all together. Like most horror-thriller hybrids, the characters are somewhat one-dimensional, but they’re given just enough motivation and sympathetic qualities that you want to see them make it through Purge night.

By overcoming the mistakes of its predecessor, The Purge: Anarchy has proven that there’s viable potential (and material) for a Purge franchise; and, with the plot threads seen in the film, it seems like we’ve barely scraped the surface of the suspense and story possibilities that Purge night has to offer.

8/10

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

In a summer of relatively disappointing films and box office numbers, apes, despite wiping out humanity, are proving to be a salvation to the box office (and prepositional phrases).

Whether a disinterest in theaters’ offerings of big-budget sequels and blockbusters, movie time spent instead on family events and vacations, or a combination of factors, it’s safe to assume that this summer’s box office totals will come in less than last year’s record-breaking amount.

Release Date: July 11, 2014
Runtime: 130 minutes

Regardless, moviegoers are flocking to theaters to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (which grossed a respectable $73 million during its opening weekend), raising the question: why such a large opening when other films (original ideas and sequels alike) have failed to reach that amount? The film’s gross seems to hint both at a built-in fan base and the quality of the film itself.

The sequel to 2011’s surprise hit Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn picks up ten years later from the end of the film that saw apes beginning to assert their separation from (and authority over) humans. Humanity has slowly become wiped out due to the ALZ-113 virus and apes, in their absence, have thrived. They’ve set up their own community, caste system, rules and, most importantly, haven’t seen any humans for two years, signaling that they have become extinct. However, this changes when a group of humans shows up in the apes’ territory in the Muir Woods.

Like most sequels, Dawn features a return of old characters in addition to the introduction of new ones. Andy Serkis returns as Caesar, the leader of the ape population, and if he was good in Rise, he’s perfect in Dawn, conveying every emotion, every thought of Caesar with such nuance and clearly thought-out emotion that you don’t even miss the humans. Of course, you can’t have Caesar without special effects, and they are so impressive that I imagine they will go unappreciated by the average moviegoer. In the film, the apes aren’t CGI creations; thanks to motion-capture performances by actors such as Andy Serkis and Judy Greer, they’re real. There isn’t one scene, one second of footage, where the apes look like computer simulations. Never for a moment do the effects take the viewer out of the movie or its realness and this time around Serkis and Caesar get top billing in the credits (and rightfully so). It’s clearly their film, and Serkis’ work is both technically and emotionally impressive and gratifying. (He should be nominated for an Oscar, but won’t be due to the Academy snubbing motion-capture performances.)

Unfortunately, and to the film’s detriment, the same can’t be said for the human characters. Despite boasting a cast of Jason Clarke (Malcolm, an ape sympathizer who shares Caesar’s hope that man and ape can live peacefully together), Keri Russell (Ellie, a grieving parent), and Gary Oldman (Dreyfus, determined to restore the balance of society no matter the cost), we’re never given any particular reason—either in their traits, flaws, emotions, or desires—to care for them. Instead, they’re merely used to add conflict with the apes and to raise the question if apes and humans can peacefully co-exist (if you’ve seen the marketing for the film, with apes toting machine guns and riding horses through the flame-ridden streets of San Francisco, the answer is pretty obvious). But there are times when the film makes us think that it’s possible. And it’s with these scenes of interaction and genuine emotion between humans and apes that makes me wish that the film had focused more on this rather than its antsy-for-the-climax action sequences. The reason the action worked so well in Rise was a steady and tense build-up before the eventual payoff. However, here, although we know the general aspects of where the story intends to go, the specifics are slightly unclear—Is this the climax? we wonder, Or is this? The emotional journey of the apes is loud and clear, but the human one less so, making the climax, while visually exciting, a little less emotionally involving.

Despite its deficits with its human characters and an abrupt ending, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a solid film with Oscar-quality effects and performance by Andy Serkis. We already care about the apes and their journey (both emotional and physical). That’s something that both Rise and Dawn have done incredibly well. But if you’re going to create a movie where the entire human population is about to become extinct, give us a reason—whether we’re for or against them—to care.

8/10