The Purge: Anarchy. A Foreshadowing?

THE PURGE: ANARCHY:  2014: --: HORROR:  After watching The Purge: Anarchy, it's eerily similar to Ferguson, Missouri. Based on the looting, theft, and overall anarchy, segments of the public have risen against the police department and created a nightly scene that resembles some parts of this movie.  I don't want to keep drawing parallels here, but I would be remiss if I didn't state this.

 
Eerily similar are the scenes from Anarchy and Ferguson, MI.

It does demonstrate how tenuous the strands of society are and how an event like the shooting of Michael Brown can cause huge rifts that lead to violence and borderline lack of societal control.  

  

Of course, in Anarchy, this violence is intentional and the premise of the movie is that once a year crime is allowed and is used to rid society of the weak and "undesirables".  If you have seen the first one, you get the gist.  

This movie had a challenge because once you got over the initial novelty the first movie introduced, it's hard to find something compelling about the same idea of having a night of pure crime and unadulterated violence. Some aspects were actually pretty annoying, including some of the villains.  


This was one of the more annoying villains. His head is always sideways.

However, I was surprised that this movie actually had some bite to it. After the first one, I assumed it was going to be more of the same, but this one included some new aspects such as killing squads, conspiracies and other elements that differentiated it from the first and took the evolving franchise a step further.


Anarchy adds to the first movie and takes it a step or two further.

This isn't to say that the movie was incredibly original but it did have some gruesome killings, colorful characters and interesting plot changes.  I won't call them twists because they were predictable but worthy of mention. 


Some of the murders were gruesome..

One of the slicker elements was the addition of Big Daddy, which reminded me of Bioshock, the video game, but just in name. Utilizing a minigun (there is nothing mini about it, that's just it's name), he rides behind a tractor trailer and assists in killing more of the undesirables.  These tractor trailers comprise a new component of the movie that lend to some uniqueness when compared to the original where there wasn't much logic behind the purging.


Big Daddy was pretty intimidating.

The movie took on a sort of "survival against a common enemy" as shown in some zombie movies because three totally different groups of people converge to assist each other against the purgers. The final act of the movie is similar to a few other horror movies and I won't give it away.  It did give the movie more depth regardless.


What's she so happy about?  Watch it and find out..

Did this movie revolutionize the action/ horror genre?  No, but it was entertaining enough and a pretty decent sequel.  Not to be redundant, but it gave me creeps the other day watching this after watching some of the scenes from Ferguson.  Do you disagree with this sentiment? 73%  

Noah: Where are all the other Races?

NOAH: 2014: ++: DRAMA/ACTION:  I wanted to review this movie earlier but I didn't have the chance since I couldn't get to it at the time.  I rented it and had certain expectations because I heard so much acclaim and so many people recommended it.  I wasn't disappointed.  However, I felt some aspects made the movie uneven. There's also another big issue in the movie that I will bring up at the end of this review.  


"Uneven, what does that mean?"

Much of the action occurs in the first "third" of the movie and the action was very entertaining.  The Golems or "Watchers" were a different spin on the story and I enjoyed them, while others had serious questions about why the director/ writer Darren Aronofsky included them.  In some ways, it does "explain" how such as huge ark was created but at the same time this is a biblical adaptation so it doesn't need any "explanation".


I liked the inclusion of the "Watchers".

Noah's cast was right on the money and I liked the fact that Emma Watson complimented the cast of Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, and Anthony Hopkins.  Russell Crowe's acting was almost a carbon copy of his performance in The Gladiator, but that's a good thing as he gave Noah a more demanding presence. Some interpret the Biblical Noah in this fashion so I assume that was intentional direction by Aronofsky.

  
Crowe in Gladiator and Noah, longer hair, same attitude...


Would Christian Bale have been a better Noah?  Hard to say but he was apparently offered this role as well.  I believe there would have been too much cross referencing to Batman and it would have hurt the overall impact and lasting impression of the movie.  

Emma Watson continues to impress in this movie and I feel she had a challenging role.  I won't give too much away because you should definitely watch this movie if you haven't already.  She nailed this role. Her range was really demonstrated here and it overshadows her performances in the Potter movies.  You can almost say she stole the show in this movie!  Along with Jennifer Lawrence, she is among the top female roles in Hollywood.


Emma Watson led the way with one of the better performances in this movie.

Although Anthony Hopkins' role was minimal in this movie, it's hard to ignore or discuss this movie without discussing him.  He plays a somewhat distant but approachable character but this time he isn't planning on biting your ear off.  His role in this movie is instrumental in allowing certain elements to evolve so he makes an impact. 


"Where's Clarice?"

Standout scenes are when the animals arrive, the battle against the unruly humans before the flood and when Crowe fights the leader Tabal Cane at the end.    I also enjoyed the sections where other parts of the Bible were mentioned, especially the Adam & Eve creation story, which is often referenced.  Also, the snakes, snakes, snakes were cool!


Here come the snakes, hey they're creatures too!


A snake within a snake, very original!  The root of all evil!

The special effects were also excellent in this movie and made the animals, the flooding, the action, and the ark very realistic.  


This important scene was done extremely well!

This was an ambitious effort and Aronofsky delivers a great movie. I just thought it could have been a bit more balanced because I felt like I saw some of the best parts after the first third.  

Also, where are the different races?  It seems very racially homogeneous. I deducted major points over this.  This is a glaring problem with the movie and I don't understand how you can leave out other racial classes.  Especially now with the shooting of Michael Brown, I was floored by the absence of other races.  Was this an agenda or symptomatic of Hollywood? Or worse, was Darren's Aronofsky's treatment of the Noah story a reason why?72%


"A 72%, what is he thinking?"