The First Purge is the fourth Purge film and is, indeed, a prequel. The Purge films are based on the idea that the government allows one night out of the year where all crime is legal. The first film wasted the idea on a home invasion flick… but clearly was about the “purge” being a purge of all our bad emotions. The next two purge films shifted focus and made the purge against undesirables, minorities, and the poor.
The First Purge takes us back to the “experiment” – where the government decides to sponsor a psychologist’s idea that, if we can purge our anger, then we’ll be a happier populace. The experiment will take place on Staten Island for 12 hours. The poor underclass is promised $5000 each to stay on the island during the night… and extra if they actually take to the streets to purge.
To no one’s surprise who saw the previous two films, the government secretly just wants to weed out the poor. Just as in the second film, they send in mercenaries (including literal nazis and the Klan) to rile up the populace and ensure the purge works. If this was an original film, I guess this “twist” might have worked but since they already covered this material, it loses any shock or surprise value. In fact, there’s nothing particularly world-building or unique about this being the “first” purge. All the movies have been low budget and centered on one location… it hardly matters if this one is “just” Staten Island when the second film was “just” LA.
And that’s a problem within the limited scope of this film’s ambition. It barely mentions why the Purge is seen as a good idea… the film might have an idea in its head but it’d rather just be a violent action film that twists the audience with attempts at being a shocking political allegory. This worked ok in the previous films where the Purge had been going on for years… if they make this the original story, it owes the audience more explanation. I credit the film for at least having a thought in its head, I just wish it was smarter.
On the plus side, I guess, is that the first film starred Ethan Hawk and the next two Frank Grillo and some black actors as side-story revolutionaries fighting. This one ejects all need for a white protagonist and give us a, ermm,…. well, the friendly neighborhood black drug dealer as the hero (and, to be fair, a black female social activist). This black hero – while not a good person – is still a good guy and provides catharsis as he and his gang slaughter klansmen and nazis in blackface and gorilla masks.
The biggest problem with this film though is that it has a lot of soggy sluggish moments where the characters just aren’t interesting enough to deal with the lack of action or suspense. There are some decent action sequences – and some bad ones – later in the film and occasional moments of quality cinematography. But it’s all very uneven and often pretty dull. It gets a little better as it goes along but the pacing is generally all off.
Oh, and there’s a weird mid-credit scene… a trailer for a USA network ten episode Purge tv series. I don’t think a movie has ever advertised its own tv show spinoff before… it didn’t ruin or save the flick, it was just weird.
In some ways, this Purge film is far more blatant in its rabble-rousing, pro-oppressed-minority agitprop… on the other hand, it’s a repeat of the same messages and story beats of the previous flicks. If it was more consistently exciting, if it focused more on its world-building, or if the characters were better, this would be a good movie. If you are ok with the pure action exploitation flick with something of an idea behind it, maybe you’ll dig it.
Score: 68