Review of The First Purge (2018) by Hector V — 22 Aug 2018

Even during its low points, the Purge franchise has always had something going for it thanks to its insane political whimsy. It's not a subtle style of commentary, but it works, especially when it provides little morsels of moral insight to chew on as the yearly bloodbath ensues.

The Purge: Anarchy hit these notes particularly well as the series highpoint back in 2014, and while Election Day contained immense promise for political satire and world-building, it ended up a rather generic action flick. With our real-world political climate hinging on the ridiculous extremes on which the franchise prides itself, The First Purge, a prequel chronicling exactly what its name details, was also rife with potential for commentary.

From its opening few scenes, it's clear The First Purge has again squandered its potential. Rather than engaging the circumstances that led to the Purge being adopted, the film glosses over them with the most generic of generic of newsreel montages. So much reflective world-building could have been achieved in the first act before things go crazy, but instead the film chooses to regurgitate a story eerily similar to Anarchy, though less interesting and diverse.

The story centers on a brother and sister (Joivan Wade and Lex Scott Davis) trying to make it through the night in their low-income district of New York. It's pretty much one-third of Anarchy's running storylines stretched longer with less pizazz and a really, really dumb boogeyman villain. Another story thread involves a gangster (Y'Lan Noel) dealing with turncoats and federal meddling in his drug empire. Though different at face value, it feels like a poor man's version of Frank Grillo's infinitely more compelling tough-guy character from the last two films. Noel actually does a pretty good job and is the best character, probably even part of the film. His character just feels lacking and could have been transplanted from any other similar film.

On that note, the film is heavy with sensationalized action, violence, and more slow-motion money shots than Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, but it doesn't amount to much or have anything to say. It's violence for the sake of violence, and given the fairly graphic quality of it all, it just makes one uncomfortable without an ounce of thoughtful, compensatory schadenfreude.

What commentary is given is shallow, unoriginal, and so reliant on trite stereotypes that it's almost comical. These unsubtly battering elements are the closest the film ever gets to saying something as it screams at, not asks, its audience "do you get it?" Evil, elderly white man with a business suit? Check. Spook costumes and Nazi imagery? Check. Bastardized imagery of American iconography? Triple check (it's as cool and striking as ever, though, I'll give it that).

The First Purge is really just more of the same from the last three films, but with ironically less. It's okay, but with so much rich potential at its feet, it's a shame more couldn't have been done with it.