Film Review: First Purge

Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi

Cert: 15 cert

Director: Gerard McMurray

Screenwriter: James DeMonaco

Starring: Y'lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Mugga, Patch Darragh, Marisa Tomei, Luna Lauren Velez, Kristen Solis, Rotimi Paul, Mo McRae, Jermel Howard, Siya, Christian Robinson, Steve Harris, Derek Basco

Running time: 1h 38min 

 Parents advised reading before viewing the film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

 Sex & Nudity:

• one brief sex scene. Not explicit.
• We see explicit movements that avoid nudity
• Two older women who say they've been regularly mocked take part in the Purge
• We hear references to Nya and D's former romance.
• Several people dress provocatively and dance sensually (sometimes kissing their partners) at a "Purge party."
• While they don't remove any clothes, their outfits still expose plenty of skin.
• One makes movements that suggest she's interested in performing oral sex.
• It's possibly implied that they were the targets of derision because of their same-sex relationship, though we're not given a clear indication one way or another.

 Violence & Gore:

• The two women attack D
• One of the dealer's henchmen decided to use the Purge to make a play for D's lucrative business, and the females are his intended assassins.
• They try to stab D in the back.
• When that fails, they fight, kick and hit him, smashing a bottle or two over his head as well.
• D fights back, beating the women to protect himself and eventually pinning both to the ground by their necks
• But as violent as that scene is, it's just one among a myriad of intensely violent images onscreen.
• The Purge's fictional creators want the evening to be filled with bloodletting, and so it is.
• We see dozens upon dozens of people shot, those wounds often accompanied by outlandish sprays of blood.
• Others are stabbed, with some victims receiving a dozen knife blows or more.
• One would-be killer straps syringes to his fingers, apparently hoping to inject his victims with whatever toxic substance he's loaded into them.
• We watch as someone chokes the life of someone else, the victim's face turning red and his eyes growing bloodshot.
• A couple of characters get sliced across the neck with razors (though non-lethally).
• The Purge's architects have given many participants contact lenses to record everything they do; between those cameras and surveillance footage, we see loads of people shot, beaten with bats and other implements and, in one case, dragged helplessly behind a truck.
• Bodies litter streets and hall floors, often lying in pools of blood.
• Crimson gore splatters and stains walls as well.
• Nya is attacked by a baby-faced character who grabs at her crotch, apparently trying to rape her, before Nya sprays him with mace.
• Some people are killed in an explosion.
• Someone limps around with an obviously injured leg.
• After the Purge, surviving Staten Island citizens sport a variety of injuries.
• We learn that Arlo Sabian, the NFFA's Chief of Staff, brought in professional mercenaries when Staten Island's residents weren't violent enough.
• Some of those cold-blooded executions feel even more disturbing than the passionately uncorked carnage we see elsewhere.

 Profanity: 

• F-words, S-words and other vulgarities and slurs, including "a--," "b--ch," "b--tard," "d--n," "h---," "p-ss," "p---y" and uses of n---
• God's name is misused three times, twice with "d--n." Jesus' name is abused four times.
• We hear a crude reference to what one man's anatomy smells like.

 Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking:

• People smoke what appear to be marijuana joints.
• D is a drug dealer, and we see a great deal of his bricked merchandise.
• The young women who visit D snort some cocaine.
• A woman takes a swig of liquor from a flask in a pastor's office.
• We hear a reference to the opioid epidemic

 Frightening/Intense Scenes: 

• Official MPAA Rating R for strong disturbing violence throughout, pervasive language, some sexuality and drug use
• Confirmed BBFC Rating: 15 - strong bloody violence, threat, language, drug misuse
• Though many of the killers are mercenaries without, presumably, an explicit racial axe to grind, they're nevertheless dressed up in racially charged getups-outfits that reference the KKK, white supremacist groups, Nazis and, yes, the police
• A couple of would-be assassins wear blackface masks.
  

 Story: After the rise of a third political party, the New Founding Fathers of America, an experiment is conducted, no laws for 12 hours on Staten Island. No one must stay during the experiment yet there is $5,000 for anyone who does

 Likes: Ive seen all the purge film now to say it just milking the franchise with this one is an understatement. I'm not gonna complete trash talk this first purge film because it has its good point but sadly it not enough to save this film, as there is serval problem with this film which I will point out in dislikes.

The only good things about this film really are the acting and performances, which were actually good throughout the film, the action scene as you would expect is fast and bloodthirst. The film is somewhat entertaining in places, but the overall story is just bad.

 I do mean badly written in place, it a good thing that this time was not just thrown in to a film where the purge just happens, where not really get to know the characters of the film, this film does a great job of fleshing out the characters as we get to know each and every one of them.

But the story alone is just bad.
 

 Dislikes: One major problem not against Y'lan Noel acting, he seems like a good actor, but it the character he was playing. He wrote in as the hero of the film, yet he's a drug dealer like (WTH), were meant to care about this character when he a drug dealer. There is something seriously wrong when you write in a story that a drug dealer is a hero, this glorifies drug dealers, like it ok to be a drug dealer because he's a hero.

Sorry, this is just bad writing and give a bad impression to people that its ok to be a drug dealer when thousands of lives are lost to drugs. Sorry, but I could even care about this character which makes this film bad.

The story alone just felt like it was milking the franchise like they've completely run out of ideas to take the franchise further, so they went back to the beginning in such a bad way. Not only is this film racist with a political agenda in the BLM, but throwing the KKK in there as well seriously, just utter bad writing.

The fact they took this franchise in a political direction is why this franchise is now dead, no more of this should be done, this franchise is official dead, this film sadly is just a failure in my opinion which is a shame since the acting is pretty solid.

 Overall: Good acting, solid action scenes, bad writing, poor choice of the hero of the film.

 Rating: 4.3 out of 5 for Entertainment / 5.2 out of 10 for the concept