The First Purge Review: 2 Ups & 7 Downs
1. It's The Most Ridiculous Purge Movie Yet
It would be absurd to criticise these movies too harshly simply for being ridiculous, but The First Purge's central conceit requires such an overwhelming suspension of disbelief that it can be straight-up distracting.
While the previous Purge movies at least involved the entire U.S. being forced into the "game" - unless you could afford to take a vacation, of course - here there's very little conceivable reason why any non-psychopathic person would dare remain in Staten Island on Purge Night.
Some flimsy excuses are raised - the gangster characters can't risk moving their money and contraband for fear of losing it - while others characters' decisions to stick around are barely even mentioned at all.
The movie attempts to lampshade this by having poor participants be paid $5,000 to remain on Staten Island during the Purge, but if the argument here is that people's lives are so destitute they're willing to risk them for five grand, that's just too damn contrived.
When most of these characters' problems could be solved by driving a few miles out of the town, it's not easy to remain invested in giving a damn about their survival.
As bad as The First Purge is, though, it does have a couple of bright spots. Only a couple, mind...