Disked 'The Purge', apart from the reasonable two leads and a nice gritty look it was tired, poorly written, cheesy, tension and suspense free with annoying characters. Sort of liked 'The Purge: Anarchy', while finding it flawed in especially the writing Frank Grillo's presence livened things up a lot. Had mixed feelings on 'The Purge: Election Year', it had its moments (again Grillo and the committed cast) but the writing, uneven story and characters sunk it.
Saw 'The First Purge' as somebody trying to see as many 2018 films as possible and as somebody who had not given up on the franchise. Seeing 'The First Purge', it was wholly indicative that a series that was already starting to flag had completely worn thin. There are no new ideas, anything interesting and even for a prequel it felt completely unrelated to the other 'Purge' films, having none of the few good things present in 'The Purge'. Also saw absolutely no reason for the film to be made or existing. By far the worst of the series and one of the year's worst (have seen a lot so feel qualified to say that).
Absolutely nothing worked in 'The First Purge'. Although most of the acting was weak in 'The Purge', the two leads were reasonable. In 'The First Purge', all the acting is lousy, playing characters that are impossible to get behind in a film full of shallow and unrelatable characters that behave so stupidly and illogically, as well as being written in such a biased and not-for-the-easily-offended fashion. Not even the decent production values there is here, the film instead looks cheap and rushed-looking.
No tension or suspense at any point and nothing scary or thought-provoking, got nothing enlightening. The pace dragged badly, which undermined the suspense, likewise with the excessive predictability and clichés that were tired well before the film was made, even more tired than in 'The Purge'.
The scary aspect is cheap and never surprising, creative or scary, the violence being gratuitous, the situations so ridiculously dumb that it insults the audience and the villains are goofy and flat caricatures, nothing menacing about them. The direction is generally indifferent and the action far from exciting.
In summary, awful with nothing redeeming about it. 1/10 Bethany Cox
