Despite being a fan of The Purge franchise, I was extremely disappointed in the First Purge installment. Sound The Purge Alarm, this review may not invoke feelings of warm fuzzies. It certainly won’t cause you to run out and see it as soon as possible. If you want to watch The First Purge in its glory as a full movie for free online, it’s available on Netflix with a subscription. The majority of audiences view the original film as the weakest of the Purge movies however, I really liked it. If I were to put them in order of preference it would be:
- Watch The Purge Anarchy (2014)
- The Purge (2013)
- The Purge Election Year (2016) then
- The current installment The First Purge (2018.)
Anarchy Trailer 2014
What I love about the franchise up until the newest film, was the character-driven storylines. I really admired that the screenwriter and the producers are the same across all four movies. Guess what’s different about The First Purge? The director. It seems to me rather an odd way to make a prequel to what was otherwise a massive success in my opinion. I’m not saying Gerard McMurray did a bad job, I’m just pointing out that it was a stupid thing to do.
The First Purge Online
Release: July 4th, 2018 in the USA/2nd August 2018 in Australia. You can watch The First Purge full movie free online with a subscription to Netflix.
First Purge Cast – Sound the Alarm and Watch it on Netflix
- Starring: Y’lan Noel (Slice 2018), Lex Scott Davis (Superfly (2018), Joivan Wade (Doctor Who 2005), Mugga (Orange Is the New Black 2017), Patch Darragh (Everything Sucks 2018), and Marissa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny 1992,)
- Director: Gerard McMurray,
- Writer: James DeMonaco.
Sound The First Purge Review Alarm
So Let’s Get Down to Why This is the Weakest Film in the Franchise
In the opening sequence, Skeletor (Rotimi Paul) is menacing the camera. He has a lovely story about wanting to Purge the evil from within him because he can’t get drugs or some such rubbish thing. A few other people are introduced and offered money to participate in The First Purge. Because $5000 dollerydoos is a lot of money, and they are planning a block party anyway, some agree.
Now I know what you are thinking… Didn’t I say earlier that this film lacked a bit of characterization to fuel the story? Well, it does. Between Isaiah being randomly attacked for no reason by Skeletor who knows he is about to get a free pass to quash his demons and Nya, his sister leading the activist party, I could only pay more attention to the gang squabble about to unleash.
I’d love to go into spoiler territory here and have a bit of a rant about the specifics of their tiff but it was about the only interesting thing that happened in the movie, so better not.
Marissa Tomei Sounds Her Own Purge Alarm
Thankfully, I noticed a lady that looked just like Marissa Tomei enter the equation. She was some kind of specialist in how to make ordinary people want to kill each other. They call her the ‘architect’ but she says she didn’t think up The Purge. She would never sound The Purge alarm, she doesn’t want to get her hands dirty. The experiment is something that she is very interested in for the right reasons of course. She doesn’t want people to kill each other as political motivation. No, it seems she has a thing for Skeletor and really believed she could help him let his dogs out.
Additionally, while all this was happening Isaiah forgot he’s allergic to guns and ends up playing chase-ies with Skeletor and his sister Nya decided she wants to play too. I mean it is Purge night and anyone can kill anyone, so it makes perfect sense for everyone who’s not into killing to simply run around the streets. In previous films, people get trapped on the streets due to bad luck or trickery but here, it’s a good backdrop to show a fleet of purgers dressed as KKK to embark on a small tour of the city.
The First Purge Free Full Movie on Netflix, So Just Do It.
Of course, I suppose it wasn’t all bad, I mean Nya and Dmitri do get back together but we never see them in any other movies so what was the point really? In fact, this is the only installment where there are no overlapping characters.
It would have been interesting to find out that the NFFA wanted the purge to cull numbers in the poorer and crime-riddled areas. Except we already knew that. It’s well established in the middle two films but here in this one, it’s simply overtly managed by everyone except Marissa Tomei. Marissa wants the purging to be natural and fair. Who gave them masks? How can we help them free their demons if we can’t see them? Wait a minute…
For one thing, the leader of the activists stayed in the city for free. This kind of went against her whole ‘doesn’t participate gig’ she had to go on. She didn’t even make sure everyone was safe or protected and put a giant billboard on their ‘hide-out’ location.
One man army Dmitri just iced my cake with a very poor attempt at providing tension throughout the film. Who were the rest of the people? Dunno, don’t care.
I give The First Purge
2 Machine guns are coming, grab a spatula! out of 5
