A government spokesman who lies through his teeth and throws science out the window. An argument about the best way to fight a racist system. Even a “p****-grabbing motherf*****.” Although you might presume I’m describing the post-2016 landscape of current events in our beloved U.S. of A., I’m actually offering just a few highlights from the latest film in The Purge franchise, The First Purge. And with all that zeitgeisty fodder and a rockstar of a director, you’d think this film would have been a slam dunk. But instead, and unfortunately, The First Purge takes a somewhat ambitious leap without even coming close to the rim.
Five years after the original twisted home invasion film was released, and following who-
even-remembers-how-many sequels,The First Purge offers a glimpse into how this crazy, violent, dystopian franchise started: with an experiment. With unemployment, crime, and inequality on the rise, a new political party has decided to incubate a creative solution: allow any and all crime on Staten Island, New York for 12 hours, and see if people manage to feel a bit better after letting out all that hate.
Throughout the night, we follow Dmitri and Nya, former neighbors who grew up together in housing projects but chose opposite life paths. Nya picked challenging but righteous protest and now persists in poverty, while Dmitri chose drug dealing and now spends his time flashing guns, making threats, and counting cash in basements. But on 
the night of the inaugural experiment, the two find themselves (and their shared love of absent vowels?) in a fight for their lives as they learn “the government” may not have been completely honest about what they have planned.
Although I walked into this film with devastatingly low expectations, I found myself really and truly wanting to like it as it unfolded. A full cast of characters of color with complex backstories. Vigilante justice against racist, motorcycle-riding, church-massacring assholes. A violent resistance against a blackface-clad military. A succinct answer to the “What do we do now?” question: “We fight.” I’ll be the first to admit that The First Purge has its fair share of over-the-top, subconsciously satisfying moments that have the potential to please any liberal—or even libertarian for that matter—basically anyone not wearing a red MAGA cap.
But Fruitvale Station director Gerard McMurray should know that you can’t rely on the rickety scaffolding of a few indulgent scenes, a handful of utterly unsurprising jump scares, and a bit of creative mise-en-scène to construct a quality film. Nor can you blend together every 
hot-button issue surrounding race and poverty, splash in some gut-churning frustration with the government, and sprinkle gratuitous gunplay over the top and expect to have crafted a horror film as groundbreaking and as smart as Get Out. Plus, if you have the luxury of working with an actress as talented as Marisa Tomei, at the very least you have to give her lines beyond cursory three-word observations on “the data.” And for crying out loud don’t dye her hair bleach blonde, regardless of the symbolic point you may be trying to make.
Is The First Purge unexpected? Yes. In some ways enjoyably so? Sure. But you simply can’t cut that many corners on key components like plot, dialogue, and flow in a single film and expect it to be more rad than ridiculous.
SpecialK Verdict: This Independence Day, I suggest you stick to fireworks and barbecues in the park, and steer clear of any desire to purge—in every sense of the word. Happy 4th!
The First Purge opens Wednesday, July 4.
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