The First Purge

The First Purge has a good idea in showing how the experiment began. The origin-story angle gives the franchise a chance to explain the roots of the system instead of only showing the chaos years later. The Staten Island setting is one of the stronger choices because it makes the first Purge feel like a social experiment being forced onto one specific community before being sold to the rest of the country.

The political commentary fits the franchise’s core idea. The movie is very direct about race, poverty, government corruption, and engineered violence, and those themes make sense for a story about the government testing whether people can be pushed into destroying each other. The ideas are valid, but the execution is often too obvious. The dialogue and plotting spell things out so clearly that the movie can feel more like a message being delivered than a story unfolding naturally.

Y’lan Noel gives the movie its strongest presence as Dmitri. He brings real physical confidence and intensity, especially in the final stretch, where the film becomes more of a direct action-survival movie. Lex Scott Davis also gives the story urgency as Nya, helping represent the people trying to protect their community rather than exploit the chaos.

The weakness is that the film’s ideas are stronger than its characters and suspense. The setup has potential, but the movie is uneven and not as tense as it should be. The First Purge is interesting as franchise background, but it is more blunt than gripping.