Best to purge from memory

THE First Purge takes on social commentary in the worst possible way with it using the lowest hanging fruit. Set as a prequel to the original

Purge film, The First Purge finds America’s third political party – the New Founding Fathers of America – taking office and trying the Purge experiment for the first time.

They choose the low-income area of Staten Island in New York City with those that take part in it being given $5 000 if they survive.

Now, this could’ve been a movie that smartly interweaved America’s crumbling political state into a suspense-filled thriller, while giving intelligent commentary. It really also surprised in that African-American director Gerard McMurray was fine with the script and character choices for the film, as it portrays every stereotype of black people you can think of, along with using the black experience as torture porn.

The plot holes in this film are also so big that the tears shed by Maria Sharapova’s fans every time Serena Williams beats her wouldn’t have been enough to fill them. This includes characters having fullblown dialogue in the Purge with no sense of urgency.

The main protagonist, Dmitri (Y’lan Noel) also somehow gains the strength of the Black Panther by the end of the film, with him taking on a whole legion of mercenaries and coming out on the other side alive.

Dmitri might be the kingpin of a drug ring on Staten Island and engages in some boxing classes, but we are expected to believe that, through the power of determination and love, he is able to best military-trained murderers.

Furthermore, the overall motivation for the first Purge is ill-conceived. There’s never a compelling reason given as to why this experiment should take place.

This truly is one misshapen film which could’ve held a mirror to the treatment of people of colour in America.

Instead, we are left with something that feels like a half-baked idea and uses social consciousness as a trendy framing device for a lacklustre film.