On a whim I decided to watch this. And while it doesn't differ that much from previous entries it certainly isn't the worst in the franchise.
Somehow I think a lot of politics concerning these movies have gotten into the mix and have left people judging the politics behind the film instead of the film itself. The First Purge is basically more of the same compared to the previous sequels that is smaller in scale. Compared to the original this is superior. So how is it that a lot of film fans seem to dislike or even hate this film? Most of them even claim to love all of the previous ones except this one. Well, I could dive right into that but I can assure you that it has nothing to do with the film itself but more with someone's world views and let's leave it at that. More interesting is the fact that the film failed to deliver on what most fans of the franchise have been waiting for since the original. And that is to go deeper into the conception and mechanism of the purge.
The First Purge only rehashes what already has been established in previous films. I myself would have liked to have seen the debates and discussions on the experiment before it happened. Why did we not get to see how they were able to pass this experiement? Even totalitarian leaders and regimes had to come up with solid excuses to implement certain laws and rules for the people to accept them. Here we are talking about the US in the near future that still is somewhat democratic. So there was no resistance at all? No outrage, no discussion? Come on! People went nuts about Superman's moustache. Then again a lot of people are strangely passive when it comes to politics. Still there are always enough people who do care and who would stand up. Where were they? I would have liked to have seen this. The only one who kind of does is The Architect - Dr. Updale played by Marisa Tomei. She came with the idea. Then realizes that her experiement doesn't give her the results she expected. By her reaction she is pleasantly surprised and about to admit that she had been wrong. She was staying true to herself of this not being political for her. Of course for the government this is very much political and aren't happy with the initial results.
Overall the film is entertaining enough but should be faulted for again not giving the viewers what they want which is a deeper exploration how the mechanism of the purge and the process behind it. Why not show how the rest of the world views upon this? Do they like the idea? Have they implemented this themselves? There are so many ways to approach this topic and yet the film never goes beyond the fact that the purge needs to happen and the purge itself. While I haven't seen the show I read that it also neglects to do this. A real shame!
Also check the reviews for the other titles listed in this link:
No comments:
Post a Comment