Review of The First Purge - Kathia Woods

This is the 4th installment of the First Purge. I have to be honest I wasn’t really invested in the first three and agreed to view this because a colleague said its quite good. Low and behold it is. Gone is Ethan Hawke but we are introduced to new characters such as drug king/hero William portrayed by Y’lan Noel and activist Nya played by Lex Scott Davis. Rounding out the cast Joivan Wade who plays Nya brother Isaiah, Mugga as Dolores and Lauren Velez as Luisa.

This movie introduces us to the architect of the Purge Dr. Updale depicted by Marisa Tomei. It's 2014, and the new admiration thinks America is overpopulated. So, they decided to focus on the poor, the disenfranchised, criminals and motivate them to turn on each other. Staten Island is the test group for the experiment. Money, the root of all evil, is the enticement. You stay you get paid, you roam you get paid, and you kill you get paid.

This movie is very in step with the current political climate which is accosting the same people targeted in this movie. The concept is not far fetched, and history has shown how the government has interfered in keeping the poor more impoverished. The first purge demonstrates that all though folks are poor and feeling disconnect doesn’t mean that they lack morals and hence the experiment is manipulated. The idea that poor people have morals was never considered so, in turn, the agitators were pulled in to produce the result they wanted. In the end, money is not everything. Friends matter, the community matter, and poverty don’t turn everyone into criminals.