5.6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
The film will be a prequel that will focus on the events that lead up to the very first Purge event.
Starring: Y'lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Mugga, Patch DarraghHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 58% |
Action | 33% |
Sci-Fi | 27% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS:X
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: DTS 5.1
French (Canada): DTS 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Without punning too horribly, is there anyone out there willing to binge on The Purge “franchise”? The Purge appeared in 2013 and despite less than stellar reviews (including by our own Ken Brown here at Blu-ray.com), went on to such overwhelming box office success (due in part to its miniscule production budget) that at least one sequel was an all but foregone conclusion. It didn’t take long for The Purge: Anarchy to appear, and perhaps surprisingly it was met with at least somewhat more approving comments from the critical class (again including Ken ), and as with the first film, audiences flocked to it. The Purge: Election Year debuted a couple of years later, and went on to score the biggest box office returns of the franchise thus far, again despite some withering critical assessments (along with more favorable reactions, as with Martin Liebman’s The Purge: Election Year Blu-ray review on this very site). The Purge: Election Year’s box office tally was ultimately topped by The First Purge, something which may in and of itself short circuit any unfavorable critical comments. This fourth Purge outing is actually a prequel of sorts, and one which seems designed to help augment USA’s nascent The Purge series, a production which may or may not be a “limited run” affair, one assumes depending on ratings.
The First Purge is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. According to the IMDb, this was digitally captured with Arri Alexa cameras and I presume it was finished at a 2K DI (as always with my reviews, if someone has authoritative data to the contrary, message me and I'll happily update things here). As mentioned above in the main body of the review, stylistically this is a near hallucinogenic experience much of the time, with whole sequences just drenched in odd lighting and/or grading, from bizarre, almost alien, greens, to deep reds, to bold blues and occasionally vivid purples. Those choices, combined with an overarching darkness (most of the film takes place at night), and a tendency toward handheld work, can at least occasionally tend to tamp down fine detail, but generally speaking this is a really sharp and precise looking transfer. It's especially impressive in some of the more brightly lit moments, including some of the high contrast "first person confessionals", where fine detail on facial features is commendable. There's what I refer to as "digital murk" in a few extremely dark scenes, where shadow detail is virtually nonexistent, but that actually can tend to up the angst ante considerably, since it's hard to tell what's happening and what terrors might be awaiting in the gloom. I noticed one brief moment of near image instability in an aerial establishing shot of an inner city tenement, but perhaps surprisingly given the film's prevalence of misty environments and things like lights penetrating the night, I noticed no banding.
The First Purge features an extremely energetic sounding DTS:X track. The film has a kind of odd sound effect or score choice (I'm frankly not sure which) which almost sounds like a thumping drum combined with a helicopter rotor and which can waft through the air at various moments. The film is rife with huge crowd scenes, often with those crowds completely out of control, and the wash of sounds through the surround channels can be quite convincing. Even quieter dialogue scenes frequently have background clatter spilling through the side and rear channels, and expected jolts like explosions, fights and gunfire also populate the surround channels and deliver considerable sonic punch. Dialogue is typically rendered cleanly, though some of the cacophonous crowd scenes understandably sound confused. Fidelity is excellent throughout the presentation, as is dynamic range, which is extremely wide.
There's actually some provocative material wending its way through The First Purge, but this is kind of a haphazard enterprise that is too vignette driven for its own good, and which fails to connect in any real emotional way with any of the perceived "good guys" (some of whom have some questionable aspects themselves). Fans of the franchise may find enough here to warrant checking this out, and for them the good news is technical merits (especially audio) are excellent.
2016
2014
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1988
2016
Game of Survival
1985
Uncut
2019
1982
2017
2019
Unrated
2011
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2007
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2020
2020
Unrated Edition
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