Many of these IMDb users are hatin' on this movie simply because they look at that screen and don't see faces/characters/situations that they can relate to. That's fine because that's going to be true for most audiences, but by no means does that make this a bad movie. It just means this movie wasn't made for them.
It was made for people who can relate to the obvious real-life metaphors this film hits on: financial desperation, a scarily-real governmental turn toward autocracy under-girded by racism and exploitation of the urban poor, and the unpredictable spasms of people who REALLY ARE losing it in these tumultuous times.
The plot and story are no less solid than the simplicity of the other films: a menagerie of characters looking to survive the night, with their own agendas, despite structural forces at work against and unknown to them.
Yet, what mass American audience wants to identify with a drug-dealer-turned-urban-Rambo in the main action hero Dmitri (Y'lan Noel)? The catharsis of all movies (but especially dystopian films because of the creepy sub-textual realism) is in getting absorbed emotionally into relatable characters. Most audiences can't relate to Dmitri or Nya (Lex Scott Davis). Those familiar with the hood can; or at least those that can imagine that perspective.
In that sense, The First Purge veers toward Blaxploitation, and it's un-apologetic about it. Yet the sight of Neo-Nazis going door-to-door in legal extermination IS actually terrifying as real-life white supremacists emboldenment across the country is encouraged by autocratic fervor.
As far as dystopian sci-fi goes, we're far closer to that possibility than most audiences want or can imagine. That's part of what makes this film compelling if not technically as slick as the others (which IS admittedly disappointing given a bigger budget than the last).
The last film, Election Year began the politics of the series; with upwards of $80 million gross on a $10 million budget, a politics most audiences had little problem with.
This film is a logical (in a prequel kind of way) next step in the obvious political turn the series took in the last film, only the perspective turns the lens primarily on the plight of the urban poor and criminally enterprising and those in power manipulating things behind the scenes. As for the hood perspective, you're not seeing "bad acting" as some users have accused. It's acting and being that doesn't give a s#!% what outsiders of the hood perspective think.
If you want to see credibly-creepy dystopian fair that's all-too-close to home--and if you're willing to identify with life on the other side of the tracks--this movie is worth a look, but don't expect the stylistic slickness of the other films.
The First Purge is very low-fi compared to the others, but that doesn't make it low-worth. Only those who can't wipe away their lenses for a couple of hours would think that of an otherwise solid movie.
