The Forever Purge lands mixed reviews with Rotten Tomatoes rating
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The reviews are in for the delayed fifth Purge movie The Forever Purge – and it's a decidedly mixed bag.
The final chapter in the series takes the concept of crime being legal for 12 hours once a year and expands it to a group of people that want the Purge to last forever.
The movie follows Mexican couple Adela and Juan (Army of the Dead's Ana de la Reguera and Narcos: Mexico's Tenoch Huerta), who encounter outlaws on the US-Mexico border who want to start a race and class war.
Related: Army of the Dead ending explained
The Forever Purge currently holds a mixed 59% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics noting its timely political themes, even while some suggested it was an underwhelming and "gruelling" end to the franchise.
Here's what they've been saying:
The Los Angeles Times
"The Purge films have become a simultaneously disturbing and cathartic viewing experience. Some lines of dialogue and story beats are ripped directly from the headlines of America's charged political atmosphere. Watching these violent events unfold feels just a bit too plausible, but DeMonaco and Gout cook up such delicious comeuppance that you can't help but indulge in the pleasure of revenge, even if the terrors and pleasures are incredibly fraught."
Variety
"The decadence of the Purge films has always been how they take the specter of social breakdown and reduce it to a kick-ass megaplex diversion. But in the provocative scuzziness of that formula, maybe these movies are timelier than they even realize. The Forever Purge presents the seeds of an apocalyptic American rebellion and then says, in essence, 'Is it a real rebellion? Who knows. But you can dance to it.'"
Associated Press
"The film jettisons its horror roots for an aggressive – some may call it ham-fisted – social critique of modern America. But watching video of real insurrectionists on January 6 try to violently take over the U.S. Capitol makes portions of The Forever Purge seem like a documentary."
Bloody Disgusting
"Now, a year after its initial intended release, The Forever Purge reads less like a horror movie and more like news headlines dialed up to absolute extremes. The thesis of this sequel gets summed up in a tiny but key scene that sees a notable character tell a news anchor, 'America is diseased.' It drives that home at every possible turn. It's well made and full of fantastic action set pieces, but it's so profoundly pessimistic that it amounts to a gruelling and unpleasant experience."
SlashFilm
"The Forever Purge often plays like a film cobbled together from reshoots and studio notes. There are countless scenes here where characters yell out expository dialogue while completely off-camera, giving you the clear sense that this sort of stuff was all added via ADR after test screenings.
"Still, The Forever Purge has its moments [...] But all told, The Forever Purge succumbs to the same blandness that prevails through the series. If this truly is the end of The Purge franchise, it ends with a whimper, not a bang."
The Forever Purge will hit UK cinemas on July 16.
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