Eight years ago, The Purge offered a dystopian thriller about a society in which all crime becomes legal for a period of 12 hours once a year. Shot for a mere $3 million, it grossed nearly 30 times its budget.

Inevitably, this launched a franchise that involves multiple films as well as a TV series. For the latest entry, we go to 2021’s The Forever Purge.

Set in 2048 – 26 years after the first movie’s action – we learn that “The Purge” – the event that allows all that aforementioned illegal activity for a brief period – has been reinstated after a suspension. This occurs because a racist/nativist group called “The New Founding Fathers of America” took over the government, and a rise in bigotry accompanies their renewed rule.

In rural Texas, a variety of residents – both wealthy and poor – go into isolation to avoid the violence of that year’s purge – and they succeed. However, a supremacist group called the “Purge Purification Force” decides they don’t want to limit the mayhem to only 12 hours a year.

They want to use their brutal tactics to enforce an America that suits their “America first” POV. Ordinary citizens struggle to survive in the midst of this threat.

As a concept, “The Purge” always seemed intriguing, but it never made much sense. The films posit that if people get one day a year to run wild, they won’t perform similar actions the rest of the time and crime will essentially disappear.

How does that work? Would psychopaths really “get it out of their systems” with this brief ability to vent? This seems intensely unlikely, but hey – it’s a movie, so it can stretch reality.

Of course, the first film existed as political commentary, and that becomes even more true for Forever. It doesn’t take a keen eye to discern the impact of the Trump era on this story, as the “Purge Purification Force” just acts as a substitute for various white nationalist militia groups that’ve grown over recent years.

Political commentary seems like an appealing idea, but Forever doesn’t find much insight. Granted, there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of room for nuance given the nature of the current reality – when political zealots stage an insurrection at the US Capitol, films start to lose their ability to shock.

Still, in more creative hands, Forever might’ve found a more creative way to comment on modern society. Instead, it takes the easy way and does nothing to provide intelligent views.

Really, Forever exists more as an excuse for a long reel of violent sequences and not much more. While we meet various characters, they exist as nothing more than loose archetypes, so they fail to involve us in the drama.

You’ll note I omitted a discussion of specific roles, and I did so because none of them matter much. We get the usual stock personalities to cheer – or boo – and nothing about the movie makes them even vaguely intriguing.

Because the characters feel so thin, we don’t really embrace their journeys. Since so much follows predictable pass, we encounter a little tension or real drama.

Essentially a Western, Forever suffers from the absence of any consistent emotional impact. I guess it figures that the chaos of multiple threats will make it more dramatic, but instead, it just feels like a video game where random bad guys get thrown at us willy-nilly so none of them make any real impact.

Five movies into the franchise, it feels like the filmmakers desperately want to find new twists on the formula but can’t come up with much that really seems fresh. Forever feels like a loose political theme more than a full movie, and it never really goes anywhere.

The Forever Purge appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The picture looked terrific.

Sharpness was always strong. Little to no softness emerged, so the movie appeared accurate and concise.

I noticed no jaggies or moiré effects, and edge enhancement never manifested itself. In addition, the film failed to display any print defects.

Given its setting, the palette opted largely for an arid amber/orange tone, with some teal, green and red tossed in as well. Within those constraints, the colors seemed fine, as they showed appropriate range.

Blacks were dark and full, and shadows showed good range. This was a consistently strong presentation.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack provided a lively affair. Various action elements offered the most active use of the spectrum.

This was especially true during pieces with weapons fire and fights, and a few other sequences used the various channels in a satisfying way. The action beats utilized the soundscape in an engrossing manner, and music made active use of the different channels.

Audio quality pleased. Speech was concise and natural, without edginess or other issues.

Music showed good range and vivacity, while effects worked nicely. Those elements came across as accurate and full, with solid low-end response and positive definition. All of this added up to a “B+”.

A few extras appear, and we get two featurettes. Collapsing the System runs eight minutes and brings comments from producers Sebastien K. Lemercier and Jason Blum, costume designer Leah Butler, co-VFX supervisor Joshua LaCross, animal handler Bobby Lovgren, stuntman Dan Mast, special effects coordinator Zak Knight, and actors Ana de la Reguera, :Leven Rambin, Tenoch Huerta, Cassidy Freeman, Sammi Rotibi, and Alejandro Edda.

“System” covers story/characters, the approach of the director, working with horses, stunts and action, effects, cast and performances. A few decent nuggets emerge, but much of “System” feels too heavy with praise and hyperbole.

Creeptastic Wardrobe goes for two minutes, six seconds and features Butler. As expected, we get a view of costumes in this short but moderately informative reel.

We also find an Alternate Opening (1:40) and a Deleted Scene (1:36). Presented as a “storyboard sequence”, the “Opening” adds some exposition to the film’s two main Mexican characters. It seems superfluous.

As for the “Deleted Scene”, it depicts some good-natured joking among ranch hands. It also lacks much real purpose.

The disc opens with ads for Stillwater and Old. We also get the trailer for Forever.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Forever. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.

Despite its attempts to offer a timely commentary on the current political situation – in fictionalized form, that is - The Forever Purge never develops into anything coherent or insightful. It tosses a lot of violence at the viewer but it fails to present a vivid tale. The Blu-ray delivers very good picture and audio along with relatively modest bonus materials. Forever Purge seems muddled and forgettable.