The First Purge (2018) - Part 4 Prequel

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The First Purge takes us back to its anti-holiday origins.  I've guiltily enjoyed this franchise's reign of anarchy that James DeMonaco, active in each episode as director and now producer, presented with each Purge, refreshing frightening images and draconian resolutions to our worst problems in the most politically incorrect ways.
Yet, this Purge falls way off that delicate balancing act that it could still call entertainment.  The First Purge was limited to Staten Island, New York as a 'national experiment.'  People were compensated to participate voluntarily.  Not enough people were killing each other so the new NFFA government director Arlo Sabian (Patch Darragh) contracted Aryan-looking killing squads against the African American citizens and his own staff, revealing what the Purge was about all along.  Yet, why were only poor African Americans dominating the scene?  Every Purge episode had racial tensions, but this time it was completely Whites vs. Blacks.  What happened to the immigrant cultural diversity of Staten Island?  The most infamous purger is an African American homicidal maniac, Skeletor (Rotimi Paul).  The neighborhood hero, Dmitri (Y'lan Noel), is a Black gangster.  He protects the small archetypal cluster trying to survive the night led by his African American ex girlfriend and Purge protest activist Nya (Lex Scott Davis).  Unfortunately, Dmitri glorifies the drug trade and black-on-black crime, while being the moral center of the movie.
Also, this film missed too many connections.  The government coup d'etat forming the NFFA was mentioned only matter of factly.  That was THE MAJOR EVENT creating the Purge holiday. The First Purge was too unamerican with mercenaries invading a U.S. inner city.  Part of the previous episodes' appeal was how the media and business' advertising worked to sell this national morbid holiday to society.  This film used most of the same slogans and images from prior episodes, failing to create the shock value left by prior scary party girls and clown faced yuppies of past Purge flicks--I couldn't even find a good meme.  Plus, how would they cover up all the soldier corpses lying around?
Indeed, Part 4 failed to sell The First Purge to its own citizens.  There was so much hype leading up to this, and viewers flocked to the box office again, so it was watchable once.  Worst of all, there was no star appeal as if no major actor wanted a part of this.  Even outside the U.S., people that I saw this with were disappointed.  This makes me leave it at the Losing 45 yd. Line.

* Universal Pictures.  "The First Purge."  Love This Pic, http://www.lovethispic.com/image/329343/the-first-purge