Dredd Review (courtesy of IGN) by Daniel Krupa
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Dr.Chemix
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The 1995 adaptation of Judge Dredd didn’t get it right. Not even close. The rusted, ? -riddled streets of Mega City One – a dying metropolis, addled with violent crime – were too clean, too stagey. The plot too convoluted. And Stallone’s performance as the grim lawgiver was too heroic. (He even took his helmet off.) Even one of the co-creators of Dredd, John Wagner, dismissed the entire project, saying that “Judge Dredd wasn’t really Judge Dredd." But thankfully, the failure of that project has led to a movie which really is Judge Dredd.
If you’re unacquainted with either the dismal Stallone adaptation or the classic 2000AD comic series, Judge Dredd is set in a dystopian future, in which most of America has become an irradiated wasteland. But humanity still survives. On the East Coast lies Mega City One – a vast walled metropolis, swollen with 400m citizens. It’s a place where crime has become the norm.
In this broken future, fallen to the gangs and ? , the only hope of order lies with The Judges – individuals invested with the power to sentence and punish criminals on the spot. Dredd is one of the fiercest, most exacting of this new type of law enforcement.
Dredd never labours its set up. Shot in South Africa, Mega City One has a bleached feel to it – there’s an oppressive heat, almost as if the entire landscape is still baking from the fallout. The film achieves this effective sense of place largely without elaborate special effects. It’s probably a side-effect of the film’s relatively modest budget, but it turns out to be a major strength. As it’s still recognisably a real city – like Nolan’s composite Gotham – it feels like a very real, nightmarish projection of our reality, rather than a distant world coldly fabricated by computer imagery.
The skyline of Mega City One is dominated by City Blocks – gigantic 200 storey apartment complexes, housing the poor and warring gang factions. It’s within one of these blocks – the rather idyllic sounding Peach Trees – that almost all of the film takes place. Dredd investigates a routine triple homicide with Anderson, a cadet who narrowly failed her examination to become a judge, yet is being given a second chance thanks to her prodigious psychic abilities. Dredd and Anderson quickly apprehend the murderer, but are locked within Peach Trees by Ma-Ma, the psychotic prostitute-turned-overlord of the building, since she fears what the prisoner might reveal under interrogation. To escape, Dredd must journey from floor number 1 to floor number 200, and arrest Ma-Ma in the process. As Dredd would laconically put it: it’s a drug bust.
This simple, elegant conceit is one of the film’s greatest strength. Those who attend summer blockbusters for spectacle might be slightly underwhelmed, as the film features nothing you haven’t seen before. There’s no single standout action set-piece, and consequently Dredd will suffer comparisons with jaw-dropping action film The Raid, with which it shares a similar plot structure. And while director Pete Travis never captures the spectacular, Dredd, at just over 90 minutes, feels like one concentrated, concussive action sequence.
It’s worth noting that while the action isn't spectacular in Dredd, the violence most certainly is. Criminals collide with concrete at high-velocity; faces are torn apart by bullets in slow-motion; people are flayed alive. It’s tough going. At one point, blood from an exit-wound splashes over the edge of the frame, almost as if it’s trying to splatter the audience. The 3D, for once, is thematically appropriate – the violence literally being thrust into your face. And it's justified – the world of Mega City One needs to be that brutal in order to legitimate the extreme form of law enforcement represented by Judge Dredd.
And Karl Urban makes for a great Dredd. He’s grizzled and terse and unstoppable. This is also down to Alex Garland’s smart and source material-sensitive script. The temptation would be to punctuate key moments of action with witty one-liners and sardonic quips, but he avoids this betrayal of the character. Dredd enforces the law. He’s just doing his job, and doing it well is likely to result in a grimace, not a smug pun. It’s refreshing, and makes the character all the more intimidating.
The decision to leave the helmet on for the entire film works – the character of Dredd is held purposely at a distance from the audience. We see him very much from the perspective of Anderson: a forbidding examiner. When Dredd first meets Anderson, she’s asked to read Dredd’s mind to demonstrate the extent of her impressive psychic abilities. Her description broadly sketches out the character of Dredd, but as she is about to unearth his hidden motivations, the Chief Justice cuts her off. It hints at a deeper character that you know is there, but it’s intentionally kept obscured. The decision to keep the helmet on for the entire movie underscores his character. You know there’s something there, but it's ambiguous; purposely obscured.
In contrast, Anderson – played by the likeable Olivia Thirlby – is very much the sympathetic, emotional counterpoint to Dredd’s remoteness. She’s not just along for the ride, however, meting out her own form of justice, and using her psychic abilities in some interesting ways. Lena Headey – best known for her role as Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones – plays Ma-Ma the disfigured prostitute who clawed her way to be the uncontested boss of Peach Trees. She’s a potent antagonist for Dredd, but ultimately she’s really just there to set the plot in motion.
In many ways, Dredd feels like an action film from a simpler time, like Assault on Precinct 13 or Escape From New York. It doesn’t break the bank with escalating set-pieces, to the point where the character is lost amidst the explosions. Dredd is a character study, primarily, one fuelled by violence and action, and we can’t think of a better way to re-introduce this character to cinema audiences.
If you’re unacquainted with either the dismal Stallone adaptation or the classic 2000AD comic series, Judge Dredd is set in a dystopian future, in which most of America has become an irradiated wasteland. But humanity still survives. On the East Coast lies Mega City One – a vast walled metropolis, swollen with 400m citizens. It’s a place where crime has become the norm.
In this broken future, fallen to the gangs and ? , the only hope of order lies with The Judges – individuals invested with the power to sentence and punish criminals on the spot. Dredd is one of the fiercest, most exacting of this new type of law enforcement.
Dredd never labours its set up. Shot in South Africa, Mega City One has a bleached feel to it – there’s an oppressive heat, almost as if the entire landscape is still baking from the fallout. The film achieves this effective sense of place largely without elaborate special effects. It’s probably a side-effect of the film’s relatively modest budget, but it turns out to be a major strength. As it’s still recognisably a real city – like Nolan’s composite Gotham – it feels like a very real, nightmarish projection of our reality, rather than a distant world coldly fabricated by computer imagery.
The skyline of Mega City One is dominated by City Blocks – gigantic 200 storey apartment complexes, housing the poor and warring gang factions. It’s within one of these blocks – the rather idyllic sounding Peach Trees – that almost all of the film takes place. Dredd investigates a routine triple homicide with Anderson, a cadet who narrowly failed her examination to become a judge, yet is being given a second chance thanks to her prodigious psychic abilities. Dredd and Anderson quickly apprehend the murderer, but are locked within Peach Trees by Ma-Ma, the psychotic prostitute-turned-overlord of the building, since she fears what the prisoner might reveal under interrogation. To escape, Dredd must journey from floor number 1 to floor number 200, and arrest Ma-Ma in the process. As Dredd would laconically put it: it’s a drug bust.
This simple, elegant conceit is one of the film’s greatest strength. Those who attend summer blockbusters for spectacle might be slightly underwhelmed, as the film features nothing you haven’t seen before. There’s no single standout action set-piece, and consequently Dredd will suffer comparisons with jaw-dropping action film The Raid, with which it shares a similar plot structure. And while director Pete Travis never captures the spectacular, Dredd, at just over 90 minutes, feels like one concentrated, concussive action sequence.
It’s worth noting that while the action isn't spectacular in Dredd, the violence most certainly is. Criminals collide with concrete at high-velocity; faces are torn apart by bullets in slow-motion; people are flayed alive. It’s tough going. At one point, blood from an exit-wound splashes over the edge of the frame, almost as if it’s trying to splatter the audience. The 3D, for once, is thematically appropriate – the violence literally being thrust into your face. And it's justified – the world of Mega City One needs to be that brutal in order to legitimate the extreme form of law enforcement represented by Judge Dredd.
And Karl Urban makes for a great Dredd. He’s grizzled and terse and unstoppable. This is also down to Alex Garland’s smart and source material-sensitive script. The temptation would be to punctuate key moments of action with witty one-liners and sardonic quips, but he avoids this betrayal of the character. Dredd enforces the law. He’s just doing his job, and doing it well is likely to result in a grimace, not a smug pun. It’s refreshing, and makes the character all the more intimidating.
The decision to leave the helmet on for the entire film works – the character of Dredd is held purposely at a distance from the audience. We see him very much from the perspective of Anderson: a forbidding examiner. When Dredd first meets Anderson, she’s asked to read Dredd’s mind to demonstrate the extent of her impressive psychic abilities. Her description broadly sketches out the character of Dredd, but as she is about to unearth his hidden motivations, the Chief Justice cuts her off. It hints at a deeper character that you know is there, but it’s intentionally kept obscured. The decision to keep the helmet on for the entire movie underscores his character. You know there’s something there, but it's ambiguous; purposely obscured.
In contrast, Anderson – played by the likeable Olivia Thirlby – is very much the sympathetic, emotional counterpoint to Dredd’s remoteness. She’s not just along for the ride, however, meting out her own form of justice, and using her psychic abilities in some interesting ways. Lena Headey – best known for her role as Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones – plays Ma-Ma the disfigured prostitute who clawed her way to be the uncontested boss of Peach Trees. She’s a potent antagonist for Dredd, but ultimately she’s really just there to set the plot in motion.
In many ways, Dredd feels like an action film from a simpler time, like Assault on Precinct 13 or Escape From New York. It doesn’t break the bank with escalating set-pieces, to the point where the character is lost amidst the explosions. Dredd is a character study, primarily, one fuelled by violence and action, and we can’t think of a better way to re-introduce this character to cinema audiences.
Comments
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I just saw a commercial of it. It looks dope so far.
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Might see it...
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I think it will be a dope flick but won't do big at the box office
Probably won't be over the top but leave you with the "it wasn't that bad" grill on -
This joint comes out tomorrow and it looks kinda tough
Who checkin for it? Anybody? -
Not me
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Saw it earlier today. ? was awesome they have these slow motion scenes bc of the people on this new special drugs and the ? scenes that are slow mo are great. It never gets cheesy they have some funny parts here and there. Very entertaining movie
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Been hearing good things will check it out
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i heard it was dope i might check it
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? is real dope. It's brutal, serious and ultra violent. It's most definitely not your 95 cartoony adaption. The slo mo scenes are real nice. Hand raising from bathtub water and you see the water, like crystals, moving slowly from the handstroke. I suggest you see this and see it in 3D. You will enjoy it. And all I gotta say is Mama is a mean ? . Dredd goes hard. And incidernary (sp) rounds will ruin your Friday
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putting you on some good ish...
necessary bumpage
My own lil review on the flick...This is definitely not your Stallone/Schneider outing. From the moment the movie begins, Dredd introduces you to his grim dystopian society. The movie is dark and gritty, like the mask Dredd wears with noticeable scars and dents. The kiwi (a term that associates with New Zealand born individuals) known as Karl Urban, who is probably known for the right hand man for the Lord Marshall on Chronicles of Riddick and also Doom, amongst others, provides a serious necessary true to character makeover of the early ? of Judge Dredd. Fans of the comic book series will be happy to know that not once did we see Karl's face nor did he take off his helmet. After the necessary introductions, you're introduced into what Dredd can do. Just a lil taste. Slo-mo, which affect the brain to think that time is moving at 1 percent, is being smoked by some druggies on the highway. Of course, Dredd has no problem 'extinguishing' the problem. After this short action scene, Dredd returns to HQ at the request of the council to take on a new partner with psychic abilities. From there, they enter Peach Trees, a city block that houses the poor and the forgotten. Also where, Mama, a hardened prostitue who has taken control of the building where she distributes slo mo. And let me say the slo mo scenes are nicely done, especially when Mama rises her hand from the bathtub and you see the water rising slowly with her motion. The water droplets take on a crystal look. It's definitely a cool touch for the film. From their, the action will take on a Raid premise. And the action is good. It's brutal. And when I say brutal, I do mean brutal. Some hapless men are skinned and given slo mo before being thrown over the edge. And the scene is done in first person to pull you in. Blood spattering is not uncommon. A bullet flying through the cheek is close and personal. Throats are crushed. Hands are lost. Rounds of high caliber firepower rips through the building while victims are ripped to shreds. Dredd is not too long and not too short. Its not over the top. It's just enough and its believable. It runs the standard movie time block. But once its done, you're interested in what else they can do with the franchise. Karl Urban was a perfect choice for this movie. I highly recommend that you see this in 3D as well.
