Dir: Pete Travis
Starring: Karl Urban,
Olivia Thrilby, Lena Headey
2000 A.D’s most famous
lawman returns in a welcome reboot, written by Alex Garland.
Judge
Dredd (Karl Urban) is Judge, Jury and Executioner on the crime ridden streets
of Mega City One. He is given the job of testing Psychic Judge Anderson in her
final exam to become a Judge. They respond to a murder at the Peach Trees tower
block which houses the manufacture and base of operations for new drug, Slo-Mo,
and violent drug dealer Ma-Ma (Lena Headey). She locks down the building and
puts out a death order on the judges and it’s left to Dredd and Anderson to
fight their way out.
Dredd is a lot of fun. It has plenty of
action and gore to satisfy the paying Action movie and comic book crowds. The
insides of the Peach Tree’s building look suitably grimy and stained giving a
real feeling of a packed dangerous apartment block. The criminals and Judge’s are as violent and
aggressive as they should be in Mega City One and the violence stays to true
the comic book. Karl Urban has the chin and grimace to make a good Dredd,
Olivia Thrilby is fine as the inexperienced rookie thrown into the thick of
things and Lea Headey convinces as the unforgiving and violent Ma-Ma.
The film does fall foul of some cliché’s.
It unfortunately shares exactly the same story as The Raid which was released earlier this year, and it’s good guys
trapped behind enemy lines has been storyline which has been seen several times
before.
The
film may not be hugely original but it does manage to stick in some good ideas.
One particularly good scene sees Judge Anderson using her psychic powers to
find out information from a suspect through a battle of sickening thoughts. It
also manages to use 3D in an interesting way. The Slo-Mo sections are bathed in
golden colour and are beautiful despite some of the gory images on screen.
Glittering glass falls around you, water slowly flies through the air, all to
the sound of Ethereal voices. It is the best use of 3D that I have seen since
the form has become popular.
Dredd deserves a bigger budget and
unfortunately its low cost does show through. Mega City One doesn’t look as
futuristic as it should do; it just looks like Johannesburg, where it was
actually filmed, with a bit of CGI plumping. The Judges’ bikes just look like
normal motorbikes with a bit of metal stuck to the front. It would be good for
them to be handed a bigger budget so we can get out of one setting and find out
a bit more about Mega City One and the world Dredd inhabits.
A fun
and entertaining action film that does something interesting with 3D. A sequel
will be something to look forward to.
3 and a half Buttons out of 5
Very fun and bloody, which makes it all the more entertaining and I can only wonder what they will do with the next installments of this series, if they can get there. Good review Courtney.
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