Dredd 3D (2012)

Dir: Pete Travis

Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia Thrilby, Lena Headey

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbCfqGsXu3M

                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

The Bourne Legacy (2012)

Dir: Tony Gilroy

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton

Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdtUdEoE-Q4

                The studio milks its cash cow for a few more dollars in this fourth instalment of the Bourne franchise but without Bourne.

                Set during The Bourne Ultimatum, we are introduced to fellow Bourne programme member Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner). Anticipating the fallout from one of their black ops programmes being revealed to the public, a CIA team, led by Eric Byer (Edward Norton), decide to dismantle the programme which includes killing everyone involved in it, including the scientists, one of which is Dr Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz). Cross goes on the run, taking Marta Shearing with him, to get the medicine which he was given as part of the programme and has run out of.

                When this film was first announced everyone asked, what’s the point? The answer unfortunately is there isn’t really. The film only has tenuous links to the Bourne trilogy. As you probably know it doesn’t feature Matt Damon as Jason Bourne and his name and names of other characters and organisations from the previous films are mentioned which attempts to link the films. The film is just a generic, and overly long, action film with quite a few action moments but nothing memorable or which stand out. Neither is the action as inventive as the previous Bourne films, no one gets killed with a biro or a rolled up magazine. A lack of originality mars the film. Things go bang, and people get punched which is fine but never really exhilarating.

                Aaron Cross is never as good a character as Jason Bourne, despite the likability of Jeremy Renner. With Bourne we had more than just a man surviving. Bourne was trying to find out who he is, what happened to him, what his back story was. With Cross, all he’s doing is trying to stay alive and that doesn’t give us enough to hold on to.The film has good actors, trying their best with what little they are given.

                The film also never really goes anywhere. It starts fairly slowly and then is just a fairly uninteresting chase for an hour and then it just ends. The film doesn’t wrap things up to a satisfying conclusion and pretty much just sets the path for another lacklustre sequel.

                A solid Saturday night action offering with only very loose ties to the original Bourne films. Competently made and acted but it doesn’t deserve to be a part of the franchise. You won’t remember it after a couple of months. Should have stuck at three.

2 out of 5 Buttons