DREDD (2012)

Directed By: Pete Travis 
Written By: Alex Garland 
Based On Characters Created By: John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra 
Cinematography By: Anthony Dod Mantle 
Editor: Mark Eckersley 


Cast: Karl Urban, Lena Headey, Olivia Thirlby, Wood Harris, Domhnall Gleeson

In a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop teams with a trainee to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO.

The film has great visuals even though It takes place in a dingy futuristic landscape.

I have never watched the Sylvester Stallone version of this Character fully. Though I had seen hits and pieces. I was even a fan of that films trailer. As that film appeared to be an over the top adaptation of a comic I wasn't familiar with and still have never really read.

This films Is packed with good actions scenes that are practical and impressive. Not a total shoot ‘em up. Strangely the film that this one reminds me of THE RAID both were released in the same year. I have heard them compared to one another by others. I can see some similar interests in story and locations, but to me they are 2 separate films. I am more partial to THE RAID: REDEMPTION. As that film Came out of nowhere with no Pre-conceived notion and knocked it out of the park on a base budget and more hand to hand action that was impressive, inventive and brutal. It had more stakes where as this film is a little more polished and you know everyone is going to be one dimensional.

THE RAID kept surprising. You with action and character moments. Half the villains in this film are just part of the crowd indistinguishable.

The film has over the top violence that is stylistic and brutal. Gory yet seems to try to make it acceptable and artsy due to it's style.

I couldn't tell you if it's a good representation of the comic book, but so far fans of it. Don't seem to have it or have a bad word to say about it. So I am guessing this was a faithful adaptation.

There were three treatments that Alex Garland wrote before settling for the present story. The first treatment - the Dark Judges treatment features the encounter between Dredd and a rival judge by the name of Judge Death. However, Garland abandoned it after a year's work and 16 drafts on the story admitting that he couldn't crack much on that storyline. The second treatment is related to the Dredd and Cursed Earth storyline but was abandoned for the similar reason. The third treatment was an adaptation of the pro-democracy terrorists attacking the judges storyline but Garland felt that story and his ideas towards it were too grandiose in nature but stated that treatment would have been the third part of a trilogy, if there would be one. The final script that he wrote was based one of the punchier short stories in the vein of cop movies e.g TRAINING DAY. John Wagner described the script as correcting the mistake in the Stallone-starred version that was being too sweeping.

While I really like the film, I believe i would have enjoyed it more the way it was Intended to be seen in 3D on the Big screen.

There Is nothing new story wise. More like a siege movie with the characters battling thier way through hordes trying to kill them for survival. The film is fun for what it is and never boring.

I think one of the strengths of the film was that audiences and viewers seemed to have such low expectations and it's better then that. It is also why I feel this film wasn't a hit, but seems to be being discovered now.

Karl Urban's voice isn't as threatening as imagined it would be as Judge Dredd, but the more the film Plays the more he inhabits the character the ultimate bad ass as we never even see his face. Karl Urban's voice for Dredd is comparable to that of Clint Eastwood. The character of Judge Dredd is in fact partly based on Eastwood's character of Dirty Harry Callahan from the film Dirty Harry, while the initial look of the character was partly inspired by the original poster art depicting the David Carradine character of Frankenstein from Roger Corman's original Death Race 2000. In the comics, as a tribute to Eastwood's strong influence on the character, Judge Dredd lives in Rowdy Yates Block, which was the name of the character Eastwood played in the TV series Rawhide.

Olivia Thirlby is sexy, vulnerable yet also kick ass as his partner.

The only problem I really had with the film was the villain. Who proves to be really evil, but I really felt no menace from her, nor scary. She doesn't even personally seen dangerous. She threatens and has a lot of followers and hench-people do all the work. But rarely gets her hands dirty except for once where we learn how she gained power as a crime lord.

This film love slow motion action. That works well in small moments yet luckily doesn't get tiresome from over use. Like in the film EQUILIBRIUM. Which this film is better than and a nice companion film though that film is the one that brought out Gun-Fu. none of the action in the film feels repetitive. The original script for a Judge Dredd film was written back in the early 80s but was altered and changed so much it became the first Robocop film and the Dredd film was shelved.

I thought the ending was clever as well as the developments that ramp up the action and intrigue in the 3rd act.

Duncan Jones was offered the film, but turned it down, not because he didn't like the Alex Garland script (Jones said it was great), but because he had such a strong idea of what he wanted to do with a Dredd movie, that he felt he could not bring himself to take it on and not do it his way.

This is a definite addition to your collection. If you are an action fan and if you own a Blu-ray player and big screen as this is definitely a film made to test the limits of all those enhancements and truly ride out your system.

 Grade: B