DREDD 3D
Even
back during the glory days of my comic book collecting, I was never much of a
fan of “Judge Dredd”. I remember trying
the comic out once to see what all the fuss was about but its hard edge never
appealed to me. I was more used to
superhero comics that were full of fun such as “Spiderman” and “The X-Men”,
where as Judge Dredd was set in a much darker and violent world then those
other stories. Even though I knew little
about the character, I still went to see the cinematic abortion that was the
Sylvester Stallone version of “Judge Dredd” and as you may be able to tell I
did not think very highly of it.
Therefore when word came out that they were doing a new Judge Dredd
film, it barely piqued my interest. I
assumed it would be as bad as the previous film and thought it was destined for
failure. I did not follow any of its progress
while it was being made, and when the trailers were released, I didn’t even
bother to look at them. I literally had
no interest in the film at all and it wasn’t until I started hearing about how
the plot of the new “Dredd” film mirrored that of “The Raid” that I started to
take notice. I then began glancing
through a number of positive reviews and learnt that basically the whole crew
from the early Danny Boyle movies had made the film and I suddenly wanted to
watch “Dredd”.
Turns
out that this new version of Judge Dredd got it exactly right on every
level. While it is true that the film
does have almost the exact same plot as “The Raid” with two judges being
ambushed in a massive apartment block run and controlled by a drug lord who
wants them dead, but both films handle the material differently and both films
kick serious ass. The best thing about
this version of “Dredd” is that they have got the character of Judge Dredd (not
to mention his surroundings of Mega-City One) spot-on this time around. Karl Urban, who plays the title character,
obviously has very little ego because for the entirety of the film all we ever
see of him is his mouth because Judge Dredd never takes off his helmet. He plays the judge as rough and gruff as is
needed to stay true to his comic book roots and with an attitude that you
wouldn’t want to mess with him. Like the
comic book it is based on, the film is also very bloody and violent, but I
would never call it gratuitous. When
characters get shot and injured it is painful and very ugly, the filmmakers do
not use the violence to appear cool.
What is cool about the film is the visual representation of the “slow-mo”
drug that is taking over the streets of Mega-City One. In fact the whole film looks great thanks to
cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle’s expert lensing. Turns out that “Dredd 3D” was a fantastically
entertaining film that never outstays its welcome and was my biggest surprise
of 2012, and I would recommend it to everyone.
Sadly though, it’s massive failure at the box office may mean that this
is the last time we see Judge Dredd grace our screens which is a shame because
apparently writer Alex Garland has more stories thought up for our Judge in
hopes of a sequel and if they could get director Pete Travis back on board again,
I’m sure we would get another dose of awesomeness that is “Dredd” (they just
have to learn how to market the film better).
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