Dredd review

17 years after the dreddful Slyvester Stallone Judge Dredd movie, we finally see Judge Dredd return to the silverscreen in the much grittier and truer-to-its-comic Dredd.

And it is glorious.

I. AM. THE. LAW.

It’s a short movie, clocking in at 90 minutes, possibly due to its rather modest budget of 45 million USD. Still, this works to Dredd’s favour, in that the movie does not feel like one long dragged out action piece.

What Judge Dredd got wrong, Dredd gets it right: Mega-City One feels alive for one thing, in contrast to the very obviously set piece in the 1995 movie; Stallone’s Judge Dredd was far too heroic, and broke the one sacrilegious rule of removing his fucking helmet, way to go you fucking moron.

THERE WAS ONLY ONE RULE TO JUDGE DREDD'S HELMET!!
AND YOU BROKE IT @*&!^$@!*@$*$

Karl Urban sets the stage as the titular Judge Dredd, and goddamit, he is fucking awesome. Heck, his chin has more acting credibility than all the Twilight characters combined.

Look at that chin of justice!
LOOK AT IT!!!!

Some people made fun of the fact that the judge’s helmets are ridiculously huge, they may have a point, but that point disappeared pretty quickly when Karl Urban started kicking variable amounts of ass. Hey, at least his helmet looks realistically worn and has seen plenty of combat, unlike Stallone’s shiny, why-so-clean one.

Anyways…

The story is set in Mega-City One on what is known as Cursed Earth, where most of the rest of the world is devastated by nuclear war. 800 million citizens stuck in a huge metropolis with 17,000 crime cases reported each day, and only 6% are attended to.

Harsh.

The Lawmaster: I want one.

Judge Dredd is tasked to evaluate rookie Judge Anderson, who happens to be a powerful psychic but can even barely pass the tests to become a Judge. Anderson chose to investigate a triple murder case at the ironically-cutely-named block Peach Trees.

And then shit hits the fan.

The action in this movie is fucking awesome. It’s very simple and brutal, with pretty violent scene littered liberally throughout the movie. But, its justified for once: the criminals are extremely brutal and violent, thus Judges (the equivalent of the police) have to be judge, jury and executioner.

The special effects of this movie is simply beautiful, especially the effects of Slo-mo, the new drug that hit the streets that let users experience time at 1% normal speed, though it’s never stated whether there are any side effects.

Of course, sugar and coffee are considered controlled substances…so yea, this would be considered narcotics I guess.

The slow-motion scenes are a sight to behold, as bullets slowly hit bodies and leaving gaping flesh wounds. It’s especially beautiful in 3D, so I would highly recommend watching this in 3D.

Ooooo...pretty colorssss....

However, I won’t say that Dredd offers anything new or creative in terms of action choreography, but it’s all very entertaining nonetheless.

As I said earlier, Karl Urban’s Judge Dredd is excellent, it’s as if he was tailor made to play him: That grizzled and gruff voice, the chiselled chin and scowl. His deadpan reactions (except once, when faced with a triple-minigun barrage…well won’t you panic??), and utter love of understatements makes him the great anti-hero that he is supposed to be.

HOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHIT

Olivia Thirlby plays Judge Anderson, and well, wow, she is remarkably clean for the amount of fight and grit they went through. She starts off as unconfident and a little shaky at her first live/street run, but by the end of the movie, she has obviously matured and ready to take on the job.

Ooo Judge Anderson, I've been a bad boy Please judge me!!
Dibs.

It’s reflected best with Judge Dredd’s contrasting lines at the beginning and end of the movie: The first time they were going in for a drug bust, Dredd asks her “Are you ready? You don’t look ready”; towards the end, Dredd asks instead “Are you ready? You look ready.”

She even managed to impress Dredd with the one time she talked back and defend her decision in letting go the villain’s tech expert (the poor guy was tortured and scared into helping the villain, making him more of a victim than an accomplice).

Lena Headey plays Ma-ma (real name Madelaine Madrigal), the villain of this movie, a prostitute who killed her pimp and took over his crime businesses. 

Is it weird that I find her hot in a way? Just me??? Okay...
Dibs.

By the time the Judges reach her turf in Peach Trees, she was the feared kingpin and sole supplier of Slo-Mo. She is appropriately brutal enough, and does everything she can to stop Dredd’s party from bringing back one of her men, so that her operations won’t be revealed. That includes massacring hundreds, possibly thousands of civilians just for TWO Judges. Overkill much?

Let’s just say that her death was suitably karmic.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Too bad Dredd was not in IMAX 3D, now THAT would’ve made it fucking awesome.

My one complaint is that the movie loses a bit of the dark British humor that was prevalent in the comic, but i doubt newcomers will miss it.

FIST OF DREDD MOTHAFUCKA.

2012 is truly the year of the comic book movies: The Avengers was fucking awesome; The Dark Knight Rises was a suitably epic conclusion; The Amazing Spider-man was a great character-driven movie, with unfortunately glaring plot holes and a rather weak plot; and now we have Dredd, another fantastic addition.

The less said about Ghost Rider, the better.

Here’s hoping that they make a sequel to Dredd.

Perhaps we'll even see Judge Death?? *crosses fingers*