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Dredd

Dredd: "I am the law."

Brutal, bloody, and surprisingly good, this new version of an adaptation of the Judge Dredd comic series comes alive with unexpectedly excellent performances and some gorgeous artistic visuals.

Set in the future after a nuclear apocalypse, the entirety of the United States lives in a single Mega-City with a population of about 800 million people. Within this city are structures known as Mega Blocks which house upwards of 70,000 people. The chaos of that kind of society is protected by a law enforcement agency that gives individuals the power to act as police, judge, jury, and even executioner. These Judges are feared, and extremely deadly.

We are immediately introduced to Dredd (Karl Urban), a one man army with a single expression (a menacing scowl), and a monotone gravelly voice. He sees only the law, and the rules that are the only thing keeping Mega-City One from devolving into chaos. He is tasked with evaluating Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) to see if she is worthy of becoming a judge. She is the first person who's mutation, inflicted from generations of living in the radiation-impacted outskirts of the city, is a genuine gift. This mutation is a pivotal aspect of the character and used intelligently throughout the plot instead of as a throwaway character trait. She seems timid at first, and Dredd seems disposed to think of her as a failure, especially given her poor performance during training. But her quiet strength, determination, and innate goodness make her both a likeable character and an intriguing one.

Dredd, on the other hand, is a little harder to warm up to, but he is ultimately an interesting character that is more than armor deep. Which is remarkable because we never see his full face, and he never deviates from his monotone voice or single expression. I have to give massive kudos to Karl Urban for somehow bringing depth to what is essentially a true action archetype. He doesn't grow as a character, so I'm not sure how or why he becomes compelling as the story goes along. Perhaps there is something that rings true in the single-minded way he acts. This consistency of motivation makes him understandable, even if we never really learn anything substantial about him.

Dredd and Anderson chose to investigate a particularly nasty triple homicide that traps them in a situation that should be impossible to escape from. Dragging along an unwilling prisoner (Wood Harris – Avon Barksdale from The Wire) they have to figure out why they are being assaulted, and try to somehow survive an increasingly deadly onslaught of enemies. Leading the assault is a despicable woman named Madelaine Madrigal, nicknamed Ma-ma (Lena Headey). She is a former prostitute turned crime-lord who has created a highly addictive drug called Slo-Mo, which slows the user's perception to 1% of normal time.

This drug provides some of the most impressive visuals of the movie. The transition to super slow motion is simply breathtaking, because the image gets heightened with a unique glimmer that makes any source of light or reflective surface sparkle. These beautiful images are often amidst the most brutal violence, conjuring up a conflict of emotions upon seeing the sheer beauty of that unspeakably bloody violence. When these glacially moving moments in time speed back up, we are thrown into the gritty truth of that violence, but somehow it is never jarring. I don't think I've seen slow-motion used to such amazing effect before, and I doubt it could be pulled off in quite the same way again.

The plot wasn't exactly complicated, but it didn't need to be. It had just enough depth to it that it served the structure of the movie very well. Plus they never stayed in a single place long enough for the audience to notice that there might be any deficiencies. It wasn't perfect, but it had a level of tension and brutality most mainstream Hollywood movies would shy away from, unless they're horror. This movie is not a remake of Judge Dredd, the Sly Stallone bomb from '95, but because of that abysmal movie, I went into Dredd with almost no expectations. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this film, and found myself thoroughly entertained.

3 out of 4 Sparkly droplets of blood splattered against the screen in slow motion.

Samantha M. Quinn spends most of her time in front of a computer typing away at one thing or another; when she has free time, she enjoys pretty much anything science fiction or fantasy-related.

8 comments:

  1. Sounds like it was a lot better than you expected. It also sounds like it might be a bit too bloody for me; I'm such a wuss these days. Terrific review, J.D.

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  2. I was already looking forward to this movie after seeing the trailer and after reading your review, I'm looking forward to a better representation of Dredd and erasing my memories of the Stallone version. It's not that it was totally bad, I liked the voice activated gun, but taking the helmet off...that's like Lucas' idiotic special edition version where Greedo shoots first.

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  3. You still get the voice activated gun if that helps. Some of the coolest moments were because of that gun in fact.

    Thanks for the comments!

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  4. Thanks J.D. That's good to know that they kept the voice activated gun.

    That's why in my previous post I mentioned that there were some good elements to the Sly film, it's just that they did most of the other bits wrong like taking the helmet off, for example. a

    And whoever thought it was a bright idea to give Dredd a plucky sidekick in the form of Rob Schneider should be shot. :D

    Going to see it tomorrow with some friends, looks like it's going to be a fun experience.

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  5. Yay, a nice review for Dredd! Oddly, it really is that good though. Was not expecting to love this as much as I do, but it's one of my top films of the year (I somehow seem to have seen it three times now and I'm still a little stunned by that..!).
    The script is deceptively simple but all the more effective for it, the violence is rendered utterly gorgeous and the characters don't always do what you expect, which is refreshing. The main character is basically a human Terminator, and strangely you still end up rooting for him - although this may be as much because the bad guys are spectacularly nasty. Also, for a brutal SF action film, it unusually has a couple of decently written female characters who don't make me want to throw things at the screen.

    And, yep, that gun is awesome :-)

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  6. I need to see this since Lena Headey is in the cast..yay Cersei..
    Also I supect you're right about it being better than the Stallone one..
    Nice review.
    Anna

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  7. That was BLEEPING!! great. :D

    Loved Karl Urban's portrayal of Dredd. The slo-mo scenes were pretty good and surreal. Loved the wall-to-wall action. Yeah for Judge Anderson and yeah for that awesome gun.

    I would watch a sequel. :)

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  8. I finally got round to seeing this movie last week, and all I can say is: zarjaz! I could also use ghafflebette, scrotnig, or any other Betelgeusian superlative to describe the vinglop hudsock this movie gave me. I've been a reader of 2000 AD since the age of ten and have been waiting for decades for a movie that does old stony face justice. This was probably that movie. For a start, it was reasonably faithful to the source material. No Dredd taking off his helmet or being interested in women. Funting Stallone! What a grexnix! It's just a shame Dredd failed to do big bucks stateside, so we probably won't be seeing a sequel. Unless, of course, DVD sales go through the roof. I hope so, as there are so many other excellent strips in 2000 AD just begging to be made: ABC Warriors, Button Man, Nemesis the Warlock, Nikolai Dante, etc. Quaequam blag! I'm getting excited just thinking about it. Great review, JD.

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