Dredd

Synopsis: In the future, Megacity One is a giant sprawling metropolis full of crime. Only the Judges, a police force where each member is Judge, Jury and Executioner, stand against the rising tide of crime. The most legendary of these Judges is Dredd (Karl Urban).

Anyone still pissed off about the moment that Sylvester Stallone removed the helmet in Danny Cannon’s campy 1995 travesty of an adaptation, Judge Dredd, will be very happy to hear that in Dredd the helmet stays on. It's a decision that speaks to the deliberate attempts to remain faithful to the comic, where Dredd’s face has never been shown. Equally so is Karl Urban’s performance, which channels a lot of Clint Eastwood’s gravelly growl from classics like Dirty Harry, a nice nod to Dredd’s “tough cop” lineage. The interesting thing is that while Cannon’s version was more faithful to the look, Dredd is far more faithful to the spirit of the comic. The new look of the Judges sees the more garish elements of the uniform giving way to a streamlined body armour design look. It’s a good choice, especially since a couple of judges running around in gold trim and green pants would look out of place in the downbeat world of the film.

So director Pete Travis has got the gritty tone right, and the character is pretty close to what you expect from the comic but what’s the film like? It’s pretty good fun. The basic plot is the traditional first-day-baptism-of-fire cop tale. Dredd is tasked with initiating a rookie named Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) for her first day in the field. Anderson nearly flunked out of the academy but was given a pass because she’s a talented psychic. Dredd is meant to evaluate her and decide if she has the right stuff or not. Off the bat there’s a bit of a problem, since you’d think a psychic could cheat her way through the tests pretty easily. But let’s ignore that, it’s the setup. When they investigate a triple murder in Peach Trees tower block, a giant tenement building run by Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), a vicious crime lord, everything goes to hell. When they arrest a witness who knows more than he’s saying, Ma-Ma locks down the entire building, leaving Dredd and Anderson to fight their way out. It’s not all that different to The Raid, except with lots more guns and a lot less martial arts.

The action is mostly well staged, with some stellar set-pieces, but the final assault is a bit underwhelming. Possibly because by this point Dredd has wiped out half the building’s population, but still, I felt a bit disappointed there wasn’t a slightly more impressive fight presented. And speaking of disappointment, the visual effect used to display the effects of the MacGuffin drug, Slo-Mo, didn’t gel with me. But that said, the first assault, depicted through the filter of that drug, is pretty special. Bullet hell in ultra slow motion may be an old trick now, but it’s never been bloodier. Gore hounds will adore this film.

All up, Dredd is violent, brutal and mostly entertaining if you don’t stop to think too much about whether it’s possible to get the jump on someone who can read your mind. Sci-fi action fans will have a lot of fun with this one.

 

 

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