Dredd

America is an irradiated wasteland.
Within it lies a city.
800 million people living in the ruin of the old world.
Only one thing fighting for order in the chaos...

... Judges.

Judge Dredd is the most famous of the Judges and today he's been given an assignment: To take a rookie Judge out on the streets for an on the job evaluation.
What the pair come across though, is a city Megablock that is owned by one of the most ruthless criminal drug leaders in Mega City One, a woman called Ma-Ma... and with the arrest of one of Ma-Ma's men, she decides the best thing to do is wage an all out war against two Judges who have stepped onto her turf.


It's about time.

A genuinely heavy hitting, gory, violent and extremely well written screenplay that brings one of the finest character creations in history to the screen. And does it with style too.

Dredd is simply an actioner to be sure, but the backdrop of the futuristic Mega City One and the cramped corridores of Peach Trees Megablock make for a highly enjoyable thrill ride of gunplay and grizzly voiced one-liners from Karl Urban.
The overall writing is pretty simplistic too... it's a case of "here's the plot, now on with the action" kinda thing, but Dredd does offer a small handful of twists along the running time in terms of some of the characters and also never shies away from the original comicbooks in terms of style or substance.
The overall feel of the film is also straight forward. This is the setting, let's get on with it.

One very good thing though, is that anyone who isn't up on 2000AD Comics won't be lost with the film. The writing is good enough that even non readers will be able to follow it and even be able to enjoy the overall aura of the film.

There's even a brilliant tonal balance between the satire and violence that made the comics so well loved too.

One thing though is lack of robots and other gizmos involved in the comics, including changes to Dredd's Lawmaster Bike, but due to a low budget the movie had to make a few cuts here and there. It's forgivable though with the rest of the writing and screenplay, shooting and choreography being so well pieced together.


The acting is also spot on.

Karl Urban was pretty much born for this role.
In retrospect, Ahnuld has Terminator, Stallone has Rocky and Rambo, Vin Diesel has Riddick... Karl Urban is Dredd... he's deadpan, tough, unbending in his characterisation of everyone's beloved Judge and manages to capture the humour from behind his mask fantastically.
Olivia Thurlby plays rookie Judge Anderson. She's also bang on the money. More of an everyman for the movie and she's utilised as a kind of plot developer too due to a little twist in her character's abilities. She's also very likeable.

Lena Headley is also extremely good as Ma-Ma. She isn't used as much as I'd have liked, her screen presence should have been utilised more. Still though, when on screen she's extremely well developed in terms of character and threat.

Backup comes from Wood Harris and Domhall Gleeson...
... and there's a memorable showing from Langley Kirkwood, Edwin Perry, Karl Thaning and Michele Levin as a kind of Foursome.


The action and effects though are really what it's all about... and being a Dredd film, rightly so.
It's Gritty, hard edged, gory and doesn't shy from all the things that Hollywood frowns at.
The choreography and CG work combined with some of the most explosive gunfire scenes I've ever seen, gives Dredd an edge over most other modern actioners.

The movie also uses a number of slow motion shots too, especially with the effects of the drug called Slo-Mo used by the bad guys and it gives a wonderful visual to movie.

It's very hard to see that the movie was low budget. It's that well shot.


Mix to all that, a thumping soundtrack and some wonderfully atmospheric background tunes too, the movie really comes together.