Dredd is able to achieve some balance between action and story.
The new Dredd movie mixes story with action. Photo from Google Images
Ever wondered what Batman would be like if he used a gun? Well, he would be a lot like one of the Judges from Dredd, minus a fair amount of the gadgets.
The movie starts off with Judge Dredd, played by Karl Urban (Star Trek) speaking about Mega-City One and it’s surroundings. In the future portrayed by Dredd, the world is a bombed out irradiated wasteland, with the exception of the Mega-Cities. Grim dark future, huh? The only things upholding the law in the near anarchic city are the Judges. A Judge looks kind of like a cross between Batman and a Power Ranger, except they have a gun. Judges have the authority to sentence a criminal to time in an “iso-cube” or execute criminals on site; I guess they decided they had no time for any of this court case nonsense.
After learning about what a wonderfully magical place Mega-City One is, the movie cuts to Judge Dredd on a motorcycle chasing down some suspected criminals. Throughout the movie we never see much of Judge Dredd’s face, since he does not take off his helmet for the entirety of the movie. Even though very little emotion was shown in the movie, Karl Urban was still able to play well; besides, who needs emotion when you have swag? After dispensing justice on some criminals Dredd returns to the Hall of Justice and is assigned a rookie, played by Olivia Thrilby (Darkest Hour). The rookie had failed her tests to become a Judge. However, since she was a psychic, she was put to the test. The rookie was an orphan and was exposed to radiation; however, since this was based on a comic, radiation or toxic waste will yield superpowers instead of serious diseases. After getting on their bikes to respond to some deaths at one of the Mega-Blocks, Peach Trees (where most of the movie takes place), their magical adventure begins.
Before Dredd became the movie it is today, there were comics starring Judge Dredd called 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine. There was also a movie made in 1995, Judge Dredd and Dredd was played by Sylvester Stallone (Expendables 2). The 2000AD comic (where Judge Dredd and the setting for Dredd are both from) was first published in 1977 and was written by Peter Harris. On the other hand, the Judge Dredd Megazine was first published in 1990. Both comics can still be found on newsstands today.
Slow motion scenes were somewhat common, taking the point of view of someone on “slow-mo”, the drug used in the Dredd future. The slow motion scenes were able to bring out more “graphic-ness”, in one of the scenes a man is shot in the mouth and we get to see a bullet fly out of one of his cheeks in slow motion, so if the viewer passes out at the sight of blood, chances are they will not enjoy this movie. The movie is rated R for good reasons. However, not all of the slow motion scenes are of people being disfigured, so if one likes action movies but not incredibly graphic movies, then one may still enjoy this movie.
One incredibly minor thing about the movie I noticed was the fact that there didn’t seem to be any sources of food. The source of the Mega-City’s food was unexplained; however, at one point in the movie Dredd called for a “meatwagon” for “re-cyc,” so I guess there is some sort of Soilent Green stuff going on. This infinitesimally small part of the story going unexplained was one thing that I did not like. However, I did not let this distract me from the movie because this was such a small detail.
There were a few parts of the movie I was not entirely certain what was going to happen. One of these parts was when Dredd received a gunshot wound during a gunfight. To my surprise, Dredd survived. He just needed a band-aid and some dirt to rub in it. Another major part of the movie where I was not entirely sure what was going to happen was when Dredd and the antagonist had their final showdown. I was thinking about what Judge Dredd was going to do; both of the options he was presented with involved a great sacrifice. Instead of making a sacrifice, Dredd used some resourcefulness and was able to dish out a generous serving of justice to the antagonist.
Overall, this was a pretty good movie. Although I had expected a mindless shoot-‘em-up type of action movie, the movie actually had some sort of plot. The storyline for the movie was somewhat decent as well. If the viewers are looking for a plot-heavy movie with a strong story line, they may not like this movie because even though there is some plot, it is not very strong. I would recommend this movie to people who like gritty action movies or superhero-like movies, but don’t mind copious amounts of graphic violence.
Rating: ★★★
