Predicted Rating: 2 Stars
Directed by: Pete Travis (Vantage Point, End Game). Starring: Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings, Star Trek) and Olivia Thirlby (Juno, The Darkest Hour).
Dredd 3D takes place in the future (date unspecified so beware) where 800 million people live in a super city on the east coast of the US stretching from Boston to Washington DC (even though it was filmed in Johannesburg) as the rest of the country has been left inhabitable. Law and Order in Mega-City One is controlled by the Judges, acting as judge, jury and executioner. The story follows Dredd (Urban), who has been given the task or training the rookie Anderson (Thirlby), who is revealed to have powerful physic abilities. The Judges respond to a triple homicide at the 200 story mega structure known as Peach Trees, controlled by Ma-Ma and her drug mules. Ma-Ma catches drift of the Judges in the building and immediately shuts it down, preventing anyone from entering or exiting, and orders the assassination of the Judges. It is up to Dredd and Anderson to bring down the Ma-Ma clan and stop the supply of the deadly drug slo-mo.
First things first, this movie is bad-ass. It is action packed with very few moments to catch your breath. There is nothing better than throwing a whole people in a building, giving them guns and saying go. This is particularly evident in the Gatling gun scene (not as good as the one from Predator but it gives it a good crack) where an entire floor of the building, including its inhabitants, is destroyed. Getting past the violence, this film was actually surprisingly good. I was going in expecting a blood bath, which I got, but there were a few elements that surprised me. The first was when it revealed that Anderson had psychic abilities. I immediately thought, sigh, this is not X-Men, there is no way this could be good. However, it was moulded into the story extremely well. There was even a fantastic scene where Anderson gets into the head of one of the criminals, it is visually spectacular. The next is when Anderson "conveniently" reveals that she has left her helmet at home. Not so subtle guys but then you remember that Olivia Thirlby is ridiculously attractive and all is forgiven. Finally, at first the introduction of the corrupt Judges towards the end seemed out of place and unnecessary. Again, this ended up working quite well and tied the story together well.
I suppose the inevitable has been thrust upon us, I must compare this version to the original. Judge Dredd (1995) starred Sylvester Stallone and focuses on the story of Judge Dredd being framed for a crime he did not commit. I watched this film maybe 2 months ago and thought it was reasonable goof. The storyline was solid and there was that line delivered the only way Stallone knows, mumbled with no emotion. I am... the law! However one thing really ticked me off about the 1995 version, Rob bloody Schneider. He plays that damsel in distress character that we see so often in action films. There was only one problem, he is a bloke! This just makes him super annoying and in the end I didn't really care if he was killed. After watching the 2012 version, my opinion of the 1995 version decreased dramatically. The new film is far superior as it is how an action film should be, filled with action!
Following the fundamentals of movie making, i.e. plot, acting, character development and direction, Dredd 3D ticks almost all the boxes. The plot is fairly simple and almost non-existent but it really works for this movie. You can't really complain about the acting. Karl Urban was told to go and put on a dead pan performance that lacked any sort of emotion, which he did to perfection. I think it is time for me to talk in the same grizzly monotone voice all of the time. The direction of this movie was quite impressive. The second spot on my list of my favourite things of all time (yes this list can include anything that exists) is slow-motion. Slo-Mo is a pivotal aspect of the film, and the scenes involving it must be well directed to make it work. In the end they were. Some of them dragged out a little longer than they should of but overall they were well directed. The quality of direction was topped off with the scene I described above with Anderson getting in the criminals head. One thing that was not done well was the character development. It started off well the the introduction of Anderson with her abilities and her family, setting up some further explanation of her status. However, after maybe the first 20 minutes, it was completely forgotten about and many things were left unexplained.
In the end this was a decent film that surprised me. It is a solid action film but it is really one for the blokes again. There wasn't even an attempt to get Urban's shirt off to keep the ladies interested. However, I do recommend people go see this if you like some good old fashioned violence.
Overall Rating: Bad-ass bloodbath, 3.5 Stars
Next Time: Very quite period for decent movies till Christmas. This is 100% Twilight's fault. It will be a joyous occasion when it's release finishes as (I may eat my own words) it is the last instalment in what could be, wait, is most definitely the worst movie franchise of all time. I will probably go see Nitro Circus but whether you can review a movie of people hurting themselves, we can only wait and see. If not, Skyfall is out November 22, which should be awesome!
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