Judge Dredd is a relatively unknown comic book character, in fact most people are more familiar with the awful Stallone movie from 1995. If there's anyway to rinse that 17 year old bad taste from your mouth,
Dredd 3D is it!
Karl Urban (
The Lord of the Rings,
Star Trek) plays Judge Dredd and is perfect. He scowls the entire movie and contorts his face to constantly look like one tough, mean S.O.B.! Also, he wears the Judge helmet the entire movie! Joining him is Olivia Thirlby (
The Darkest Hour) as rookie Judge Anderson and Lena Headly ("Game of Thrones") as the deadly Ma-Ma.
The story is very much like
Die Hard or
The Raid: Redemption in that it is mostly contained inside one location. Judges Dredd and Anderson are called to investigate a triple homicide at the Peach Trees Tower deep within the heart of Mega-City One. When they get there, the Judges quickly realize that the deadly Ma-Ma controls the tower and locks it down. The Judges must traverse the 200 floors of killers to get to Ma-Ma and stop her.
Saying that Dredd is bloody and violent would be an understatement. The violence doesn't escalate, it's consistent and constant from the very first minute, which is how Judge Dredd should be! This is definitely a "Hard R" rated film.
This film also gives a reason to show awesome action sequences in slow motion. A new drug has hit Mega-City One called Slo-Mo, which slows your brain down to 1% of normal speed. There are several great scenes that utilize this effect in the film. I'm usually not a huge fan of 3D, but I really thought it was awesome in this movie, especially during these scenes.
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| Slo-Mo Shot |
Dredd 3D is an exciting, action packed, and faithful adaptation of the cult comic! Director Pete Travis (Vantage Point) and writer Alex Garland (28 Days Later) did an amazing job interpreting the character and the tone from the pages to the screen.
It's disappointing that this had a less than spectacular opening weekend, when so many terrible films make a ton of money at the box office. A great action film like this deserves to do well at the box office, so I highly recommend going to see this violent, bloody, and fun film (in 3D if you can).
I would love to see a sequel to this opening up the setting a bit and seeing other places in Mega-City One. The current goal set by Pete Travis is $50 Million in North America for him to justify making a sequel. Hey, if they made a sequel to Ghost Rider, Dredd definitely deserves a sequel!
Dredd 3D gets a well-deserved 10 out of 10 Judges!
RAWR(for more)
