MrDreknowsbest Movie Gallery: Dredd (2012)

"Judgement Is Coming"

PLOT:
In A Violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop teams with a rookie to take down a gang that deals the reality altering drug SLO-MO.

MY THOUGHTS

Dredd begins with Judge Dredd giving a backstory of Mega City and how things are in this futuristic city and how crime is at an all time how, which is normally typical in these type of movies, the opening chase scene with Dredd chasing down some gangsters and killing one of them while the others run into a nearby high rise called Peach Trees before Dredd can purse he is called back to base "The Chief Justice wants to see you".

Dredd returns and has a meeting with The Chief Justice about a trainee Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) where she hasn't passed the test to be a judge but because she is a powerful psychic the Chief Justice wants Dredd to take her out and see how she does in the field and give her an field evaluation.

One their way out for Anderson's training day, they get a call about three bodies that were skinned and dropped from higher levels of a high rise building, which leads Dredd back to Peach Trees, as Dredd and Anderson look over the crime scene they are told about the gang and gang leader Madeline Madrigal aka Ma Ma (Lena Headey) she and her gang are very ruthless and are also behind the SLO- Mo drug.

Dredd and Anderson come across a drug deal in an apartment where a few people are killed and one of Ma Ma drug dealers Kay (Wood Harris) is arrested, as they are leaving to take him to jail and interrogate him, Ma Ma has a computer geek junkie hack into the system and put the place on lock down and tells all off the gangs and residents that she wants the two judges dead and that if anybody is seen helping them she will kill them.

Ok I quite enjoy some aspects of this Dredd movie, for one they didn't hold back on the violence since that's what this movie was all about, with ruthless gangs, criminals and junkies, some of the slo mo scenes even though were obviously made for 3D didn't look to bad in regular 2D and actually added to my enjoyment of the movie.

When watching Dredd it feels like an hour and a half video game because of the way its presented which isn't a good thing nor a bad thing either.

I thought Karl Urban did good job playing Judge Dredd I mean his Dredd and Stallone's Dredd are very different, I know some people seemed to like this Dredd more just because he never takes off the helmet just like in the comic book, and I say to anybody If that's your sole reason for liking this movie over the original Judge Dredd movie Is crazy because the stories are completely different hence their was no need for Urban's Dredd to take off his helmet unlike Stallone but I don't want to get to much into that so I'll movie on.

The acting overall was good, my only problem was that Lena Headey wasn't given enough to do here even though she was the main villain she didn't get to really show just how bad she was and maybe have a better final scene between her and Dredd, because I liked her character in the fact that its rare to see a female as the main villain in these type of movies and I think the filmmakers should've went that extra mile and giving us that but all in all like I said she was very good nonetheless.

Olivia Thirlby was actually good too going from the young unsure of themself rookie to the hardened veteran by the end, maybe even a showdown between her and Ma-Ma would've been good because of the fact that her character was born in a similar project like Peach Trees, and could've giving a good different sides of the same coin type of rivalry between the women.

The video game aspect of the movie kinda makes it more of a fun time then if it was done differently but my only real problem with the movie was that it only took place in the Peach Trees building when there is alot of talk about Mega City and how violent it is I felt that they kinda dropped the ball there but maybe if a sequel is made then we'll get to see more of the city itself kinda like in the original Judge Dredd.

I must admit my feelings on this movie is completely different to what it was before I watched into, because I'm not really big on the whole remake thing but at the same time when its done like this where the filmmakers are playing with what made the original film great or good in its on right, I have no problem with that but at the same time if this movie had a different name and main character with the same plot would it be better received and not already have somewhat of a negative reaction from fans of the original movie(yes some folks like the original) instead of a cash in on the Judge Dredd name?

One final thing it would've been cool if they actually played La Roux song In For The Kill in the actual movie and not just in the trailer, I really hate when they do that, because that song works perfectly with this movie which is shown by it being used in the trailer

CAST

Karl Urban- Dredd