For the hardcore comic book fans, DREDD is certainly way better than the 1995 version of the popular British character who spawned from the pages of 2000 AD. No sans helmet, no campy tone, no Rob Schneider. Personally, I have a fondness of that glorious misfire, something to be watched when time is slow and spirits need lifting. If you need some heavy doses of copious gore and spilled blood, however, stick to the present because DREDD is a balls to the wall orchestra of ultra-violence. Running at a nice fine clip of 95 minutes, the film is a hardcore breeze through a day in the life of the one man judge, jury, and executioner.
When describing the plot, most have acted like dutiful children, pointing heavily at something until the bad thing is given the proper response. They are correct in the assertion that DREDD is a blended smoothie of TRAINING DAY and this year's sleeper THE RAID: REDEMPTION but the latter can be ruled out as highly coincidental and a case of awkward timing. The titled character, played by a gruff, nail-eating Karl Urban, is one of the top military/police officers, i.e. "Judges", in a huge, grimy post-apocalyptic metropolitan dubbed Mega-City One. He has no time for medals and handshakes because he always needs to put away the scum and lowly street urchins, preferably with lodged bullets and a ride on the "meat wagons". He is asked by one of his chiefs, a calm female individual instead of the usual stressed-out sort, to test out a possible candidate and see if she is the one of five to survive the job. Her name is Anderson, played by the ever-lovely Olivia Thirlby, an individual who has failed the qualifying tests but gets a special push through due to being a mutant, having powerful psychic abilities, and being one of her genetic kind to be very pretty and not have three arms or other types of defects. He takes her to a drug-war related massacre at Peach Trees, one of the city's huge 200 feet tall towers, only to end up locked out from leaving with an interrogation-ready criminal. This guy, dubbed Kay, is one of the top cronies of Ma-Ma, the diabolic ruler of Peach Trees and the lord over a new popular drug called Slo-Mo, which makes the brain feel like it is moving at 1% of real-time. Like a good janitor, Dredd needs to clean up all of the floors before he can go after the queen, and he best not miss.
The character of Judge Dredd is a fascinating subject and he is shown just that here under the direction of Pete Travis. He is the future version of DIRTY HARRY but with the fascism driven way up. As the audience, you want to see him utterly eviscerate his opponents, usually with his standard-issued police handgun and one of its many, alternating bullets such as armor-piercing or incendiary. Travis and screenwriter Alex Garland, on the other hand, want to stir the moral debate within yourself. Dredd does stack up a high body count but his muted expression, enhanced by the absolute refusal to see his face, cold turkeys you from whooping and hollering. There is a highlighted scene where Dredd just stands and watches as a group of gang members succumb to his naplam-like attack, as the flames reflect off his visor. He even indulges on the preference of execution the villains first use in the picture, choosing to occasionally railing kill a thug and see them fall in ever increasing heights. By the time he has no qualms pointing a gun at armed kids, you know that ambiguity is completely in the air. Though he is vicious and ruthless, the script does soften him just a bit at times, giving the viewer a welcome breath of relief or a gratifying dry laugh.
Though the characters are very interesting, such as how Judge Anderson is a strong and positive female character even when the chips are done, probably the most enchanting thing featured on the screen is the lush story of the backgrounds. It may look like a crusty, completely dilapidated pile of smog-covered metal on the outside, but Peach Trees has an engaging interior look all the while tons of bullets are flying. Other than this being the new civilized lifestyle after nuclear warfare, you may question why 750,000 people would openly choose to live in slum luxury with a series of stairs that even professional marathon runners would stay away from. As executed by the creators, the answer lies in the fact that the mega tower is a colossal shopping mall. The bottom floor is the food court, main street, and red-light district all combined. There is an severely understaffed medical hospital, consisting of one unfortunate soul. A later shootout takes place in front of a beaten down movie theater, advertising goofy looking action fare. Why should these people ever go outside when everything is provided for in one location?
If acting is the reason to see a film, Karl Urban most definitely wins the argument. Fans will be cheering him as the perfect Dredd; his near Bale-Batman meets Eastwood voice may throw you off at first but it feels like an organic voice for the character. Urban hits the right subtle mood changes and skillfully looks like an absolute badass. Olivia Thirbly is also as good, focused more on internal acting than facial expressions. She even has the best scene in the entire film, where she jacks into the mind of Kay and devilishly abuses it, always in control. There's more subtlety to go around to Lena Headey as Ma-Ma. Acclaimed right now for her Lady MacBeth role on Game of Thrones, her former prostitute turned gang-leader is one smart cookie, wisely choosing the best courses of action given the circumstances Dredd unleashes on her crew. Headey doesn't let the scar makeup do all the talking, deciding to rather talk slow and in a hushed evil tone.
You may have already looked at the rating and asked what would keep DREDD from being a true sci-fi action classic? The performances are good, the overall direction are good, the special and 3D effects in fact are even good. What else would I need? That would be grandeur, an aspect where good becomes great. It loves its artfully done kills but something still feels a little off-putting about them. The whole movie tastes more like a television pilot rather than a comic book event and new franchise starter. The plot is brilliantly simple yet it is too easy to see what comes next. It's a very well made B-movie with intriguing ideas but it is unable to hit the A range at this time. Maybe with age, not to mention repeated viewings on the Syfy and Spike channels, this film will beat the rap and get away scot-free.
FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5
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