Judge, Jury, and All Around Fucking Awesome

by Scott Speegle

       

       Judge Dredd. Oh boy. The anomaly that keeps getting movie adaptions despite being a character seemingly so unfit for the Hollywood movie treatment. I've really dug Judge Dredd for awhile and while I've only recently dived back into the character, I definitely have a soft spot for the deadpan lawman. Going into this new movie reboot I've had feelings of both excitement and fear. I've been really excited to see how the serious take on the serious character plays out but also I've had nagging fears that this installment will be the final indicator that American audiences overall are just plain apathetic to Dredd on the whole.


Hit the jump to read whether my fears are founded or if the movie kicks mega ass. (Spoiler alert: it kicks mega ass)

      Jumping right in the 2012 (dir: Peter Travis, wri: Alex Garland) reboot of the film works on the premise that the only prerequisites for playing a good Dredd are looking cool with a gun and being a frowning expert. Karl Urban seems to have both nailed down tight.

pictured: a frown capable of enforcing laws all by itself. 

        The movie takes many great cues of what not to do from the first Judge Dredd film outing and a lot of good comes out of this. A lot. Dredd also makes the decision to open pretty cold. Not a lot of information or exposition is given as to Dredd's origin or even how the setting of Mega-City One came to be. This plays well in the broad sense of larger appeal. We don't dip into the story of Dredd being birthed as a clone or any of the business with his brother Rico; this version of Dredd seems not to even have a brother since the film begins in the year 2072 and the 2000 AD timeline has Dredd graduating the Academy around 2079. This serves the film well however as it shies away from heavy doses of information or origin digging and picks the story up with Dredd already being an established badass. Interesting to note is that the film makes a point of saying that the population of Mega-City One is around 800 million, this could be meant to establish this version of continuity as the pre Apocalypse War period and allude to that event which almost halves the city's population.

      Dredd is hyper violent, hyper stylized, and hyper serious. The thing about this absurd formula is that it plays really well to the actual character of Judge Dredd, who always functions at some kind of hyper-freqeuncy; whether it's in the realm of morality or his immediate response to his surrounding. Judge Dredd is always turned up to eleven and this film version takes that very much to heart. The narrative has our already established Dredd being charged with supervising rookie Judge Anderson (played by Olivia Thirlby), who has previously failed her examination for acceptance onto the force. The pair go on a routine investigation that leads them into the discovery a large production facility of 'slo-mo', a new drug that slows down the users perception of time.  Thirlby actually offers a lot of balance to our stoic antihero's presence and helps accentuate how experienced Dredd is. The two play well off of each other and the handling of Anderson as both a rookie Judge and a physic mutant is executed well.

The weirdest possible direction to go with a Juno sequel is exactly this.

      Dredd certainly does not shy away from violence and while this serves the character very well some of the scenes are downright jarring and unnecessary. A lot of this plays out while Dredd fights through hordes of gang members who are under the employ of Ma-Ma (Lena Headey). Headey, while not very interesting, is effective as Ma-Ma, a former prostitute turned ruthless gang leader. Some of the more absurd and over the top action plays out when Mama gets involved, like the scene where her gang members slaughter residents of the Peach Trees City Block with thousands of rounds of heavy artillery fire.

Also, she looks like this.

As much as I enjoyed Dredd I was somewhat disappointed by how claustrophobic most of the film feels. So much effort is spent establishing how massive and sprawling Mega-City One is, and the City Blocks within it, only to have most of the action play out in cramped hallways and tiny apartments. I found myself wanting more of the Lawmaster cycle action that is executed so well. Not much is developed in the sense of the hierarchy of Judges either as we only briefly see interactions between Dredd and Chief Judge Hershey.

Yes, absolutely so much yes.

         Much of the satire and commentary found in the source material are lost in this adaptation but it never really seems like a point of interest the film has to begin with. The movie can get a bit hammy and heavy handed but that's part of the fun of the character and there is a degree of restraint. The score however can drone at parts outside of the slo-mo sequences and doesn't do much to relieve some of the monotony that lies at the core of the plot. Now, I didn't see Dredd in 3-D since I have an aversion to things that make my brain hurt like I spent an hour hitting myself with a pipe, but I've heard that it actually serves to enhance the slo-mo scenes.
   
      Many exciting things are possible as future Dredd installments have been suggested. Getting into Dredd's origin, expanding upon his relationship with Judge Anderson, and the possibility of introducing Judge Death and the Dark Judges are things that would be very interesting to see in this hyper gritty manner. As cramped and claustrophobic as a large part of Dredd is, it is so fucking spot on aesthetically. Everything from how beautifully abysmal Mega-City One appears to Dredd's practical and more realistic adapted appearance all come together to give a representation of the character that does it justice. I honestly couldn't think of any better ways to show anything that was presented (save for one painful appearance of a thug clearly wearing a wig) as I watched the movie. The aesthetic contrast provided by the beautiful slo-mo scenes to the muted color palette of the rest of the film is a great mechanic and the slo-mo scenes never drag on too long.

     Overall I couldn't ask for a better beginning to what could be a really great series of adaptations. Coming out of this film I felt like I got just about everything I could've wanted going in and it was just refreshing to see the character treated reverently. Dredd is just as unforgiving and relentless as the title character and if nothing else packs an immense punch in super slick packaging. and I'm certainly in the camp of hoping Dredd pulls hard out of its mediocre opening and gets a bigger even more expansive sequel. If you want to know why Dredd IS the law, go see this movie.

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Scott Speegle is a vagrant resident of Mega-City One and likes to watch perps get blasted.