Dredd 3D Review

Outside the city walls is the Cursed Earth, the irradiated desert world, and inside is an equally unwelcoming urban rash of slum and decay, where concrete rules and kilometre tall tenements polka-dot the city. This city stretches from Boston to Washington DC and is home to over 800 million inhabitants. Welcome to Mega City One, where the only bulwark between civilisation and anarchy are the Judges, men and women who hold the power of judge, jury and executioner and mete out appropriate justice.

A new drug is flooding the streets of Mega City One, it’s called Slo-Mo and it causes whoever uses it to perceive time at 1% of its usual speed. It’s up to the Judges to stop it.

This film follows Judge Dredd (Karl Urban – Star Trek, LOTR) assessing the abilities of rookie Judge and mutant psychic, Anderson (Olivia Thirlby). There are 17,000 high level crimes a day in Mega City One and the Judges only have the resources to respond to 6%, so Anderson’s first test is to decide which emergency call to follow up and that’s how they find themselves at Peach Trees, a kilometre high slum tenement, home to 70,000 inhabitants and three skinned bodies that have been thrown from the top floor.

Cue the security shutters coming down and some truly mind blowing action because this tenement block is run by Ma-Ma (Lena Headey – Game Of Thrones, 300) an ex-prostitute (who bit off her pimp’s cock) turned crime lord who is responsible for the Slo-Mo epidemic sweeping the city and just happens to control Peach Trees.

I was nine when the first Judge Dredd movie came out. Due to getting to watch an 18 rated movie when I was only 9 (thank you irresponsible neighbours), I remembering enjoying it but it never really gripped me. Yeah I thought it looked cool and it had great guns and mutants but ultimately there was just too much waffle. Even then in my pre-pubescent days I knew that a movie about Judge Dredd shouldn’t focus on who the man is beneath the mask, but instead should focus on two things, fun and action.

And oh man, does Dredd 3D bring the fun and action.

From the outset this is a full on action spectacular. The breadth of the gun fights is fantastic, ranging from intense one on ones, to immense, all out, minigun-filled warfare. All the while the soundtrack from Paul Leonard-Morgan just keeps on pumping.

The look of Mega City One is incredible. The distant shots of the city reminded me of the ‘real’ world in The Matrix with the fields of pylons each peppered with comatose humans, and the feel of the city from the ground level was a gritty District 9 mix of technology and poverty. The direction is neat and crisp with cool shots and suggests that Pete Travis (who started by directing The Bill of all things) is set to become one of the hot new Hollywood directors. And the script from Alex (28 Days Later) Garland is suh-weet with some very cool one-liners. Yes in places it’s kind of cheesey but then again, so are the Dredd comics. He also aces the humour. Where the ‘95 film gave us Fergee (played by the ever awful Rob Schneider), Dredd gives a cool more subtle humour. Like after a gun fight in a mall, cleaning-bots come out and a PA announces to customers that the food court will re-open in ten minutes.

“A helmet can interfere with my psychic abilities.”
“A bullet might interfere with them more.”

Where this film really, totally excels is that it knows what it is and it runs with it. It isn’t a study in humanity, there is no brewing romance and there is no emotional revelation, what there is, is a hardcore movie that has an emotionless guy who believes in the law before anything and can hand out any kind of justice he deems fit. It takes the 18 certificate and wrings it.

But what about the 3D? I’m not a huge fan of 3D, as more often than not it darkens the film and leads to superfluous scenes jury-rigged in post-wrap for no other reason than to fling something at the screen and make you jump. I can hand on heart say that Dredd 3D has some of the most sublime 3D use I have ever seen. Rather than having things fire out at you, Travis uses the 3D to create depth to his shots. It’s subtle and works perfectly to make the film a far more beautiful thing than you might expect. There’s one scene towards the end where Dredd is stood with his Lawgiver (his awesome deployer of lethal justice) pointed at a badguy and you realise that this kind of film making is how 3D can avoid being just a gimmick. Clap clap clap Mr Travis.

The biggest question for me was, will Karl Urban cut it as the great Judge Dredd? And the answer is a resounding hell yeah he does. In some of the promo shots for Dredd I thought Urban looked a bit small and unintimidating but on screen he is the boss. His gruff growl, his precise, almost robotic movement and his unwavering, almost soulless defence of the law are spot on Dredd. In 1995 when Stallone garbled the immortal lines, ‘I am the law,’ it was lost and meant nothing. When Urban says it you find yourself thinking, ‘Holy Shit…’ He is the law.

And what about the chin you ask? The chin! With that one chin of his, Urban acts better than most people do with their entire body. You know the story of those Japanese guys who spend a lifetime dedicated to perfecting the movement of one limb on a shadow puppet? Whoever gets the chin should take tips from Urban because he nailed it. That chin tells you when he’s particularly annoyed, impressed or in thought. All hail the chin.

And finally, for those of you who are worried, YES he keeps his helmet on throughout the whole movie.

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