{"id":3572,"date":"2012-07-12T13:49:49","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T19:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=3572"},"modified":"2012-07-12T13:49:49","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T19:49:49","slug":"dreed-empty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=3572","title":{"rendered":"Dreed Empty"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Remakes and reboots always seem to demand comparisons to their predecessors, but \u201cDredd\u201d evokes a slightly different relationship: What Zack Snyder\u2019s \u201cDawn of the Dead\u201d is to George Romero\u2019s original, Pete Travis\u2019 film is to, no, not Danny Cannon\u2019s 1995 film \u201cJudge Dredd,\u201d but Paul Verhoeven\u2019s \u201cRobocop.\u201d In both cases, gifted visual stylists took fertile, socially-conscious subject matter, pared out the cultural commentary, and left behind an engaging, if empty, cinematic experience. And for the most part, that works, although the abrupt ending of Travis\u2019 film only highlights its thematic vacuousness, while Snyder\u2019s bleak post-credits punchline successfully disguised it (at least at the time). Nevertheless, by far the better of the two cinematic interpretations of this particular character, \u201cDredd\u201d is a video game procedural tied to great visuals, but one without deeper substance to make its experience remotely meaningful.<\/p>\n

Karl Urban plays Judge Dredd, the most fearsome scowl in all of Mega-City One. After dispassionately \u201cjudging\u201d (that means kill) a trio of drugged-out criminals, Dredd is handed a babysitting job by his superior: evaluate a comely recruit named Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) whose tests are below par but whose psychic abilities make her too valuable to dismiss. On their first call, Dredd and Anderson respond to a triple homicide at Peach Trees, a housing project which has been overtaken by Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) as a production facility for a new drug called Slo-Mo. But after they apprehend one of her foot soldiers, Kay (Wood Harris), for questioning, Ma-Ma shuts down the building and unleashes its denizens on the two Judges, putting them in a deadly struggle to escape with their suspect \u2013 and their lives \u2013 intact.<\/p>\n

Fans of the character will be relieved to know that Dredd doesn\u2019t face the sort of deconstructionist, deep-rooted moral struggle he was confronted with in Cannon\u2019s film; from start to finish, the Judge retains his mostly implacable, gruff authority. Instead, screenwriter Alex Garland (\u201c28 Days Later,\u201d \u201cSunshine\u201d) gives him a soupcon of humanity \u2013 not to mention humor \u2013 and then tests it incrementally both via his relationship with Anderson and his totalitarian attitudes about delivering justice. What works best about the duo\u2019s dynamic is that Anderson isn\u2019t a feeble-minded rookie, but a formidable companion whose skill set is simply different than Dredd\u2019s. And when she introduces a few shades of grey into his black and white attitudes about crime and punishment, the transformation is rewardingly subtle.<\/p>\n

At the same time, his transformation is never reflected in the larger ideas the film attempts to examine \u2013 mostly because it doesn\u2019t seem like there are larger ideas. Anderson\u2019s passing mention of her upbringing in a housing project like Peach Trees notwithstanding, the movie never pauses to contextualize their judgments, nor to contemplate the value \u2013 or danger — of a totalitarian regime. When innocents are killed, they only matter as a justification for their killers\u2019 eventual, bloody death at the hands of the Judges. All of which is, if not fine, then at least intentional for the vast majority of the film\u2019s running time; \u201cDredd\u201d dares its target audience not to embrace the carnage, and alternates just enough between \u201cthat\u2019s horrible\u201d and \u201cthat\u2019s horribly awesome\u201d to keep viewers from seriously contemplating the glib amorality with which it depicts the (in)significance of human life.<\/p>\n

Perhaps understandably, it sounds like I really didn\u2019t like the film, but \u201cDredd\u201d mostly works on its own terms \u2013 even if they were probably written in crayon. Travis\u2019 direction, augmented by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (\u201c127 Hours\u201d), is remarkable and unique, lending the action a grisly but poetic feel; whether the Slo-Mo drug was the chicken or egg in the duo\u2019s development of their visual style, it creates a sort of foundation for the speed and texture of the rest of the film, and looks absolutely stunning every time it\u2019s used. Simultaneously, Travis and Mantle are liberal but judicious about the violence, never turning away from an opportunity to show Dredd or Anderson blow a hole in a perp, but also not quite doing it in a way that crosses a line from bleakly funny to just plain bleak.<\/p>\n

As Dredd, Urban either has a better character to play than Stallone did, or simply has a better grasp on what makes him tick, but the actor continues to distinguish himself as a versatile performer who turns mimicry into emotional meaning. Following his turn as Bones in J.J. A