{"id":4415,"date":"2012-09-10T13:06:16","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T19:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=4415"},"modified":"2012-09-10T13:06:16","modified_gmt":"2012-09-10T19:06:16","slug":"dredd-3d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=4415","title":{"rendered":"Dredd 3D"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Film festivals and comic book movies typically don\u2019t mix. Movies based on popular paneled heroes generally get their start at conventions or through marketing departments. Yet, thanks to TIFF\u2019s Midnight Madness program a certain gruff helmet sporting antihero from the long running British comic book series 2000 A.D. is getting the red carpet film festival treatment. That\u2019s right Judge Dredd has returned to the big screen in the hopes of erasing all the painful memories of Sylvester Stallone and Rob Schneider ruining the image of the darkly satirical and viciously violent character with one of the worst examples of overblown 90s blockbuster tripe. Finally put into the hands of filmmakers who are fans of the blood-soaked pulpy roots, Dredd 3D manages to get the tone and style of John Wagner\u2019s uniquely twisted world right. It\u2019s not perfect, but it is an appropriately nasty blast of B-movie thrills that effectively reintroduces Judge Dredd on the big screen and would be a welcome starting point for a franchise. Hit the jump to find out why. <\/p>\n

For those who have missed out on Judge Dredd\u2019s 35-year run in comics, here are the basics. The film is set in a dystopian future defined by several Mega Cities, sprawling metropolises overpopulated by millions and overrun with crime. With the police force only able to handle roughly 6 percent of the reported crimes in a given day, the rules of law have changed slightly. There are no police, there are only patrolling Street Judges who have the power to be police, judge, jury, and executioner all in one. Judge Dredd is the gruff, almost fascist poster boy for the force. He\u2019s a man all to happy to dole out justice in a hail of bullets. The film sees Karl Urban\u2019s deadpan growling take on the character partnered up with Olivia Thirby\u2019s rookie Judge Anderson (a psychic, much like the comics), supervising and evaluating her first day on the job. Dredd lets Anderson pick their first crime and she chooses a disgusting triple homicide at one of the massive high-rises\/contained ghettos in Mega-City.<\/p>\n

Three bodies were skinned and tossed from the top floor of the mile-high building. They were killed for crossing the building\u2019s resident crimelord\/drug manufacturer Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), a former prostitute-turned sadistic killer. They arrive at the building and at this point the movie unfortunately turns into an unplanned remake of The Raid. Ma-Ma locks down the building and pits her entire army against the two judges, who are forced to kill their way to the top floor. Now, it\u2019s worth noting that Judge Dredd superfan screenwriter Alex Garland (28 Days L,ater) has been nursing along this pet project for years. The film went into production simultaneously with The Raid and in no way planned on ripping off that delightfully batshit insane instant action classic. Sadly, when you arrive in second place on a concept like this, there\u2019s no way to make excuses to viewers. You can\u2019t help but compare Dredd 3D to The Raid and much like every other contemporary action movie, it just can\u2019t live up to Gareth Evans\u2019 incredible (and incredibly bloody) accomplishment.<\/p>\n

Thankfully the film does at least succeed on it\u2019s own terms and The Raid formula is about as efficient as action machines get. Writer\/producer Garland\u2019s love for the Judge Dredd world is palpable. Even though he didn\u2019t directly adapt any of the legion of stories in the 2000 A.D. back catalogue, he creates something that feels like it belongs in the cannon. His Dredd is militant force of violent justice and Karl Urban (who luckily resists the temptation to ever remove his iconic helmet) delivers his lines in a Clint Eastwood style growl with a dark sense of humor that nails the character as intended. When he announces \u201cI am the law,\u201d it\u2019s an audience-rousing moment of bad-assitude, rather than the youtube clip ready campy embarrassment of Sylvester Stallone\u2019s misguided rendition. The future world in the 2000 AD house style (which heavily influenced Ridley Scott when he was reinventing the Hollywood sci-fi aesthetic at the start of his career) is recreated well and the action is just as dirty and bloody as longtime fans crave. This is a hard-R action movie that splashes blood and explodes heads like the genre used to. It\u2019s nice to see some studio support for that sadly abandoned form of sleazy B-movie thrills. <\/p>\n

The movie isn\u2019t all perfect of course. The dark satire that often defines the comics is sadly absent. Anderson\u2019s psychic powers are awkwardly used only when script advancement needs to be sped up and they seem non-existent when that enhances the drama. Some of the performances are a little cardboard and while director Pete Travis frames some gorgeous 3D imagery, his car-commercial aesthetic is determined more by a barrage of beauty shots than the carefully constructed action rhythms this type of flick demands. The movie is certainly flawed, but at least it finally presents Judge Dredd as the creators intended. Dredd 3D is a strong introduction to the iconic character for unfamiliar audiences and effectively brings the tone of hard boiled violent adult comic books to the big screen. Hopefully it will be successful enough to launch a few sequels that will allow Garland to further explore this world and maybe even adapt one of the classic Judge Dredd storylines (The Apocalypse Wars in particular could be one hell of a movie if Lionsgate had a few hundred million dollars to spare on the project). But even if that doesn\u2019t happen, chances are Dredd 3D will at least become a guilty pleasure favorite for fans of the original comics and bloody action movies unafraid to dive into the realm of delightful bad taste.