Review #558: 'Dredd' (2012)

In future America, life is grim. The metropolis Mega-City One is a blur of skyscrapers and slums, overrun completely by violent crime. The only thing that stands in the way are the Judges, a force of justice where the gun-wielding officers play the role of judge, jury and executioner. The most fearsome, Judge Dredd (Karl Urban), is given the task of breaking in a young rookie, Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a mutant psychic who failed the aptitude test to become a Judge, but still holds promise. Their first investigation, a triple homicide in which the victims were drugged and thrown from a tower block, leads them to Peach Trees, a notorious slum that is run by powerful drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey).

After the complete disaster of Sylvester Stallone's 1995 depiction of Dredd, it would require bold steps when coming to produce a re-imagining and hopefully diminish any memories of the previous film. Thankfully, director Pete Travis and actor Karl Urban have managed to create something close to the comic-book source - violent, dirty and over-the-top. The fact that Judge Dredd never removes his helmet requires an actor unconcerned about ego, and Urban, a seemingly humble and talented actor who has been mainly reduced to supporting roles (but proved himself to be a highly credible leading man in the excellent, little-seen thriller Out of the Blue (2006)) is perfect as the Judge - a stoic, bad-ass hero with questionable values and who is the embodiment of a future without hope.

The pessimistic, dystopian future the film creates is ripe for social and political observation, but the film sadly neglects this possibility in favour of something more simplistic and action-heavy. Sure, we want to see Dredd pumping bullets into generic baddies, but without any deeper characterisation or satire, it's difficult to get too involved amongst all the gore and drug abuse. It resorts to a basic idea of Dredd and Anderson being trapped in a closed tower-block, facing an onslaught from Ma-Ma and her cohorts, and if anything, pursues a video-game aesthetic rather than anything comic-book-like. Playing out very much like a futuristic Die Hard (1988), it certainly offers many opportunities for Dredd to use his Lawgiver gun, designed to recognise his palm only, and can be changed to fire in various ways, yet this approach does get slightly repetitive, and offers nothing original or particularly inventive in terms of action cinema.

Given it's low budget, the film certainly looks great. The special effects are suitably washed-out, and without that big-budget CGI sheen, give the film are earthier, grimy feel, similar in many ways to the great work done on District 9 (2009). The new drug on Mega-City One's streets that has Dredd and his fellow Judges on alert is known as Slo-Mo, named for the way it slows down the recipient's perception of time. This leads to some visually striking scenes and when watched in high definition, looks wonderful, especially the scene in which we meet Ma-Ma slumped in the bath, casually sucking in Slo-Mo as the smoke swirls around her. Sadly, Dredd's poor box-office will probably mean that there will be no sequel, but it is certainly enough to banish the memory of the 1995 version, and perhaps if DVD and Blu-Ray sales go well, we may yet see Urban don the famous helmet once again. And at least there's no Rob fucking Schneider.


Directed by: Pete Travis
Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey
Country: UK/USA/India

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie