A film review by Craig J. Koban September 24, 2012 |
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DREDD 3D
Karl Urban: Judge Dredd / Olivia Thirlby: Anderson / Lena Headey: Ma-ma / Wood Harris: Kay
Directed by Pete Travis / Written by Alex Garland, based on the comic book series created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra |
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Did the world really need another JUDGE DREDD film? Not really.
I was neither a lover or hater of the original 1995 Danny Cannon
directed and Sylvester Stallone starring film adaptation of the 1977
created comic book series by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, but I will
concede that JUDGE DREDD was not a thrilling or memorable appropriation of
its graphic novel source material. This
new DREDD reboot – entitled rather simply DREDD 3D – does not
radically reinvent the wheel or is particularly groundbreaking as far as
action/sci-fi films are concerned, but it does something that it’s
bloated and overproduced film antecedent didn’t accomplish: it’s a
lean, mean, grungy, savagely ultra-violent, and unpretentious grindhouse
effort. DREDD seems to
– all throughout its remarkably nimble and exemplary paced 98 minutes
– take great pride in
segregating itself from the ‘95 Stallone-centric action vehicle.
This new Pete Travis (VANTAGE POINT)
directed homage to the character that first appeared in the British sci-fi
anthology 2000 A.D. seems to successfully break the shackles of the
inconsistent tones and more decidedly mediocre elements of the original
DREDD film outing, not to mention that it easily removes the sour taste
that Cannon’s film left in many viewer’s mouths.
I think that this is largely attributed to the way this new film
opts less for the large scale and obtrusive wow factor of over-indulgent
and high costing Hollywood fantasy film labors and champions more for the gritty and
visceral low-budget aesthetic of a, say, DISTRICT
9. DREDD 3D is more
agreeably old school and no-nonsense when it comes to its artery
spewing carnage and mayhem...and is better for it.
DREDD
3D is fairly limited when it comes to an actual plot, which seems to
have a very clear-cut similarity to this year’s THE RAID REDEMPTION in
terms of both containing story arcs involving law enforcement officers trying
to infiltrate a large scale apartment building being ruled over by despotic criminal scumbags. In
DREDD’s case, of course, its story – like the comic before it –
takes place in a massive continent-spanning ultra-metropolis that contains
800 million souls dubbed Mega City One, which resides outside of the rest
of the U.S. that has been reduced to an uninhabitable post-nuclear war
wasteland. With so much
human undesirables living in the city, rampant criminal activity is a fact
of life, which inevitably led to the creation of a
special Justice Department whose special op police officers – or
"Judges" –
are singularly made up of one-man (or woman) judge, jury, and executioners that have the ability
to shoot to kill with just about any reasonable grounds. One
judge, of course, is the title character, Dredd, played by Karl Urban (who
played McCoy in the recent STAR TREK reboot), who plays the largely
one-note character as he was original envisioned: as an unapologetically
one-note and merciless figure of brutal law dispensing justice.
Unlike the Stallone iteration, Urban’s Dredd – as was almost
always the case in the comic – never shows his actual face throughout
the film, which is covered (outside of his perpetually grimacing mouth and
five-o’clock shadow covered jaw line) with the mandatory mask and helmet
of the judge.
Most actors may not have appreciated playing a role with their
face obscured through the entirety of the film’s running time, but
Urban seems game and up to the task.
His Clint Eastwood-like growls and complete unwaveringness as a
man of few words and shocking lethality is faithful, I guess, to Dredd’s
comic origins; he’s not much of a well rounded character, but he is
nonetheless an intimidating symbol in the film. This
lovable anti-hero with an oftentimes-hysterical penchant for bloodletting
is teamed up with a new female rookie in the film, Anderson (played by
Olivia Thirlby; talk about atypical casting) who is a psychic that
spends most of the film with her judge helmet off, largely because her
abilities are stymied with it on, but mostly because it would cover the
face of an attractive actress. Dredd's
assignment is to assess her in the field during what looks like a routine raid of
the Peach Tree high rise, one of the city’s many unfathomably tall
skyscraper-tenements. Peach
Tree is ruled over by Ma-ma (a viciously scarred-up Lena Headey) that
oversees production of a drug called “slo-mo” that makes the user think
that time is passing at 1% of normal speed (whoa!).
Needless to say, she hates judges, and since she controls Peach
Tree, she fortifies the whole building with massive iron barricades and
traps Dredd and his rookie partner inside in hopes of killing them. For
a film that cost a remarkably low sum of just $45 million, DREDD 3D is far
more expensive and lavish looking than its funding lets on.
Shot in Cape Town, Africa, DREDD 3D mixes location shooting with
stunning production design and efficient usage of CGI augmentation to
create a sense of Mega City One’s vermin-riddled vastness and sense of
moral decay and corruption. It should be noted that the film was mostly shot with 3D
cameras (with some post-production upconversion) and the results are readily apparent in some of the film’s more
surprisingly immersive, hypnotic, and novel visual flourishes.
There are some perversely eerie and beautifully rendered shots that
try to visually represent the effects of slo-mo on its addicts in an
explosion of saturated and over-exposed colors and eye-popping high speed
photography. I
love it when films like DREDD 3D find new and imaginative ways to take
standard scenes and breath new creative life into them.
This is also one of the very rare exceptions where 3D actually enhances
a film’s overall look and feel. Complimenting
all of this is Paul Leonard Morgan’s bass-heavy techo-infused musical
score that gives the surreal visual palate an added sense of head-spinning
trippiness. Of
course, DREDD 3D is wall-to-wall with wanton violence, as Dredd and his
very capable new partner traverse up Ma-man’s 200-story building and
proceed to plough through her minions via hide and seek guerrilla tactics
like their were harmless flies. Part
of the absurd delight in the film is to witness the always sneering and
steadfastly confident Dredd proudly and dutifully massacre goons by the
dozens with his weapon that is niftily voice activated and can change
ammunition type with grunted verbal cues.
Even though Headey’s baddie is a nasty, vile, and oddly alluring
creation, she never really emerges as a solitaire threat to Dredd,
especially when they meet head-to-head at the film’s conclusion. The film’s other weakness is that it rarely taps into the comic’s dark and satiric humor, nor does it compellingly reflect on its themes of a totalitarian police force that rules over everyone with an oppressive hand. Yet, DREDD 3D is not really trying to be contemplative, ideas-driven sci-fi; rather, the film is more about its stylish and evocative visuals, it’s frequently enthralling intensity, and its disreputable level of hardcore gory action that’s presented with a straightforward deadpan relish. DREDD 3D makes no apologies for what it is and how well it accomplishes what’s it trying to be, nor do I apologize for liking and appreciating it as a brutally proficient piece of action/fantasy filmmaking. Court’s adjourned. |
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