Set in the futuristic dystopia of Mega City One, the heavy-handed police force, called Judges, have become the entire legal system wrapped into one. They serve as judge, jury, and executioner in a single sitting. Dredd (Karl Urban) is a notoriously violent member of this fraternity. You can tell he’s a badass because he never takes off his helmet. With his psychic rookie partner, Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), in tow, Dredd sets out to take down a crime lord named Ma-Ma (Lena Heady). Ma-Ma controls the trade of a drug called Slo-Mo, and is sequestered in a fortified high-rise building. Dredd and Anderson must fight their way up hundreds of stories to get to their target.
I’m still excited to see this. It had better be as good as they say it is.
I’m still excited. I really hope Dredd does well so that we can have more and, possibly, get to see stories like Necropolis and Judgement Day come to film.
I’ve been waiting a long time for this movie. My hopes are raised even higher now that I know Dredd creator, John Wagner, has given his seal of approval for the movie.
I went up to London yesterday to see the completed Dredd film. I’ve had reservations about certain aspects of it, and made them plain to the team at DNA. All but one of them—a little quibble at the beginning—have been addressed. And what a lot they’ve added. Music is on the button. SFX are excellent. Filming is impressive. I’ve not seen a modern 3-D movie before but I like it. I found myself reaching out trying to touch things that were dancing before my eyes. Karl is a great Dredd and Olivia gets Anderson completely. This is Dredd as it should be done-true to character, visceral, unrelentingly violent (but not off-puttingly so). It will open, I believe, sometime in September. No doubt you’ll let me know what you think when you’ve seen it, but this has my recommendation.
Dredd opens September 21, 2012. I’m going to head down to Loveland to see it in a proper theater.
I have to agree with JudgeDredd creator, John Warner, the piece of crap that was the 1996 Judge Dredd movie was horrible. I had been excited when I found out Sylvester Stallone would be playing Dredd. Then, I saw the movie.
GB: How do you view the 1995 Sly Stallone film these days? And is that view any different than it was at the time of its release?
JW: My views haven’t changed, though apart from my initial viewing I haven’t seen the film since it came out. They told the wrong story — it didn’t have that much to do with Dredd the character as we know him. I don’t think Stallone was a bad Dredd, though it would have been better and lent him more cred if he hadn’t revealed his face. He was just Dredd in the wrong story. I envy their budget, though. Some of the CGI was very good, and the re-creations of the Angel Gang and the robot. The robot actually came from a Pat Mills story and didn’t belong in Dredd, but it looked good. If the plot had revolved around characters like them the film would have been more successful.
It will be interesting to see what this new movie will do with Dredd. I have to say, I’ll see it, but I’m not overly excited. I still reserve hope that it will be good.
