I watched the new Dredd movie today. It was actually pretty good, though a bit more gory than I care for. Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby both were excellent, as were most of the bad guys. There were a few unnecessary extra gory deaths, but if I remember the comics right, that happened a fair amount in them.
The movie definitely had the right atmosphere. It was quite obvious that gangs were the day-to-day enforcers, but that Judges were feared (and kind of admired) by the general population. The tech was awesome (especially the pistols, which had voice commands to select ammo type).
I was kind of surprised that Karl Urban did not show his face even once. He always had his helmet on. I'd heard this before, but I really figured they'd find a way to have his helmet off for at least a little bit.
Olivia did a great job as a psychic. The movie is mainly about her first day on the job. I really liked how the movie dealt with her first field execution, and its affects on her. I won't go into detail, but it did not avoid the fact that she is judge, jury, and executioner, and she is aware of just what that means.
The bad guys were decent, though definitely more gangbanger punks and not some supervillain, like many comics movies would feature.
Overall, I recommend the movie, at least on DVD, for any gamer. Dredd fans will likely be pretty happy with this, as well. My only issue is that I think the ultraviolent deaths early on weren't really necessary. As the movie went on, most of it was toned down, but early on, be ready for some gross deaths and corpses.
I saw the movie in 2D. I really, really wish the studios would stop wasting money on 3D. Guess what, I will not watch a 3D movie. I don't need the headache. Sadly, the movie is apparently a flop, and the 3D is likely part of the reason. Overall, I'd give it a solid 7 out of 10.
2 comments:
I don't know the source material at all-but I did like the line where Dredd said "You can't convict on 99%." Or something like that-"execute" maybe??? Showed a measure of temperance with the whole Judge/Jury/Executioner concept.
Didn't quite get how the helmet screws with her psychic abilities when she wears it, but she can read Dredd when he's wearing his.
I figure the gory stuff was because of the 3D. But I agree with you on 3D. It's lame and usually a worse experience than 2D (I'm guessing-based on a couple of 3Ds I went to). We refuse to see 3D anymore too.
I don't think Anderson wears a helmet in the comics, either. I really hope this movie does fantastic on DVD. It deserves a sequel, unlike most of the trash that Hollywood is releasing lately.
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