Dredd Movie Review

Dredd (2012)

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Written by: John Wagner  and Carlos Ezquerra ('Judge Dredd' created by), Alex Garland (screenplay by)
Directed by: Pete Travis
Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey, Wood Harris
Rated: R
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Plot
In a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury, and executioner, a cop teams with a trainee to take down a gang that deals a reality-altering drug.

Verdict
The dystopian setting provides an intriguing world for an on the rails action movie as a futuristic cop must shoot his way out of a fortified tower. There's not much past this movie other than that, and there doesn't need to be. This is a fast paced thrill ride as Dredd shoots his way through this movie.
Watch It.

Review
Alex Garland has written a lot of very good sci-fi movies including Sunshine, Annihilation, and Ex Machina. After watching The Raid, I had to watch this again as they're both similar in style. Reports are that he directed most of this movie.

This is certainly a much different and better movie than Judge Dredd of 1995. In a dystopian world cops are even more powerful, able to apprehend suspects and immediately execute a sentence including death. That seems to work well for a police state.

Karl Urban plays Judge Dredd

Dredd is the top cop that speaks mostly in one liners. Dredd (Karl Urban) is tasked with a high potential trainee, Anderson (Olivia Thirlby). They respond to a call at one of the many massive towers in this world. With the movie telling me how violent and criminal this world is, I'd expect to see fewer people out and about. While we see a slum, this world doesn't seem that bad based on what the movie has told us. This particular call goes bad because of course it would. Dredd and Anderson are trapped in a tower full of people that want to kill them. This movie is about survival. It's a great premise that doesn't take too long to get started.

SLO-MO drug in effect

This tower is the major supplied of SLO-MO, a drug that makes the brain feel like time has slowed down. That leads to a few really wild looking scenes and sequences as many people in the tower are using.

I wonder how much training Anderson got before going into the field. She knows the regulations, but it seems like this is her first day out. In a world this crazy, I'd expect more training. She follows along for a day in the life of Dredd which turns into them locked down in a tower with Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), an up and coming drug dealer. She controls the tower, and she won't lift lock down until the Judges are dead. That's the plot of this movie. They have to shoot their way through and out. Anderson's psychic abilities are a bit much. Urban's frown is so extreme I wonder if it's CGI or a prosthetic.

Olivia Thirlby plays Anderson

The setting makes this more interesting, and it's no surprise that in a world like this some cops are corrupt. I'm surprised that Dredd, who never seems overly optimistic, didn't expect something like that. Dredd must power through criminals and cops alike. Ma-Ma has the usual grand standing bad guy plan, and I like that Dredd cuts right through that.