Yikes! After finally remembering this movie existed from my initial interest upon its release, I got the chance to watch Dredd. As a mindless action flick, it's good enough to sit through. It's moderately enjoyable from a cinematic point of view. Great color grade, set-pieces, art design, for the most part. But, I'm happy I didn't waste the price of a movie ticket. Amazingly, this film even comes up on a couple top scifi movies of ALL TIME. Sometimes my fellow geek culture brethren severely disappoint me.
Where to start? First off, how did the Judges' helmets get past the director's approval? The funky red X design not only looks goofy, but isn't practical for a job where seeing your environment clearly and in its entirety is paramount to staying alive. The bottom of the X comes right in front of the mid to upper field of vision. When Dredd asks Anderson why she forgot her helmet she should have replied, Because I like to see where I'm going. Oh, and speaking on helmets. Anderson said she doesn't wear it because it prevents her from reading minds. So why was she able to read through Dredd's helmet? Actually, why was it necessary to have a mutant in the story at all? Seemed entirely out of place.
Then there's the fact that they cast Karl Urban, a well known actor, as Dredd but your average movie goer wouldn't have known, SINCE HE NEVER TOOK OFF HIS HELMET. This isn't the first movie to commit this ridiculous mistake. Man in the Iron Mask comes to mind. That stated, He did do a fairly excellent portrayal of Judge Dredd. Though, how insulting was it that we, the audience, were expected not to realize how ridiculous it was that when his gun was almost out of ammo, that Dredd didn't pick up a couple discarded weapons from the dead baddies? I mean come on, it was bad enough that writing oversight resulting in him being shot with an ARMOR PIERCING round in the guts and literally walking away two minutes later. That exit wound should have been the size of a softball. Yet, when Anderson gets shot with a regular bullet in the stomach she's down for ten minutes.
What else? Oh, the camera eyed albino computer hacker. Why did it look like he was going to start crying in ABSOLUTELY EVER SCENE HE WAS IN? It's like the director told him his inspiration was that his secret lover, Baxter the Hamster, had been ratnapped by robot cats and would only be returned if Electro Eyes went outside to catch some rays and get a tan.
The movie was also predictable. Call 911. Next scene four Judges walk up to the building. Hmmm, I wonder if they are bad guys? Let's ask the Peachtree Command guy. Will you testify to that? Yes. Bhoooosh!!! And, thud.
Lastly, though not the last flaw of the film, there's the whole slo mo drug cinematic effect. The movie should have been ten minutes shorter. Yeah, hey, we get it. The narcotic makes the user see sparkly faded rainbow colors at a thousand fps. Literally, there should have only been four or five uses of this effect. The first time the drug is demonstrated. The scene with the two teenagers buying a hit. When the three guys were skinned and tossed. And, of course when Mama met that same doom. Actually, four, yeah, it could have been done in four. But, definitely no more than five.
I typically refrain from expressing my dissatisfaction of a movie, but this one receives entirely too much praise for being such a stinker. It almost qualifies to be in the category of movies that are so bad, they're good.
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