Dredd

[Lady Ocelli]

Slithor and I saw it and it's a lot better than the Stallone version.

[Movie-Brat]

Indeed it is. I thought it was great, Karlk Urban made for a great Dredd and Olivia Thirlby was great as Judge Anderson and she's one of the best female characters in fiction and Lena Headey was great Ma-Ma, a terrific villain.

[Lord Slithor]

Oh yeah, GREAT movie! Like Ocelli said, much better than the Stallone version. And like you said, Movie-Brat, Carl Urban nailed Dredd's character perfectly. Just a few other things, though, I wanted to point out...

It seems that the filmmakers sort-of "Nolanized" Judge Dredd; i.e. toning down the more outrageous aspects of the comic and making things more realistic. Mega-City One, for example, didn't look nearly as futuristic as it did in the comics. The Judges' uniforms also looked more realistic and functional (the right eagle shoulderpad, for example, isn't quite as promient). As did the Lawmaster bikes.

I chalk this up to the low budget mostly. But by and large it wasn't a deal-breaker for me. I'll forgive a lot of things in a movie or TV adaptation as long as it gets the tone right. And Dredd certainly got that right!

I should mention, though, that I've only read a small handful of the Dredd comics. Right now I'm reading Death Lives, which is a kind of "Best of" compilation of Judge Death-centric stories. And while everything is played straight in the comics, I noticed that there's also an element of satire to them as well, which was kind of missing in this movie. That and while the comics have their share of violence in them, it's not quite near the level of what's seen in this movie.

Also, while I liked the casting of Lena Headey as Ma-Ma, she really didn't make for a very memorable villain to me. She just seemed to really be there to set the plot in motion. She goes through the whole movie delivering her lines the same way and always wearing the exact same expression on her face (I keep thinking of MST3K's "Dull Surprise" skit). It's a shame, because having seen her playing characters like Queen Gorgo, Sarah Connor and Cersei Lannister, I know she's capable of doing much more. So to me she kind of felt wasted here.

Alex Garland, who wrote the screenplay (and also wrote 28 Days Later and Sunshine, and exec-produced 28 Weeks Later) said he'd like to make this the first of a trilogy; the second would be set primarily in the Cursed Earth, and the third would finally be about Judge Death and the other Dark Judges.

But considering how it did opening weekend here in the states, I don't know if he'll get that chance. It opened in 6th place here, below the movies End of Watch and House at the End of the Street. I understand, though that it opened a few months earlier in the UK, where I'm almost certain it did better, as Judge Dredd is more well-known and popular there. So hopefully we'll see.

But yeah, it was a great movie. Hopefully it'll get better word-of-mouth as it goes on.

[Movie-Brat]

It's not bombing because of competition, rather Lionsgate was just being lazy with the marketing. Hell, The Hunger Games survived because of an eastablished fanbase and the studio basically hired a secoind party to do the marketing for them. In other words, Lionsgate killed whatever potential Dredd had as a franchise.

And I actually I argue there was some form of satire but it's subtle like the scene where Dredd beats up one of Ma-Ma's cronies and in the background is the American flag.

As for Mega-City One and the costumes, it's probably my favorite depiction of the future. The filmmakers got creative with the low budget by making the future a bit closer to ours. And I think the costumes work great in this movie because when you look at the costumes in the Stallone movie, everyone looked like a cosplayer but with more expensive costumes. The ashtetic just doesn't quite work as live action and really only films like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World or Sin City can get away with this sort of thing because for the former, it's purposefully over the top and with the latter, it was an artistic choice and the technology was there for it.

The changes work in Dredd since the changes in the visual ashetic fits.

[KorbenDallas]

Originally Posted by Lord Slithor

Oh yeah, GREAT movie! Like Ocelli said, much better than the Stallone version. And like you said, Movie-Brat, Carl Urban nailed Dredd's character perfectly. Just a few other things, though, I wanted to point out...

It seems that the filmmakers sort-of "Nolanized" Judge Dredd; i.e. toning down the more outrageous aspects of the comic and making things more realistic. Mega-City One, for example, didn't look nearly as futuristic as it did in the comics. The Judges' uniforms also looked more realistic and functional (the right eagle shoulderpad, for example, isn't quite as promient). As did the Lawmaster bikes.

I chalk this up to the low budget mostly. But by and large it wasn't a deal-breaker for me. I'll forgive a lot of things in a movie or TV adaptation as long as it gets the tone right. And Dredd certainly got that right!

I should mention, though, that I've only read a small handful of the Dredd comics. Right now I'm reading Death Lives, which is a kind of "Best of" compilation of Judge Death-centric stories. And while everything is played straight in the comics, I noticed that there's also an element of satire to them as well, which was kind of missing in this movie. That and while the comics have their share of violence in them, it's not quite near the level of what's seen in this movie.

Also, while I liked the casting of Lena Headey as Ma-Ma, she really didn't make for a very memorable villain to me. She just seemed to really be there to set the plot in motion. She goes through the whole movie delivering her lines the same way and always wearing the exact same expression on her face (I keep thinking of MST3K's "Dull Surprise" skit). It's a shame, because having seen her playing characters like Queen Gorgo, Sarah Connor and Cersei Lannister, I know she's capable of doing much more. So to me she kind of felt wasted here.

Alex Garland, who wrote the screenplay (and also wrote 28 Days Later and Sunshine, and exec-produced 28 Weeks Later) said he'd like to make this the first of a trilogy; the second would be set primarily in the Cursed Earth, and the third would finally be about Judge Death and the other Dark Judges.

But considering how it did opening weekend here in the states, I don't know if he'll get that chance. It opened in 6th place here, below the movies End of Watch and House at the End of the Street. I understand, though that it opened a few months earlier in the UK, where I'm almost certain it did better, as Judge Dredd is more well-known and popular there. So hopefully we'll see.

But yeah, it was a great movie. Hopefully it'll get better word-of-mouth as it goes on.

I agree with everything, i saw this movie twice in theaters and i grew up with the comics since i was 4 when i got the first issue at one of my former city's comic stores and loved it as i collected every issue i have the trade paperbacks now and i do own the crossovers of him with Batman including ones where he fights Aliens and Predators. The Stallone movie is a guilty pleasure but this new one was truthful to the comics and probably rivals the major 3 comic films this year.

[19Tabularasa94]

KIWI PRIDE!!!! I haven't watched Dredd, but knowing that Karl Urban is from NZ is a great thought for me.