Dredd 3D.

Since I was doing documentary month, I had no hopes for this to be any good and even less hopes for people to know what this is, I went into Dredd 3D with low expectations and no pad and paper. I walked out the other side of the thing with a face aching from the smiles. This review will be rough because I have only my memory to go on, but Dredd 3D is so good, I feel the need to tell and everyone and do my best to tell everyone why. Enjoy!


Dredd is one of the most expensive British Productions ever...and it paid off. Make the trilogy happen! The critical response was overwhelmingly positive, especially for Urban's portrayal of Dredd. And did I like it, did I agree with the critics for once? Yep! I fucking loved it.

Dredd 3D is basically a fairly typical 2000AD story mixed with Children of Men. Despite lots of sci-fi fantasy elements for the most part the setting of Mega City One really isn't that far from home - not that we are there for long anyway, with a 45 Mil budget and being made by the British who don't have Mary Poppin's bag full of money like the American's do, the setting is quickly condensed to a much smaller scale, with 90% of the film taking place in a Mega Block - meaning most of the action takes place in small rooms and tight corridors. This gives them a chance to concentrate money on special effects and action because let's be honest, Dredd 3D has basically no story, despite a seemingly rich setting from a small info dump at the start it's basically about a rookie Judge teamed up with a legendary Judge who get trapped inside a tower block and have to fight their way out. There is little to no character development either, but that is okay because Dredd 3D is basically one long action sequence and an action sequence truly beautifully conceived. I mean I have no idea how they got away with most of this film, the body count is truly huge and nearly every death is truly brutal.

I suppose I need to 'warn you' that this isn't your typical multiplex movie. Although it was no real issue for me, for the more conventional cinemagoer, this film will probably be an...uncomfortable experience. There is little to no difference between the main villain Ma-Ma and Dredd himself, I mean he keeps going on about Law and in an extremely right-wing sense he is enforcing it, but his actions and her actions really aren't that far apart. Dredd is so far on the fringe of anti-hero that he is almost a villain, leading to some truly shocking, and brutal results. I know this is a reference to the comics and so on, but what works in a comic has been proven that it rarely works on the screen for a wide, general audience who aren't necessarly a fan of the original material. A lot of innocent people get caught in the middle of the violence and the movie showcases this. Even Anderson, the rookie at Dredd's side who starts off as our 'human avatar' into the world, initially hesitating before killing people and so on is by the end of the film, just as cold and badass as Dredd. Like I say, I have no real problems with this personally, but for Joe Bloggs he might be uncomfortable at the extreme levels of violence and distinct lack of black and white.

When I first heard Dredd 3D had 3D in the title meaning 3D was the focus...I died a little inside, as a person who wears glasses, sitting for two hours with two pairs of glasses on is not only annoying but can leave me with a killer headache, worse still when they just doubled the ticket price and halfed the brightness but here the 3D really works in the films favour. Huge set piece moments are built around the 3D, making it easy to slip into novelty but the 3D special effects are so consistent it never feels like a novelty, it feels like a part of the films style and aesthetic. Another truly awesome touch is the central drug 'Slow-Mo', that is right, they wrote slow motion into the actual story and words cannot sum up how truly fantastic these sequences are, they are never overplayed to make each one enjoyable without getting tiresome and the special effects are just so good. Everything looks great, lots of gore and a well realised aesthetic. The Stallone Movie looked daft, here everything looks right...despite the dark and gritty setting the Judges never look out of place and all the psychic powers and so on doesn't stand out either...it just works, really well.

Although there are a lot of changes to the original comicbook material, I don't feel any of the changes were for the worse. The comics are pretty crazy and they found a way to make it both dark and gritty...and make sense. Plus Karl Urban is truly awesome as Judge Dredd - he never takes off his helmet, he does the whole Dredd mouth chin thing, he just...gets the character, he is fucking badass.

If I was going to have any complaint of the film I guess it would be that there isn't really a lot of tension, both Dredd and Anderson are played up as badass to such extremes it almost becomes ridiculous just how high their body count grows by the end of the film, with both of them barely taking a scratch. And I think because of this it does lead the film to a slight anti-climax. In the third act Ma-Ma calls in her four corrupt Judges - we know Dredd is the best but we at least assume that to some level every Judge is an utter badass, so I was expecting this to be really where the main conflict of the piece would lie, I was almost shuddering in my seat for some big spectacular battle, Judge VS Judge, yes! But in the end the four enemy Judges barely make a whimper before going down, even when Dredd is finally shot, he just fixes it and carries on. I know this is probably a reference back to the comics, but it doesn't work quite as well in a film as it does in a comic. It is hard to care with how cool everything is, don't get me wrong, I was just pushing myself to make one complaint so I don't sound completely bias.

So do I recommend it? Yes, my God yes, any complaints I ever had with this movie just fell away with how fucking cool and gorgeous everything looked. And do yourself a favour, pay the extra money and see this in 3D. Don't wait for the DVD, films like this are what the cinema is made for, and my God I'm really thinking this is the best film of the year. Just wow.

Think About It!

-Locke