Film review: Dredd

CONCEIVED by 2000AD writers John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra in the heyday of punk and the onslaught of Thatcherism, the cult Brit comic-book character Judge Dredd gets the movie he deserves with Dredd.

Dredd (18)

Directed by: PETE TRAVIS

Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey, Domhnall Gleeson

* * * *

Which is to say, the crypto-fascist super-cop finds himself in a gritty, independently minded and uncompromisingly violent action movie that eliminates any residual memories of Sylvester Stallone’s neutered attempt to turn the helmet-sporting anti-hero into another career-prolonging action dud. Where that 1995 effort was garish and silly, the new version – written by Alex Garland, directed by Pete Travis and produced by Andrew MacDonald’s DNA films (the company behind the Garland scripted/Danny Boyle-directed 28 Days Later) – has been made with seriousness of purpose, a lack of pretention and a clear understanding of and respect for the character.

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It helps that the relatively low-budget production (the reported $40 million price tag puts it in a similar bracket as the cult sci-fi film District 9) means it’s neither beholden to star casting nor merchandising tie-ins, enabling the production to cast a decent actor like Karl Urban (Star Trek, The Bourne Identity) as Dredd and let him get on with the business of making the character work on the big screen. He does this largely through his commanding physicality, his growling voice and, most importantly, his permanently downturned mouth, which nicely captures the inverted rictus grin that has made Judge Dredd such a visually striking comic-book character for more than 30 years.

What’s also pleasing about this film version, though, is that it forgoes the need for a tortuous origins story. Instead Garland and Travis capitalise on the easy-to-grasp nature of the character – a futuristic super-cop whose authority to act as judge, jury and executioner means he is the law – in order to throw us straight into the violent, dystopian world that he patrols. As fans of the comic will know, this world is a sprawling dystopian metropolis by the name of Mega City One, the scale of which is elegantly captured in the opening scenes by Oscar-winning cinematographer Anthony Dodd Mantel’s judicious use of CGI enhanced shots ofCape Town, the film’s primary production base.

Providing an audience entry point into this world is Olivia Thirlby as Cassandra, a rookie Judge assigned to Dredd for assessment to see if she’s cut out for a career as a law enforcer. Training Day-esque plot duly established, the film swiftly sets about delivering a meaty and contained action film (the running time is a succinct and satisfying 95 minutes), one imbued with some of the punky, gonzo energy that made Robocop and the first two Mad Max films such a blast.

That comes courtesy of a story that sees Dredd and Cassandra (who has mutant psychic powers that Dredd’s superiors are keen to see applied in the field) facing off against a vicious drugs cartel operating out of a 200-storey vertical slum run by the pitiless Ma-Ma (Lena Headey). Ma-Ma is a scar-faced sadist with a penchant for skinning those who interfere with the manufacture or distribution of her new product: a powerful hallucinogen known as Slo-Mo, which, true to its name, appears to slow down time for anyone under its influence.

Like the dream time in Inception and the virtual reality of The Matrix, the drug’s effects provide some narrative justification for the use of slow motion action and Travis puts these to good use to create some pretty out-there, point-of-view shots that give the action an intriguing aesthetic edge. One sequence in particular works brilliantly by cross-cutting regular speed shots of Dredd taking out a roomful of heavily armed, drug-guzzling gang members with incredibly detailed, super-slowed-down shots of bullets ripping apart their faces. It’s further proof that you won’t be seeing any Judge Dredd fast-food tie-ins anytime soon.

If there’s a downside to the hunt ‘em/kill ‘em plot that kicks into gear once Ma-Ma traps Dredd and Cassandra in her tower-block base of operations, though, it’s the superficial similarity it bears to The Raid. Siege plots, however, are nothing new and Dredd’s action is focused more on firepower than fighting prowess, so there’s enough to distinguish the two films without feeling like we’re being served up the same story in the space of a few months.

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Particularly useful in this last respect is Headey’s full-on performance as Ma-Ma. At a time when the kind of ass-kicking, perfectly made-up robo-babe that Kate Beckinsale usually plays is Hollywood’s idea of a strong female character in genre cinema, the Game of Thrones star’s menacing, unhinged, vanity-free performance makes her stand out even more. She’s a great comic-book movie villainess and she further helps the film feel like one of the more resilient and focused comic-book adaptations of late.