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I have been looking forward to this movie for quite some time. After seeing the awesome trailer, it certainly wet my apettite to see more. But the big question is, 'Did the movie live up to the expectation of the trailer?' And the answer is 'YES'.
The biggest concern was could this movie get rid of the bad taste left in my mouth from the Stallone, and it did more than that, it wiped it from existance!
Dredd takes the rawnees of the character from the comic and puts it straight into the movie. Dredd has little emotion, nothing complex, and to be honest, on paper looks like a terrible idea for a movie with his lack of charcter depth, but he is a complete BAD-ASS. He runs around and blows stuff up and takes out the bad guys. His helmet stays on, and doesn't like to talk to much, he just does the talking with his gun.
The movie takes place in the future in a place called Mega City One. A city not much different to what it is like now, except much, much bigger, and with giant skyscraper buildings scattered around. It doesn't really look to futuristic, more like a broken, post-apocolyptic type setting. But it is very raw, and something we can associate with.
The Judges are the law, and pass out judgement on the streets. Judge Dredd seems to be a well respected Judge, from what we learn about him in the movie, which isn't much, but they have the authority to kill criminals on the spot. Karl Urban does a great job playing the character, and has the perfect voice to match the grittiness of Dredd.
His side kick is rookie Judge, Olivia Thirlby, who is a mutant with psychic abilities. she is a giant contrast to the emotionless Dredd, as she struggles to kill and seems to be lacking in confidence and assurance. BUt she seemed to have the character pretty much nailed down. He vulnerability does begin to fade as the film moves on and she exposed to the harsh realities of being a judge.
Si the story is Judges Dredd and rookie Anderson are called to one of the mega tower blocks to investigate three dead bodies. After they capture one of the culprits, the leader of the gang Ma-Ma locks down the building and says no-one is getting out until the Judges are killed. Dredd and Anderson must fight there way to the top of the building in order to take out Ma-Ma.
Ma-Ma is the sole distributor of a drug called Slo-Mo which slows down time to whoever takes it. This is used to display some awesome visual effects in the movie, especially with the use of 3D. And the 3D in general was great throughout the movie, probably one of the best 3D movies I have seen, particularly the scenes when the glas windows are blown up and shot through and the glass seems to come out of the screen.
This movie is ultra violent, and definately not for the faint of heart, it is quite gory at times and there is alot of blood, so if that is not your thing then it maybe best to avoid.
Overall though, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, it lived up to its hype and definately one I would see again. If action movies are your thing then I can't recommend this enough.
I would describe this as RoboCop meets Die Hard, with a little bit of The Warriors thrown in for good measure.