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#680 - Dredd
Pete Travis, 2012
In a futuristic dystopia where the law is enforced by elite police officers known as "judges", one such judge and his trainee must fight their way through a skyscraper full of violent criminals.
Given how the last attempt to bring dystopian anti-hero Judge Dredd to the silver screen ended up being the disastrous 1995 Sylvester Stallone vehicle, it's not like there was an especially high bar to clear when it came to delivering a follow-up. Surprisingly enough, 2012's Dredd features a far less convoluted plot than the framed-for-murder plot of the Stallone film, instead settling on a very simple variation on the old Die Hard plot. It begins by establishing the ruined world of the future, which extends to a single grimy and densely-populated mega-city surrounded on all sides by inhospitable post-nuclear wasteland. The crime inside the mega-city is so extreme in terms of frequency and severity that any law is kept by an organisation of enforcers known as "judges", who must make snap-decisions when it comes to dispensing justice - though this can extend to imprisoning people, a lot of the time it simply involves an immediate death sentence. After introducing the eponymous judge (Karl Urban) as he relentlessly pursues a small-time gang of crooks, the plot begins when he is put in charge of carrying out the final assessment of a judge-in-training (Olivia Thirlby) who happens to have psychic powers. They then proceed to investigate a crime scene involving three dead bodies on the ground floor of a gigantic residential skyscraper. When the judges arrest their prime suspect (Wood Harris) and attempt to escort him out of the building, the ruthless crime boss (Lena Headey) who rules over the building decides to lock everything down and trap the judges inside. This is all the plot the film needs as the judges have to not only survive but also bring the villains to justice.
Making a good B-movie is a difficult thing to pull off in this day and age, with many films attempting to couch things in self-awareness as a defence mechanism against a jaded audience (though it's not like reveling in their own silliness is an automatic guarantee of enjoyment either). Dredd strikes the right balance in trying to do right by its cult source material without falling into self-parody or taking itself too seriously. It features a good odd couple by putting together Urban's gruff veteran with Thirlby's wide-eyed rookie, with the former showcasing personality without compromising his hardened exterior while the latter displays vulnerability and qualms about her role without undermining her ability to carry out said role. Headey makes for a great villain that is able to arrange all sorts of clever (or just plain brutal) countermeasures against any enemies she encounters, giving off an intimidating aura that does not leave any doubt as to how she managed to easily take over a skyscraper filled with violent gangs. Harris may spend most of his screen-time as the judges' surly hostage, but his role as a calmly sadistic henchman is played for both discomfort and dark laughs (often in quick succession). There aren't too many other notable presences in the film (save perhaps Domnhall Gleeson as the villains' visibly traumatised tech genius), but this isn't exactly a film that demands great characterisation so much as dependable characterisation, especially when certain twists are added in to keep things interesting.
The plot is straightforward enough so as to not really require too much comment, but it's definitely impressive as to how quickly and efficiently it is told over the course of a lean 90 minutes. There's quite a lot of world-building and plot points to establish, which are both accomplished thanks to an economical use of dialogue and editing that does not sacrifice style or substance through brevity. The same applies to the film's visual aesthetic, which does admittedly rely on both post-apocalyptic monochrome and used-future neon. However, by over-saturating the film with high-contrast colours (as if to make each shot really look like a panel out of a comic book), Dredd more than makes up for any apparent lack of reinvention. It gets turned up to gleefully excessive levels when the film opts to play with the fantastic, whether it's in depicting the effects of Thirlby's psychic powers or showing what it's like to be high on "slo-mo", the aptly-named street drug that plays a major role in the film's conflict. The film doesn't skimp on intensity or action as it shows the various methods and tools that the judges use to fight back against their aggressors; though the confines of the narrative result in this mainly extending to shoot-outs more than anything, it still finds time to throw in a high-speed pursuit and more than a few explosions. The effects work is definitely top-notch considering the relatively small scale of the production.
Though it's easy to fault Dredd for a number of reasons - simple plot, repetitive action, the occasional moment where a B-movie trope is recycled more instead of refined - I still find it a very watchable (and, perhaps more importantly, re-watchable) piece of work. It makes for a great throwback to the cult classics of the '80s that knew how to handle the extraneous parts of action movies like plot and characterisation, creating simple but effective examples of both in the process. Not only that, but it makes use of the technological upgrades afforded by 21st-century film-making to craft some impressive-looking scenes of carnage while also indulging lean but potent character moments and even evoking terrible beauty out of otherwise painful-looking events (case in point - the final "slo-mo" scene). Everything comes together in such a way that even the background score full of chugging electric guitar feels like a natural fit instead of an obnoxious concession to the lowest common denominator. I'd definitely hold this up as one of the best action movies of the 2010s, and though there's no telling what's likely to come along in the next few years, there's no doubt that Dredd will be waiting to take on any comers (hopefully including its own sequel).
Pete Travis, 2012
In a futuristic dystopia where the law is enforced by elite police officers known as "judges", one such judge and his trainee must fight their way through a skyscraper full of violent criminals.
Given how the last attempt to bring dystopian anti-hero Judge Dredd to the silver screen ended up being the disastrous 1995 Sylvester Stallone vehicle, it's not like there was an especially high bar to clear when it came to delivering a follow-up. Surprisingly enough, 2012's Dredd features a far less convoluted plot than the framed-for-murder plot of the Stallone film, instead settling on a very simple variation on the old Die Hard plot. It begins by establishing the ruined world of the future, which extends to a single grimy and densely-populated mega-city surrounded on all sides by inhospitable post-nuclear wasteland. The crime inside the mega-city is so extreme in terms of frequency and severity that any law is kept by an organisation of enforcers known as "judges", who must make snap-decisions when it comes to dispensing justice - though this can extend to imprisoning people, a lot of the time it simply involves an immediate death sentence. After introducing the eponymous judge (Karl Urban) as he relentlessly pursues a small-time gang of crooks, the plot begins when he is put in charge of carrying out the final assessment of a judge-in-training (Olivia Thirlby) who happens to have psychic powers. They then proceed to investigate a crime scene involving three dead bodies on the ground floor of a gigantic residential skyscraper. When the judges arrest their prime suspect (Wood Harris) and attempt to escort him out of the building, the ruthless crime boss (Lena Headey) who rules over the building decides to lock everything down and trap the judges inside. This is all the plot the film needs as the judges have to not only survive but also bring the villains to justice.
Making a good B-movie is a difficult thing to pull off in this day and age, with many films attempting to couch things in self-awareness as a defence mechanism against a jaded audience (though it's not like reveling in their own silliness is an automatic guarantee of enjoyment either). Dredd strikes the right balance in trying to do right by its cult source material without falling into self-parody or taking itself too seriously. It features a good odd couple by putting together Urban's gruff veteran with Thirlby's wide-eyed rookie, with the former showcasing personality without compromising his hardened exterior while the latter displays vulnerability and qualms about her role without undermining her ability to carry out said role. Headey makes for a great villain that is able to arrange all sorts of clever (or just plain brutal) countermeasures against any enemies she encounters, giving off an intimidating aura that does not leave any doubt as to how she managed to easily take over a skyscraper filled with violent gangs. Harris may spend most of his screen-time as the judges' surly hostage, but his role as a calmly sadistic henchman is played for both discomfort and dark laughs (often in quick succession). There aren't too many other notable presences in the film (save perhaps Domnhall Gleeson as the villains' visibly traumatised tech genius), but this isn't exactly a film that demands great characterisation so much as dependable characterisation, especially when certain twists are added in to keep things interesting.
The plot is straightforward enough so as to not really require too much comment, but it's definitely impressive as to how quickly and efficiently it is told over the course of a lean 90 minutes. There's quite a lot of world-building and plot points to establish, which are both accomplished thanks to an economical use of dialogue and editing that does not sacrifice style or substance through brevity. The same applies to the film's visual aesthetic, which does admittedly rely on both post-apocalyptic monochrome and used-future neon. However, by over-saturating the film with high-contrast colours (as if to make each shot really look like a panel out of a comic book), Dredd more than makes up for any apparent lack of reinvention. It gets turned up to gleefully excessive levels when the film opts to play with the fantastic, whether it's in depicting the effects of Thirlby's psychic powers or showing what it's like to be high on "slo-mo", the aptly-named street drug that plays a major role in the film's conflict. The film doesn't skimp on intensity or action as it shows the various methods and tools that the judges use to fight back against their aggressors; though the confines of the narrative result in this mainly extending to shoot-outs more than anything, it still finds time to throw in a high-speed pursuit and more than a few explosions. The effects work is definitely top-notch considering the relatively small scale of the production.
Though it's easy to fault Dredd for a number of reasons - simple plot, repetitive action, the occasional moment where a B-movie trope is recycled more instead of refined - I still find it a very watchable (and, perhaps more importantly, re-watchable) piece of work. It makes for a great throwback to the cult classics of the '80s that knew how to handle the extraneous parts of action movies like plot and characterisation, creating simple but effective examples of both in the process. Not only that, but it makes use of the technological upgrades afforded by 21st-century film-making to craft some impressive-looking scenes of carnage while also indulging lean but potent character moments and even evoking terrible beauty out of otherwise painful-looking events (case in point - the final "slo-mo" scene). Everything comes together in such a way that even the background score full of chugging electric guitar feels like a natural fit instead of an obnoxious concession to the lowest common denominator. I'd definitely hold this up as one of the best action movies of the 2010s, and though there's no telling what's likely to come along in the next few years, there's no doubt that Dredd will be waiting to take on any comers (hopefully including its own sequel).