Review: Dredd (2012)
By Christine Petralia
Image courtesy of Lionsgate
September 23, 2012
Contains spoilers.
Once again, I went to a film where I knew nothing about the character or the comic strip it was based on. I was told it was a pretty good portrayal of the character Judge Dredd, however, I got bored pretty quickly as the plot was very straight forward with no twists or turns, just lots of blood, gore and shootouts.
It is a future United States, where it is known as a wasteland. On the East Coast from Boston to Washington lies Mega-City One filled with 800 million residents. At least 17,000 crimes are reported daily and the only way to keep order are Judges. They act as the judge, jury and executioners. Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is assigned to assess a rookie, Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), who may not have the mindset to be a judge, but she is a psychic. The Chief Judge feels her powers will make her a good judge. On their first assignment, Anderson decides to head to a 200-story slum called Peach Trees to investigate a triple homicide. Upon arriving, they learn of a drug called Slo-Mo and also about the woman who ‘runs’ the towers, Ma-Ma (Lena Headey).
They break up a drug den and take in the ring leader. Ma-Ma learns of this and fears her crony will talk once down at the station, so she locks the entire building down and orders its residents to kill the judges on site. The pair make their way through the block with their prisoner, but not without killing residents along the way to save themselves.
Soon, Ma-Ma takes matters into her own hands and destroys an entire floor, but not the two judges, who have now called for back up. Of course, because Ma-Ma is controlling everything, the back up can’t get in. In the meantime, Anderson learns from their prisoner that Ma-Ma is the main distributor and maker of Slo-Mo, so now they have more reason to take her down. However, Anderson finds herself caught with Dredd forced to find her and take down the bad guys. Ma-Ma calls in back up herself, in the form of paid off Judges. Soon realizing these Judges are bad, Dredd takes down two on his own, while Anderson frees herself and takes down another one. She takes down the last one while saving Dredd. The pair works its way to Ma-Ma’s lair and takes her down.
And that’s pretty much it. Pretty straightforward. Pretty bad ass. And pretty bloody. If you’re a fan of the comics, then by all means check this film out. If you have no idea who Dredd is and what it’s about, skip it.
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