THE RIGHT JUDGMENT

MOVIE REVIEW - DREDD 3D

By:

G.P. Manalo

Starring:

Karl Urban

Olivia Thirlby

Lena Heady

Dredd - In the future, Violence corrupts the vast land of mega city one but the people who stops those violent people are the Judges who possess the power of Judge, Jury and Executioner. In this movie the main focus is a judge code-named, Dredd and one day he took a Mutant Psychic, Anderson to an evaluation exam. Little did they know they found themselves in a situation far more extreme than that when a threat called "MaMa" trapped them down in a building to kill both of them.

Of all the comic book movies besides The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers we also have this year is, Dredd; Dredd is probably the one that I was very curious about, from the trailers, the photos they didn't really caught my interest. But I was still very optimistic about this movie, I went in blind enough to be surprised of what's going to happen on-screen. And I have to say someone should fire the marketing people for this movie because this is actually an awesome movie than i was expecting it to be. The trailers showed that this movie is like a futuristic version of this year's The Raid: Redemption or maybe even the original Die Hard (which is basically a character going up and down a building while killing people along the way). Me being a Comic Book Reader I have not read any Judge Dredd Comics unfortunately, I don't know where to start and yet I can't even find some comics of it as well but I know enough of him, i believe. The 1995 Stallone's Judge Dredd Is pretty Over The Top (wink wink) in a bad sense up to the point that it is a shit fest.

2012 has the biggest surprises; this is definitely one of them because this movie is very good in a lot of ways. It's not really original when it comes to story, It does feel like the The Raid: Redemption/Die Hard starring Judge Dredd, It is very awkward to see that It is like the same movie i saw this year. Everything in this movie worked out pretty well on its own if you stopped thinking that this is like The Raid: Redemption, but i digress, even the gimmicks like the Slow Motion effect worked. When I saw the trailers, it looked like they're going overly crazy with the slow motion effect in this movie. 

Sometimes I would be entertained with slow motion if it is done right, not like how most movies we had this year like Resident Evil: Retribution or Underworld Awakening where it is very overused way too much but here they cleverly pushed it in as a plot device and they actually made slow motion actions look like art (Even I'm surprised to describe it that way), that being said the movie is visually impressive and cool. Speaking of action, this movie is an example of a very good popcorn movie, we had many of those this year but this one is definitely one of them. It has everything a popcorn movie should have and it is really fun and entertaining action sequences, badass characters and a very enjoyable film overall but my one gripe would probably be the fact that it ended very anti-climactic, when you see the film you’ll know why. It’s very much because it is built up to this moment and it just ended in a snap. Though my experience was pretty "choppy"; some of the gory scenes were fast-cuts, I guess it’s the local censorship's fault. Is the 3D worth the price of admission, not really, Sure you have a few good shots here and there. I believe you can still enjoy this in 2D nonetheless. 

With all the talk of visuals out of the way, the writing is pretty strong for the most part. There were still some lines that are pretty bearable to listen to, But it's not something compared to what Stallone's Dredd is (*Insert corny yet funny line here*). But still, the writing was able to write some characters very well. Comic Book films, nowadays do tend to have that "Dark and Gritty" tone, I thought that tone fits here because this character is a very dark and brooding character especially the setting, I don't think a campy light-hearted comedy-action film can be that relevant for the character's lore. Karl Urban as (Judge) Dredd wasn't bad at all, as I reflect on it I thought that he was a perfect choice to be Judge Dredd and it is also pretty mind-blowing to see him keep the helmet on throughout the movie (that’s pretty rare in superhero movies nowadays), he did say some cheesy lines but then again at least it's not as worse or cheesy than Stallone's line deliveries in the 1995 film, I thought the writing was self-aware enough for it to be tongue-in-cheek. Olivia Thirlby as Anderson wasn't bad as i was expecting her to be, I thought the character was relevant and strongly written. And lastly we have, Lena Heady; I thought she played the role great, honestly the performances aren’t nothing special but they are still good nonetheless

In the end, Dredd 3D was very surprising, as I’ve said; this movie is the definitive pop-corn movie experience. Its hardcore, It has entertaining action, It has really badass characters and a very solid story though it did have a very anti-climactic pay-off. I enjoyed Dredd 3D very much, fans of the comic will be happy that they finally have their favorite character to justice and casual movie goers will enjoy this as well. It’s the best version of the character we have in theaters. 

MY RATING:

4.5/5 - FOR THE WIN!