There’s a weird phenomenon associated with comic book movies: that which came before is promptly forgotten. Every time an R rated comic book adaption comes out people act like this is unusual and shocking. Also Black Panther is the first black superhero and Captain Marvel is special for being a female led movie. Of course somebody out there remembers Blade but it is reasonable to forget that Eleckra ever existed… or I guess Catwoman actually came before that even.
But what if there was a movie that could give Joker a run for its money? Something which is a touch arty but gritty and violent. A comic book adaptation which didn’t take itself too seriously and isn’t wrapped up in any pretentious notions about social commentary. A movie with a simple plot which is simply fun. That would be Dredd (2012).
Earth is a barren wasteland and humanity has been amassed in crime ridden “mega cities.” The law is enforced by police called judges who also act as jury and executioner. The titular character, Judge Dredd is given a rookie to evaluate. Cassandra Anderson is a mutant with psychic abilities.
Out of the 17,000 crimes they could pursue that day, Anderson chooses to investigate a triple homicide at a block called Peach Trees. She and Dredd quickly find the situation more complicated than a normal drug related offense. They capture Kay one of the dealers in the block but his boss, Ma-Ma, who controls this area, doesn’t want to let him be interrogated. Ma-Ma locks down the block and orders the local gangs to take the judges out. Dredd and Anderson are trapped with no way to communicate with the outside and very few options. Anderson thinks their options are either evasion or finding a defendable position. Dredd has another idea: take the fight all the way to the 200th floor, right to Ma-Ma herself.
It’s a story that’s been done before, but like most things not trying to be too original, the execution is all that matters.
Karl Urban deserves mad props for going through the whole movie without ever taking Dredd’s helmet off. Almost every comic book adaptation ends with the protagonist taking his mask off. Dredd’s looks particularly difficult to see out of too. Urban makes some comically exaggerated expressions throughout which, though silly, are a perfect fit for the character and this world.
Anderson isn’t a perfect character, but she’s miles away from the typical “strong female.” For one, she’s not perfect. She has in fact flunked out of judge training and only her psychic powers have kept her from being failed completely. She does save Dredd at one point, but she’s also overpowered and captured, and it’s only because Ma-Ma doesn’t want to get too much attention that Anderson doesn’t come to a very unpleasant end. A flaw, however, is the question of her power’s limitations. Why can’t or doesn’t she get into Kay’s head when he grabs her gun?
A movie set in a dystopian future is usually the sort you’d expect to be ugly, the picture on the screen as filthy, dark, and murky as the world it inhabits. Dredd doesn’t do this. Mega-City One is what you’d expect, but the film knows when to temper the grunge with just the right amount of color. It’s stylized but in a way which feels more natural and integrated into the film rather than slapping a blue-green filter over everything. The “slow-mo” sections give it an even better splash of artiness and an in-world excuse to used the otherwise dreaded slow motion. “Slow-mo” both slows down time for the people taking it but also saturates colors and adds an iridescent sheen to everything.
I know I said Joker‘s violence was fake looking, and Dredd‘s is not from a drastically different era of film, but Dredd looks a lot better. The difference comes from style and from not trying to present the violence as realistic. Joker was trying to be art, but Dredd‘s got style in spades.
Dredd is the sort of movie they don’t make much anymore. Or at all now. It isn’t preachy. It isn’t the dull same that Marvel movies made their stock and trade. It isn’t pretentious and overblown like DC. Dredd wants to be fun, and it succeeds. I hope no one makes a sequel because I’m sure they’d ruin it.
Nixon Now 