SDCC 2012 Review: DREDD 3D Brings Mega-violence to Mega City One
Based on the 2000 A.D. comic character, Dredd brings the sci-fi cop back to the big screen with Karl Urban under the helmet*, partnered with rookie Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a below average potential judge whose psychic abilities might give her an edge on the streets. She'll need them: Dredd tells us that inside the mega city of 800 million, the judges are tasked with acting as both the law and prosecutors of justice - and they're only able to respond to 6% of reported crimes.
Unfortunately, a hard first day on the job becomes a nightmare when the two judges run afoul of Mama (Lena Headey), a drug kingpin who commands the supply of Slo-Mo, an inhalant which gives the user the experience that time has slowed to 1% of its normal flow. Dredd and Anderson will have to kill their way up the 200 floors of the apartment block to reach Mama and escape. It's not an easy task.
Fantastically violent, you may want to check this one out in 3D just to see the lovingly fetishized shots of human bodies being absolutely destroyed in a hyper color glow. Bodies are simply annihilated, faces smashed, riddled with holes, people just ended by guns and fire.
Dredd is just below a primal force, occasionally breaking his perfect sternness for moments of black reaction. Thirlby takes a little while to loosen up in her role, but reveals a sort of cold cruelty masked by her character's youth and rookie status. Headey is the standout with very few scenes but an established rep along with abrupt, gruesome bursts of violence, taking cues from the Sinola cartels and Sin City in terms of how her scarred junkie matron wields power over the block.
The script is from Alex Garland who, along with director Peter Travis, is able to breathe a kind of pulpy, nightmarish life into the block. It's an action movie first, with simple science fiction flourishes to enhance the storytelling. All of these elements (the gadgets, the dusty, rusty sheen) combine with the cast to make Dredd a brutal gut punch whose release can't come soon enough.
*One of Dredd's gifts to fans is that like his comic counterpart, the helmet always stays on.
Dredd will be in theaters September 21st.
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