Judge Dredd (2012)

[Bunk]

Judge Dredd just sucks. In every form, it'll always suck. I don't even know why it ever got made into a movie the first time around.

To quote a very old meme, I disagree with what you said.

[MuffinMan]

Trailer is out. May have been "leaked" so the video might go down eventually.

Well, that was quick. Updated link.

[Amarr HM]

 Giggity

[murdoc]

The Raid: Judge Dredd

[Amarr HM]

What's with the 'Judgment is coming'?

[Ironwood]

 

 

[Bunk]

Hmm...

I'm hoping its just a poorly planned trailer, in that it looks like 80% of the movie is him fighting through one building. Which would suck.

Judges looked fine, but Mega City 1 wasn't really Mega-y enough. Not sure if I like the idea of using Anderson without relating it to Psi-Division (maybe they do, but it doesn't seem so).

[DraconianOne]

I'm hoping its just a poorly planned trailer, in that it looks like 80% of the movie is him fighting through one building. Which would suck.

You're in for disappointment then.

I don't know - I'm not sure the production designer even bothered to read any of the comics. They were obviously just shown a picture of Dredd's helmet and had the rest described to them with the instruction to "make it not look anything like the Stallone film". Which was a mistake because the prod-design was one of the best thing about it.

I'll still watch it.

[WayAbvPar]

Never saw the Stallone version-  I loved Dredd and knew Stallone would fuck it up. Still holding out hopes for this one.

[Ironwood]

It wasn't really Stallone that fucked it up.

It just wasn't... right.

This looks even more wrong, if that's possible.

[HaemishM]

Two things wrong with the Stallone Dredd film - Rob Schneider and the fucking ending. As in, it ended about 30 minutes too early for no good goddamn reason. Oh and lest I forget, taking him out of the Dredd armor for 70% of the fucking movie.

Two things wrong with the trailer - the aforementioned lack of MegaCity-ness of the city and the continued use of gun-cocking sounds before the quip gets thrown out painfully.

[Ironwood]

Rob Schneider .

Yes.  Sorry, but you're quite right and I should have high lighted that :

Rob was fucking awful and horrendously out of place.  They didn't even BOTHER trying to 'mega city' him up.  It was like he was dropped from a 90's comedy store.

Awful.

[Bunk]

The only redeeming bit Schneider had in that film was holding his hand up to block the top of Dredd's face and then convulsing - and they spoiled that joke in the trailers.

Stalone's Dredd to me, was the perfect example of utterly shitty editing making a bad movie unwatchable. Haemish is right, the entire last thirty minutes of the movie made no fucking sense.

[Ironwood]

Hammerstein was cool tho.

 

[Ratman_tf]

Hammerstein was cool tho.

 

Like I said upthread, I liked the Stallone Dred for the mindless action schlock it was. And I thought there were some really kool visuals.

New trailer looks so generic action movie. I'd like to think they're going for a satire of action movies, but it looks like they're playing it straight, just like the Stallone Dred.

[Lakov_Sanite]

This trailer made the movie look completely forgettable.

[DraconianOne]

Hammerstein was cool tho.

Yes. Definitely. And Mean Machine's design/makeup was perfect. It's a shame that whole scene with the Angel family was totally unnecessary to the story.

Two things wrong, Haemish? You're more forgiving than I am.  I can't forgive what they did to Judge Hershey's character.

[KallDrexx]

Holy jesus that acting was terrible (by everyone)

[HaemishM]

Two things wrong, Haemish? You're more forgiving than I am.  I can't forgive what they did to Judge Hershey's character.

Keep in mind I only have a passing familiarity with the character. I've never been a huge fan, or even read much of the original comics. I'm sure to someone who knows more about the character's history, it was a goddamn crime against humanity.

[Amarr HM]

I was pretty big fan of the comics and that looks fairly legit, even down to the hammy Clint Eastwood impersonation, Dredd was modeled on Dirty Harry.

The story is pretty much based on the grand epic Dredd storyline Block Mania. Which was a prologue to the revered Apocalypse war and finalised by my personal favourite Dredd strip City of the Damned. Judge Andersen was the main other character in this arc.

It does look cheesy but nowhere close to the bastardised Stallone version which I refused to watch.

[UnSub]

Holy jesus that acting was terrible (by everyone)

Karl Urban's a 50/50 shot of being watchable or being awful.

[Teleku]

So, at comic-con right now.  Friend of mine (european) got a press pass to come with us, and from that,  got to go see a per-screening of this movie.  His comments about it so far:  1.). He liked it, and the trailer didn't do it justice.  2.). It was shockingly violent.  Like, he and everybody else there were not expecting the level of violence and gore they showed at all.

So take that as you will.

[DraconianOne]

[DraconianOne]

Very short clip

This film may well make me break my no-3D rule. 

[HaemishM]

This film may well make me break my no-3D rule. 

Yeah. Holy shit.

[Bunk]

Ok, I'm feeling better about this.

[Mattemeo]

Being shot while on Slo-Mo is an eerily beautiful affair. The ultra-violence is kind of haunting; it should feel glorified but somehow it's not. I feel sad for these tripping idiots.

[Muffled]

Welp, that clip just sold a ticket. 

[Lakov_Sanite]

This could be the best example of a shitty trailer almost ruining a movie.

That clip....

[Kitsune]

Yeah, it actually looked like it was trying to go with the comics when it comes to just mowing down criminals.  Though in the comics Dredd probably would've just switched to ricochet bullets, stuck the gun in the door, and filled the room with bouncing shots until everyone was thoroughly incapacitated.  He wasn't too proud to be pragmatic.

[NowhereMan]

Saw the cinematic trailer in the DKR viewing I went to and this and Total Recall were the only movies that came across as being worth watching. I'm not 100% sure on the visuals for Mega City 1 (it looked more generic post-apocalypse than a city of however many million crammed into a small space) but the setup is a classic story and a nice way of introducing the character and action without everything being about the spectacle. Plus if it's good and does well they've got things set for a bigger sequel (not going to happen methinks).

[NowhereMan]

Went to see this last night, the screen I watched it in was pretty much empty so not sure what it's opening numbers are like in the UK. It was however a solid, fun action movie with enough of a nod to Dredd stuff that it was recognisably Judge Dredd. Definitely looked good, though perhaps a tad overly gory (quite a few slo-mo scenes involving people getting shot in the face). Ultimately, while it was definitely fun and I'd recommend watching it, it didn't really have enough to it to be something I think there'd be any point ever re-watching. It pretty much all happens in a single block but they don't really make enough of that to make the place feel supremely claustrophobic or anything and we miss out on much (really any) world building regarding Meg-1. The plot itself is simple, which means it doesn't get overly silly or anything but also means there isn't really anything to build much up on. There's really only one character who we see anything much happen with, though in the context of the film that does make sense .

I might be being overly harsh sounding here actually, I honestly think they do a good job with Dredd. His whole character gets put across pretty quickly and stays consistent. They don't attempt to humanise him or have him 'learn to love' or anything like that and if this was being put out as a traditional summer blockbuster I could see them having been very tempted to go that route. I just think they were aiming for an action movie and went a little overboard in trimming out stuff which could have crapped up the film  Personally I think they did a good job with it and I honestly think this was simple enough, with strong characters and a half decent world established that it could be built on for a bigger sequel but I don't think it's going to do well enough for them to greenlight anything more for it. Plotwise I'd say it's about on par with the Bourne Legacy without the pretence that there's anything more going on, which I definitely prefer.

In summary, if you like action films definitely worth a watch. If you like Judge Dredd I'd say it's definitely worth a watch. If you want sci-fi in a compelling world with relatable characters and an engrossing plot, skip it.

[Riggswolfe]

Out of curiousity do you think the lack of world building you speak of was mostly a budget issue or a script issue?

[NowhereMan]

I'd say it was probably a bit of both. Like I said I got the impression they didn't have the budget for a traditional summer blockbuster type film and went for a slimmed down action piece. The plot in this really doesn't have a lot to it, there was more they could have done with the budget they had so I'd imagine that they were really aiming to avoid cluttering it with any possibly unnecessary complications. In some ways it works well, frankly Dredd's character doesn't have a huge amount of depth and trying to add that in would have felt really, really wrong. They do also do a pretty good job of showing not telling with regards to a lot of it, they present just enough of Mega-City One that you get an idea of what life is like and swiftly move on to people getting shot in the face.

[DraconianOne]

Out of curiousity do you think the lack of world building you speak of was mostly a budget issue or a script issue?

The two are related and Garland has already said as much in interviews. There was no way they were getting a big budget for this film so he wrote the script accordingly - keeping number of locations and (main) characters down. If this sells well and makes money then future films might expand on the world.