[6]

Pete Travis directs from a script by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Sunshine) this second attempt to bring the comic book character Judge Dredd to the big screen. This is a smaller-scale production than the 1995 Sylvester Stallone version, but it’s a tighter story with more tonal consistency (no Rob Schneider here, kids). Travis and Garland’s version starts off strong, introducing us to Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) and his new trainee (Olivia Thirlby), just as the two are summoned to a mammoth high-rise where three bodies have just been found. Once they find the killer, they discover he’s part of a huge drug gang run by MaMa (Game of Thrones‘ Lena Heady), and MaMa don’t like it when Judges arrest members of her gang. So MaMa battens down the hatches, traps Urban and Thirlby in the building, and the rest of the movie plays out pretty much like Die Hard.

Dredd gets less interesting as it goes, with little-to-no character development or exhibition of personality. Instead, there are a few cool concepts to latch onto, if only for a short while. Chief among them is the drug MaMa is hawking, one that slows down your brain’s perception of reality. It gives Travis a chance to show off in some cool, bloody slow-motion sequences. The color grading on this movie really bugged me at times — brace yourself for some really unnatural greens, yellows, and some god-forsaken magenta. And finally, I guess I’m the only one who thinks it’s a bad idea to hide your main character’s eyes for the entire duration of the movie. I mean, if you cast Karl Urban, why not show Karl Urban? In a post-apocalyptic movie with barely any human warmth, a little eye contact would have gone a long way.