Movie review: DREDD 3D | HerCanberra

In a violent, futuristic city where police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop (known as a judge) teams with a trainee to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO. imdb

It?s a remake.

It?s ultra violent.

And it?s there in the title, my nemesis ?. 3D!!

So I should hate it, right? Weeell ? not so much. The 3D works really, really well and the film is better than the original. I?m not saying it will garner any awards but it isn?t likely to get a razzie either.

Karl Urban, Lena Headey and a cast of largely unknown actors work very hard for the full 95 minutes. They give the story, based on a comic (of course), the gravitas a very violent, nihilistic future needs to avoid gratuity ? without ever slowing the momentum of the chase. Karl Urban is to Sylvester Stallone?s 1995 version of the judge as single malt scotch is to Vietnamese snake whisky. And Lena Headey? Her performance in Game of Thrones, coupled with her portrayal of Ma-Ma (the movie?s big bad) means she may never get to play a ?nice? girl again ? she is just so good at being evil!

The production looks great ? imagine the colour palette of Blade Runner with the brights amped up to feverish and the shadows even darker and dirtier. Slo-Mo makes its users feel like time has been stretched to infinity and the slow motion used to depict this is visually effective and rare enough that it is interesting every time it pops up.

The ?mega-block? which Ma-Ma?s (Headey?s) tribe controls and which Dredd (Urban) and Anderson (the rookie) are trapped inside is like a town in a tower. Even though the overall feel is of claustrophobia (particularly as key scenes are shot very, very close-up) you have the sense of looking at an actual structure, that this is how a 200 floor tower would be laid out, how the spaces would look and feel.

The claustrophobia is amped up when Ma-Ma offers a reward for the judges? scalps and the townspeople either load their guns or run indoors. That was when I recognized the plot ? it is a classic John Ford western. The lone lawman cleaning up a town cowering under the lawless cattle baron. Just insert drugs and skateboards. It worked for John Wayne, many times, and it is particularly effective here. No introspection, not much dialogue ? just get on with the action.

The story is straightforward. In fact, the above is not a synopsis, it?s the whole plot. Except that the trainee is a psychic and a girl. But this is where the film gets interesting. Dredd is the star and there are three other main characters ? Ma-Ma, Anderson and the killer they take into custody. So that?s two male, two female. And no one is emotionally tangled.

Yes, two females who are powerful in and of themselves (whether they are good or evil), who are not pretty (Headey wears an excellent scar and her own tattoos) and who do not trade on their sexuality. Ma-Ma is protected by her tribe because she is their leader and they are terrified of her. Anderson protects herself (and she is wicked good at it). They kill people without remorse and they make their own decisions. In fact Dredd encourages this in Anderson. He never calls her anything but ?Rookie? until the final scene and he never once protects her as a weaker person or questions her judgment (except in the wearing of her helmet). It does not pass the Bechdel Test, which I have mentioned before and which you can find out more about in this feminist frequency video, because the two women do not talk to one another. However it is a step in the oh-so-right direction for action films.

The violence is sickening ? but I would make an argument that if you are going to have violence in a film it should be grisly, not sugarcoated or the punchline of a joke. The story is minimal ? but it is what a film should be, it shows the action rather than telling us what happened with words. The characters rock ? women in control of their destiny and on an equal footing with the male characters.

A B grade action film can latch onto the zeitgeist so why can?t serious Hollywood?

Source: http://www.hercanberra.com.au/index.php/2012/11/15/movie-review-dredd-3d/

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