Dredd (2012)

When it's over, who is Dredd?  I know he is a veteran Judge, a law enforcement authority who serves as judge, jury, and executioner.  I know he is the best at his job and unwavering when it comes to passing judgment.  I know he has a dark past (most comic heroes do, plus there is half a sentence in the film that suggests this).  I don't read the Judge Dredd comics, so I cannot comment on how true the film is to the comics, but I can say that the film should have kept people like me in mind.  In 95 minutes, give me some character backstory; give me something "human" about Dredd, something I can identify with - perhaps a weakness, a habit, a fear? Set in a futuristic dystopian world where police officers are called Judges. Dredd (Karl Urban) teams up with a rookie (Olivia Thirlby) to destroy a gang producing the killer drug, SLO-MO. There is plenty of gratuitous violence, drug use, and F-bombs to earn its R rating. The violence paints a clear picture of the society Dredd lives in, which justifies his hardened nature. I like the veteran/rookie story and feel the relationship has the potential to balance their personalities and offer growth, which the film only scratches the surface of. Urban's performance carries the film, and without him, I would have rated this film much lower. He keeps me interested throughout. Because the audience never sees Dredd's complete face, everything is dependent on Urban utilizing the lower half of his face to communicate various emotions, from menace to pity to understanding. The film is stylish and has some original aspects done on a low-budgeted scale.  It reminds me a bit of Fifth Element meets Robo Cop, and definitely a better film than its predecessor, Sylvester Stallone's 1995 film, Judge Dredd.  

My rating: 3.5 out of 5