10/10
I wondered for ages, rather pointlessly, what score to give this movie out of 10. Who cares if I gave the movie an 8 or a 9 or a 10? It's my blog dammit!
I watched the film on Monday night, it's now Wednesday afternoon of the same week. My score immediately after seeing the film was a straight 10/10. How do I feel now the initial excitement has worn away with 2 days of extra perspective? Has my view changed? NO! This is a flat-out 10/10 film! Is it perfect? I don't know, what's perfect? Who cares!
This is the best film I have seen this year and the most enjoyable film I have seen (probably since Kick-Ass).
I was a MASSIVE fan of 2000AD as a teenager and, in particular of Judge Dredd. This film perfectly captures the feel of Mega City One and the low-life perps that populate it's seedy slums and towers.
I loved everything about the movie. The soundtrack is great with superb break-beats over the credits and beat-drops gearing up as the action kicks in, the script is tight and surprisingly funny (in a blackly comic way), the casting is superb, the 3D effects spot-on, and the pacing of the film also immaculate.
The film is explosively violent - with slo-mo viscera and body-detritus flying BUT the film also manages some emotional depth through the character of rookie-Anderson (fantastically portrayed by Olivia Thirlby - by turns vulnerable but tough). I don't naturally like violent films, but I found the violence in Dredd was quite refreshing given the 12A rating chasing efforts such as Dark Knight Rises and Hunger Games. What do you think happens when someone gets shot or stabbed or thrown out of a window? People bleed. In this case, stylishly and in 3D slow-mo!
Every penny of the $40million filming budget has been well spent! I understand the film launches in the US next week and that if it makes more than $50million, the 2nd and 3rd films of the trilogy Alex Garland has planned may get the green-light. Come on America, go see Dredd!
Karl Urban even manages to bring charisma to his Dredd, even though we only ever see his down-turned mouth (as per the comic). Dredd is a character of our times - what do you do when your city is overtaken by gangs of violent youths who shoot each other, smash up your neighbourhood, steal your stuff in order to buy drugs? What would you LIKE to do, assuming you're NOT one of those violent youths? Send in Dredd? You'd like to wouldn't you - admit it.
Go and see the film - it's utterly fantastic.
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