Dredd (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Pete Travis (Vantage Point)
	Actors: Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings 1-3, Star Trek), Lena Headey (300), Olivia Thirlby
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 09.05.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic future, Mega-City One holds 800 million citizens. Dredd (Urban) is one of the Judges (also jury and executioner) trying to keep order.
Review: Not a remake of the poor 1995 Judge Dredd with Sylvester Stallone, but a different movie inspired by the same comics book. I remember the 1995 movie to be not so good, but I liked the screenplay that threw Dredd in the desert so that he could better come back and kick some ass. The choice was made for this new Dredd to stay in the city, and in particular in one of its 75000 souls appartment complexes. Also the movie was kept simple and I would classify it as B-movie. This was probably a good idea. The story is also simple and inspired by video games (reaching the top floor of a gangster-infested building) but is well told, and what brings the movie apart are the crude violence and gore effects that I was not expecting. It is quite a blast. Unfortunately the movie lacks ambition and scale, that would be my main critic. The large scale visual effects (city, buildings) and the slow motions are cool, but the details are not perfect (slow motion bullets and blood spills). The darks are very noisy and show the limitation of the digital camera used. It might be interesting to watch the 3D version anyway.
Rating: 6 /10