Review of Dredd (2012) by Bruce722 — 06 Sep 2013

I have never read the comics so I can't judge Dredd from that perspective, no pun intended. I have seen the original film and now this one so I have judged both of them as stand alone movies. The original movie had a few main weaknesses and I thought this one addressed all of those.

I thought the weaknesses of Stallone's Dredd were the lazy writing, the cheesy 1980's styling, and the numerous plot holes. Karl Urban's Dredd kept the high entertainment value, well done action sequences, and unique setting that is Mega-City One and with the corrected flaws, you would think it would be a much better movie.

Not so much. While it lost the cheesy 1980's effects, it replaced them with possibly worse made-for-3D cinematic effects that do nothing for the movie and only drag out a not-so-interesting plot. The gore factor was also a bit high.

While I am never one to have any issues with violence or anything, I thought this movie was overdone and felt unnecessary. An analogy would be profane language versus a little teenage boy who feels like he has to use profanity to look cool.

I don't have a problem with profanity but when it feels forced, it's just stupid. The overly graphic nature of some of the scenes in this film are like that. They felt forced at times and took away from the movie.

The plot is also very, VERY different from the original. Essentially they kept the setting and the protagonist and stripped everything else away and just expanded upon the initial sequence from the first film enough to make an entire movie out of it.

While I think they did a good job with it, the oversimplified approach wasn't entirely engaging. Urban and Olivia Thirlby do a solid job as the main characters, though, and the film is entertaining so I'd still suggest checking it out if you get a chance.