Review of Dredd (2012) by Kenny M — 16 Jun 2014

I am a huge Dredd fan. I have been since the early 80's, so I was eager to see this film.

This movie has no love for Dredd.

I can't believe so many people are touting this crap as "true to the comic". It's similarity to the comic exists only on the most superficial level. It's completely humorless, choosing to focus on frame by frame comic book violence rather than the clever hallmark social satire that makes Dredd what it is.

Ironically, there was a good script buried in this mess somewhere. I suspect the original script was a real labor of love. The "maw-maw" character could have been a trademark Dredd villain if she had been written properly.

I'm fairly certain this script fell victim to the same trend that has ruined pretty much every movie made in the last two decades: soulless rewrites.

What should have been colorful social satire has been castrated for mass appeal. The comic book color saturation been made gritty and gray (because every damn thing is gritty and gray these days). Worse... Any meaningful social satire, and thereby any social criticism, has been striped out to avoid offending anyone.

Spend two hours watching someone play a contemporary first person shooter. You'll get the same level of entertainment and at least one of you will have fun.