Dredd wears a grimace the entire time and it just makes him a joy to watch.
He gives a suitably stoic and gruff performance as the no-nonsense Judge.
There have been certain grotty pockets of the Internet accusing Dredd of ripping The Raid off, but these sweaty losers have failed to take into account that a) the Dredd script was written before The Raid’s b) the whole “being trapped in a building and having to fight your way out” is hardly new with The Towering Inferno and Die Hard exemplifying two different takes decades before and c) nobody gives a fuck. Whilst there are similarities, Dredd is its own beast. If all that multiple floors/slumlord business is sounding familiar it’s probably because you saw Indonesian/Welsh bonecruncher The Raid earlier this year. However, tits go up when the building is locked down, forcing Dredd and Anderson to fight their way through the building to get to Ma-Ma and find out the link between what’s going on and a new drug called Slo-Mo, which has flooded the street due to its ability to make users to feel like time is passing at 1% its normal speed. Anyway, we follow Judge Joseph Dredd (Karl Urban) as he and his rookie partner Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) answer a routine call in a place called Peach Trees- a 200 story megastructure run by druglord and gang leader Ma-Ma (Lena Headey). Instead of police, Mega City One has Judges- helmeted clompy booted scary mofos who act as not only judge, but jury and executioner as well, often dispensing justice by executing criminals on the spot. There is a gigantic, sprawling city built on the remains and rubble called Mega City One, which is a bustling, violent metropolis. So here we have a new take on the series, simply called “Dredd”, starring Karl Urban, aiming to right the wrongs of the Stallone nightmare. Firmly belonging in the latter list was 1995’s Judge Dredd, a Sylvester Stallone vehicle that couldn’t have missed the point of Dredd harder if it tried and scuppered any chance of Dredd being taken seriously (at least cinematically) for a decade or so.
For every Watchmen or Kick-Ass there has been a Tank Girl, a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or even a From Hell. British comics are less of a success story when it’s come to adapting them for the big screen. Well, that is to say we live in the golden age of movies adapted from American comic books. We live in the golden age of comic book movies.