Mega City One; an unbroken concrete landscape. Population 800,000,000

“Twelve serious crimes reported every minute. Seventeen thousand per day. We can respond to around six percent."

Dredd (Karl Urban) is a Judge, a law enforcement officer with the Hall of Justice; each highly trained, physically, tactically and morally. Judge, jury, and when dictated, executioner. They are the law.

Dredd is asked evaluate Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a subpar graduate with a gift, as to her potential as a Judge. Told 1 in 5 don’t survive the first day, Dredd gives Anderson the choice of which call they respond to. The call takes them to Peach Trees, a 200 storey mega block with 75,000 residents, and on to Ma-Ma’s (Lena Headey) turf.

Ma-Ma, a psychotic prostitute turned drug lord, is producing a new and highly addictive drug which she sees as her ticket to expansion throughout Mega City One. The arrival of the Judges causes far reaching problems and she orders the hallways cleared and for them to be hunted down and executed.

In late 2010 Pete Travis was announced as the director on Dredd and my heart sank; his 2008 film Vantage Point is a disjointed and tedious mess. Thankfully Travis really has a grip on the tight script penned by Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine) and delivers a solid film filled with explosive action and over the top ultra-violence. Garland's script deftly handles the material, grounding it and never gets bogged down in exposition.

Karl Urban, channeling a young Clint Eastwood, delivers an unwavering performance as Dredd; stoic and relentless. Judge Anderson is idealistic and determined and Olivia Thirlby brings a strength to the role that would have been diminished without it.

As the villain Ma-Ma, Lena Headey is patchy at times. A disappointing weak delivery of an order to "Fire!" spoilt the beginning of one of the most exciting firefights of recent memory. A minor performance from Domhnall Gleeson as Ma-Ma's pasty tech guy is noteworthy.

Oscar winning cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (127 Hours, Slumdog Millionaire, Antichrist) brings the gritty reality of Peach Trees to the screen with a deep focus that accentuate the long corridors and the height of 200 storeys. Grain persists throughout the hallway scenes adding to the grit and grime. Shot natively in 3D, it is among the best of late; corridors feel long, rooms confined and the slow motion effects of being under the influence of the drug looks gorgeous with its vibrant palette.

Dredd is a visually arresting thrill with solid performances and a level of violence that almost borders comical.

Highly recommended.

I was blown away with the awesomeness of this movie when it came out. At the time, Judge Dredd was a joke. I AM THE LAAAAHHHWW! Classic terrible movie that stuck with the character too. That is, until the new movie came along. This is what I want in a R rated action film. It knows what it is, and it doesn't try to be some sort of deep, emotional drama with action. No, it is a simple plot, with a simple conflict that is super exciting to watch.

I had actually forgetten a lot of the details since I first saw this one. It was nice to live through it again. The whole sequence with the homeless guy is one that I enjoyed going through blind twice. And the outcome of those giant chain guns coming out... wonderful. But the very best part of the whole movie is the fact that Karl Urban nails that role. Somehow he keeps that frustrated and annoyed frowny face going for every shot, yet still manages to show us what he's thinking internally. Urban has a sad frowny face, a happy frowny face, a bored frowny face, and even a respectful frowny face. That is acting folks.

Stylish and violent but also run of the mill, there's no new ground covered here from a story perspective. There's the rookie "cop", the ruthless drug lord, the downtrodden community...believe me, you've seen it all before. But Karl Urban as Dredd and Olivia Thirlby as Anderson build such a great relationship that it makes up for the usual tropes. There is nothing touchy or feely between the partners, just a respect and a trust that is built during their mission. It's one of the better seasoned veteran, sharp rookie matchups I've seen in a while.

What doesn't work here is Lena Headey as the crime boss, Ma-Ma. Her character is as dark and grotesque as they come. Her generic thugs, who only exist for Dredd to blast to pieces, have a bond with her that doesn't make sense. Why they would obey her every command and sacrifice their lives for her makes no sense. The impression is that the henchmen all believe they are badass enough to take Dredd out, but the viewer knows better, and it gets boring.

The look of "Dredd" is grimy and worn, futuristic but decaying. The rock-jawed performance of Urban and the smart, tough role played by Thirlby made this entertaining. There's a lot of blood, guts and violence, though. It's definitely not the usual comic book movie.

When I heard they were making a new Dredd film, my heart was filled with trepidation... after all, the previous attempt in 1995 was an utter disaster. An example of how not to make a movie from a comic book character. Completely miscast, and with a total lack of understanding about the character of Dredd himself.

So I was very, very happy when I saw this a couple of years ago... Karl Urban is the perfect choice for the role of Dredd and he plays this gruff, unsmiling and unbending man to perfection... and importantly, the character NEVER removes his helmet during the film. Urban manages to convey everything through the angle/tilt of his head and the expression of his mouth... without cracking a smile in any way... Exactly as Dredd would.

The supporting cast is fairly good too, Lena Headey is great as the nasty MaMa as is Olivia Thirlby as the psychic rookie Judge Anderson.

What lets the film down is the fact it's a low budget movie, and this shows in a lot of the visual effects and the use of vehicles. The Lawmaster bikes looked a little silly and some of the exterior landscape views across the city looked sparse. It also shows in the quality of some of the cast I felt.

The writing overall was good, well suited to the characters for the most part.

I for one am hoping they greenlight a sequel, one with a budget more suited to this kind of movie... This one is really good and the negatives I mentioned don't really detract from the overall enjoyment of the film. It's certainly one that I come back to and watch again when the mood strikes... But imagine how great it could have been if they could have enhanced those visuals and got a few extra actors in to raise the overall quality of the performances.

But whatever the outcome... if there's a sequel there is but one certainty. Urban IS Dredd and there is no other actor more suited to the role.

So after the durge that the 95 Stallone Dredd I was sickened... after this one I was ecstatic... and I know that for a fact because last night I watched both of them back to back.

9/10

On one hand i liked the movie. It created great atmosphere, the story and world are simple yet interesting. I love the play by Lena Headey (Ma-Ma), i think that she is the strong point of the movie. Conceptually, I really enjoyed the implementation of telepathy and the use of it by Cassandra Anderson (played by Olivia Thirlby). The scene where is goes to into Kay's head (Wood Harris) and messes with him just made me love her :).

On other hand, what i really did not like, were the costumes (e.i. Judge Dredd was comical with his helmet, or the Judge's motorcycles). I think that for a movie in made in 2012 they looked like from cheap sfi-fi movies in 80's or 90's. Finally, what made the movie, for me, to go down several points, was the scene with two (or three?) Gatling gun's and Judge Dredd running from their fire like for 5 minutes, and they firing thousands and thousands of rounds, destroying half of Megablock floor, killing a lot of civilians around Dredd, but never hitting him. That was just ludicrousness and i hate scenes like that.

This might be just for me, otherwise i would bump the rating to 7 and if you are a fan of Dredd comis (I have never read it) add another point to it.