While the original film is criticised for being too much of a Stallone vehicle which strayed to far away from the original source material, Dredd 3D sets out to take the Judge back to what he does best, dishing out the law, shooting a lot of people and keeping his helmet firmly on.
Dredd follows Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) who works as an urban policeman in the futuristic America, which is now a wasteland except from the sprawling urban area, known as Mega City One. The Judges are empowered to be judge, jury and executioner, with a set of very strict laws meaning that vigilantes and thieves can be executed on the spot by the Judges. Dredd is teamed up with rookie, Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) by his superior, Chief Judge (Rakie Ayola) because she is a mutant from the nuclear fallout that means she possesses psychic abilities, however she isn't very good with a gun. Anderson chooses the investigate three homocides at The Peach Tree, a 200 storey building that has been taken over by prostitute-turned-drug lord, Mama (Lena Heady) for her illegal drug, Slo-Mo. When Mama traps the two judges in the building, it's either climb to the top, killing endless amounts of henchmen on the way to kill Mama or be killed themselves.
Now, first off, this film is extremely similar to the film released earlier this year, The Raid. While both films were in production around the same time as each other, it has to be said that Dredd 3D has not simply copied The Raid. It's obvious when you see the film, because The Raid is much better. Unfortunately for Dredd 3D it becomes a little repetitive - the henchmen all mould into one, the floors all mesh into one and the setting of The Peach Tree is just pretty bland for a futuristic Sci-Fi film. Whereas The Raid had thrilling hand-to-hand martial arts combat fights, Dredd 3D is just as brutal, but it relies on weaponry far too much for it's fight scenes, which somehow manages to drain all the tension from the fight scenes, because characters can be dispatched in seconds.
There are no drawn-out fight scenes where you're not sure who's going to win in Dredd 3D. In fact, the most tension in the fight scenes arise when Dredd tells one of his villains to "Wait!" Nothing more, just to wait. Anderson then happens to stumble across them so she can swiftly shoot the villain in the head. That's it... done.
However, it's not all bad with Dredd 3D. First off, the violence in the film is something that I wasn't expecting. For some reason, I didn't check the rating of the film beforehand, but I have to say that this film earned it's 18 rating. The use of the drug Slo-Mo (which makes the characters feel like time is moving at a hundredth of normal speed) creates some beautifully violent scenes - a man's chest is hit hard from an explosion, another man's jaw is ripped apart as a bullet ploughs through it... The list goes on!
Another strong point of the film was it's directional style. While the 3D didn't really add much to the film except for the sense of depth, the sweeping shots of Mega City One and the framing of certain action scenes really captured the essence of the original source material. Point-Of-View shots as henchmen are thrown down the entire 200 floors of The Peach Tree and the Slo-Mo action scenes almost rival the gritty filming style of The Raid. It's really something to behold when a film studio actually have the guts to release a hardcore 18 rated action film nowadays, as it's too common for films to receive a lower rating to try and appeal to a wider audience. It's also refreshing to see a film so obviously geared towards the violent-loving male crowd without a hint of anything for the females (unless your a girl who likes her violence?!) So many times I've had to sit through an action film which involves a largely underdeveloped romantic sub-plot to try and widen the target audience, but Dredd 3D doesn't even try to do this.
While the ending could be misunderstood as Dredd starting to love Anderson, I like to think that he was actually starting to like her new violent attitude.
Having said that, despite a very strong set-up, promising an ultra-violent film, Dredd 3D is largely let-down by a lacklustre finale. Heady as the evil Mama is at times a little underwhelming. She has a very interesting character set-up and is at times brilliantly low-key in her malice towards Dredd and Anderson, however I just didn't fully understand her motivations to lock them both in the tower. Sure, she had a henchman that was about to be taken in for questioning that could reveal her drug selling and making at The Peach Tree, but surely she could have just executed him before he left?
But, I can accept all of that and overlook it, but the finale for Dredd 3D is so underwhelming that it practically made the whole film pointless. Dredd and Anderson make it up to Mama's penthouse suite on the top floor and much like the rest of the film, instead of a long drawn out battle, Mama is defeated within seconds of them getting there. There's hardly any struggle, there's hardly any pain and Mama certainly doesn't really suffer for any of the pain that she has caused. It just... finishes. I kind of felt like I wanted my money back and come back when they come up with a more fantastical finale.
So, if you can overlook a very underwhelming finale, then Dredd 3D is not a bad film. Sure, Dredd 3D is inferior to The Raid, but it's not a completely bad film - it just felt like the finale and the fight scenes needed a little bit more work.
*** / *****
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