Dredd

I just finished watching the bloody, very bloody, Dredd reboot.

A couple of things I liked about it. I liked that Dredd, played by Karl Urban, kept his helmet on the whole time, like he's supposed to.

I liked the fact that it was a throwback to violent 80s action flicks like Rambo and Robocop.

It had the bright neon colors and all the senseless shooting. The bad guys were bad just for the sake of having someone for the good guys to blow away. Simple. No complex story line. Just good guys wasting bad guys. Druggies. Guns. More guns. And a lot of bullets flying across a wash of red splatter.

I liked that the whole look was 80's retro, but with the seamless use of today's CGI standards.

The things I didn't like: Every goddamn time they introduced the drug slow-mo the actual film would cut to a slow motion reel of people high on slow-mo. Every goddamn time. The first time was long... and gave the viewer the gist. Every time after that initial car chase in slow-mo was just overkill. The drug wasn't as interesting as the filmmakers apparently thought it was.

I didn't like the Mama character either. The character had no real motivation for wanting to kill Dredd. She is the head drug lord of the Peach Trees area and wants to expand her franchise. The best way to do that would simply be to have had her man killed by some patsy, and let the patsy take the fall. Two birds with one stone.

Taking on a Judge seemed rather stupid. There just wasn't any reason for it. It guaranteed Mama real big trouble.

*Spoilers*

If Mama would have just left Dredd alone, she could have made her little 9/11 call later and pulled a few inside favors and nobody would have ever been the wiser as to what she was up to.

Instead she's just hell bent on killing Dredd, not for some reason, but for no reason at all.

So the character is written with two ways out of her situation and she ignores each one just so she can keep trying to kill Dredd. But why? It never explained why she hated him so much. Other than Mama is just a throwback to 80's villains--a character of evil, doped up, crack-heads high on insanity from one too many hits.

The performances were all good.

I was hoping for some satire, you know, what makes the Dredd comics so appealing. But there wasn't any. It was just a straight up action flick.

**End Spoilers**

Low Down

Over all, I give it a 6.5 out of 10. 

It's entertaining enough for a second viewing, or the occasional viewing when you're in a blast-em-up shoot-em-up mood. But beyond that, it's your standard fair gun romp with lots of splatter.

I know a lot of people still prefer the Stallone one better. I like both for different reasons. This new Dredd plays it straight. It's realistic. Gritty. No camp this time around. That appeals to some. The Stallone one was a lot more fun as far as popcorn films go. But it's just a matter of preference. I rate the Stallone version a 7.0 out of 10 just because it does have humor and a compelling plot with a villain with a real reason for wanting Dredd out of the big picture.