The road for the character Judge Dredd has been a lengthy and turbulent one. Created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra in 1977 for 2000 AD Comics magazine, it has been one of the longest-running British Comic Book characters and was voted the seventh-best comic hero by British magazine Empire.
Now, thanks to Machinima, we have the exclusive first trailer for the upcoming action reboot called “Dredd.”
“Dredd takes place in an alternate dystopian future where most of the Unites States was destroyed and left uninhabitable by the Atomic Wars. Now, humans can only survive in three remaining Mega-Cities, while those deemed as “mutants” — due to the exposure to radioactivity and banned to the wastelands called Cursed Earth — are forbidden from living inside the safety of the city walls.
In one remaining city, the police force now known as Judges have the power to use brutality to keep the citizens in line and deal with any super criminals or murderers in any fashion they choose; in essence, they are judge, jury and executioner all-in-one.
One of the toughest is Judge Dredd (Karl Urban), a senior law enforcement officer who teams up to train a cadet, Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), and in the process is thrown into a mission to track down a terrorist organization. That organization is led by the maniacal Ma-Ma (Lena Headley), who is responsible for selling a new reality-altering drug known as Slow-Mo in one of the largest compounds in the city. The Judges must make their way through hundreds of floors of thugs, gang members and every other type of criminal to find and stop this drug ring before it takes over the city.
It has been a long time coming, but we finally get a look at the very first trailer for “Dredd” and judge for ourselves if this is the dark and gritty movie that we have always wanted the character to appear in.
Taking a bare-bones approach to this movie and universe seems to help tell the story more closely related to that in the comics compared to the convoluted approach shown in 1995’s “Judge Dredd” starring Sylvester Stallone. The design and look of the film showcases the city and futuristic technology well and it appears to have a very basic and rough look to it that is appealing.
The effect of the use of the Slo-Mo drug is interesting and really lends itself to the action, but it might conflict with the dark and gritty tone of the film by providing stylized action set pieces. I cannot talk about the trailer without mentioning how similar the basic plot of “Dredd” comes to the Indonesian action mega-hit “The Raid: Redemption,” but in all fairness, “Dredd” has been in pre-production since 2008 and was well underway before “The Raid: Redemption” was filmed. In general, the trailer shows us the robotic and emotionless Karl Urban executing the patented Dredd snarl and demeanor and appears to be a fun action film.
While the jury is still out on how the final film will be executed, overall I think they did a great job on bringing a fresh new take on the beloved character and how he is the anti-hero in this universe. Leave your thoughts on what you think of the very first trailer and if you think this will be the first faithful adaptation of this iconic figure to hit the big screen.
“Dredd” — which was directed by Pete Travis (“Vantage Point”) — is set to hit theaters in 2D and 3D on Sept. 21.
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I am the law! And the law should arrest anyone who wastes their money on this