If you grew up reading the original strip in 2000AD, you'll like the movie. If you like lean pacy action thrillers, you'll like the movie. If you enjoyed the strangely artful bloodletting in Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi: You'll. Like. The. Movie. It's as bloody as you'd imagine; smarter than you'd expect; and, every so often, just when the violence edges towards a tad too much, its undercut with some very dark humour.
Besides the above, the reason Travis nails the film is because he gets the details right: Cape Town is a surprisingly good stand in for Megacity 1, Karl Urban as Dredd is note perfect (he growls his lines, always deadpan, as Clint Eastwood circa. 1985 - which is just as it should be), and Lena Headey as Ma-Ma plays like an unhinged Cersei Lannister. Which is fun. And that's the best way to describe the film as a whole: fun. It was never going to sweep the awards ceremonies, but it should have had more of an impact than just being a blip on the radar.
Go enjoy the bloodletting.
Overall: 7/10
It's only hours after having drawn and posted the damn thing that I notice that Simon Bisley's iconic design for Dredd's gun - which is the design that I was working from - is just a teeny tiny bit phallic...
ReplyDeleteAh well...