I’ll be blunt. This film is a celebration of special effects gore in a computer-generated world, meaning you can simulate the slow-motion effect of an explosions’ pressure wave molding flesh into an oceanscape before ripping it from the bone.
Violence does not make a movie, but it can serve a purpose in its use. Here, the justification for using such a graphic and disturbing effect is the introduction of a designer drug called Slo-Mo that is becoming the scourge of Mega-City One. The main source is the Peach-Trees mega-building now controlled from top to bottom of its 200 story massiveness by the heartless, bloodlusting ‘Ma-ma’ (Played with a massive scar on her face by Lena Heady). This drug causes the passing of time to slow down, so one second will feel like a few minutes to the intoxicated – giving the special effects team opportunities galore to spread the slo-mo gore thick and wide.
Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) lives in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world where millions of people are packed into giant mega-cities with massive buildings that are cities unto themselves. The justice system relies on gun-toting judges who act like police and have the right to make lawful, on-the-spot executions. Dark and fraught with violence, the film does its best to capture the comic’s sensibilities (if you can call them that) right from the get go.
The plot is formulaic to a fault. Judge Dredd is assigned to put trainee Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) through her final test run. A slo-mo related crime brings the two to the Peach Trees complex. Once inside, Ma-ma locks down the massive structure, preventing any communication in or out. The next hour is a relentless pursuit of the outgunned judges, with a collateral body count that climbs faster than the national debt.
Using their wits, their weapons, and Anderson’s spooky, mutant ESP powers, the two survive the onslaught until the requisite corrupt judges, under Ma-ma’s thumb, show up to ‘help out’ the two trapped judges. Subversion doesn’t work well against psychics, or exceptionally brutal judges like Dredd, so the ruse is up before it can even get a start -- but still becomes a great excuse to expend a few thousand rounds of ammo.
Once the smoke clears and the contractually obligated cheesy dialogue is recited, the audience can safely leave the theater. Or change channels on the telly.
To their credit, the filmmakers were able to accomplish a difficult goal – bring a comic book character to life in the spirit of the comic itself. The art design, CGI, and atmosphere all bring the illustrations of Dredd’s world to life. Dredd is arguably one of the more violent, constantly running comic books, which certainly carries over to the film.
But where the comic used the imagery to project a world of lost morality and humanity, the film instead glorifies and revels in it. Where one panel on a page of old-fashioned ink and newsprint would be a close-up of a bullet wound, the film loiters on it with reverence, using the excuse of the slo-mo to show the horror of fatally ripped and exploded flesh over a full minute, in agonizing slow motion.
Elevating graphic violence to such an unfortunate and gratuitous necessity is, to me, revolting. I can understand violence in movies like Fight Club, Se7en, anything written by Tarantino, and slasher films like Friday the 13th where its expected everyone will get chopped into fine pieces before being cooked and served as chili at a school fundraiser. But when violence masquerades as the only solution for problems, regardless of which side, there can no longer be true heroes. And without heroes, the art of telling stories will die.
Rating: 2 of 5 bagels with cream cheese, lightly toasted, no lox
Medication: 20 mg Oxycodone, 300 mg gabapentin
Pain Level: 4
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