DREDD 3D: Judge DREDD is Back with the Lawgiver Blasting TIFF 2012 REVIEW

Director Pete Travis takes an excellent script by screenwriter Alex Gardener and brings vividly to life Carlos Ezquerra’s and John Wagner’s original grim story based on the hugely successful UK comic 2000AD. Judge Joe Dredd  (Karl Urban) is a cop in the streets of Mega-City One, a sprawling, violent, post-apocalyptic metropolis. Dredd has the ultimate power to judge criminals where they stand.Dredd, known and feared throughout Mega-City One is judge, jury and executioner. He is also the primary protector of Mega-City One but he is not the only judge with the power to do so. There is a force of such judges who are all members of the Grand Hall of Justice. Dredd 3D is really a new screen version of Dredd that will have everyone ecstatic after screen disaster made in 1995 starring Sylvester Stalone. “Dredd 3D” is far superior and is a great use of 3D technology and for Dredd fans is just what we have been waiting for.

Travis has cast Karl Urban as Dredd with perfect accuracy. Dredd has a rookie enforcer who works with him Judge Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) and together they are charged with taking down one of the most dangerous criminals Ma-Ma (Lean Headey). Ma-Ma is a ruthless drug lord and the leader of a gang that is behind the production and distribution of the hottest drug on the market called‘Slo-Mo’. Ma-Ma is a ruthless leader, once a prostitute, who holds no one dear but she has a fatal flaw – she herself is a drug addict. Lena (Game of Thrones) is superb as Ma-Ma and holds her own opposite Urban. Both their performances make for one f*&king awesome cat and mouse thrill ride. Ma-Ma’s henchman Kay (Wood Harris) is a killer but ultimately there may be little to separate him fromDredd, who is also a killer. It’s the justification for killing can become a fine line in a violent world where it is kill or be killed and there is a fine line between who are the villains. Ma-Ma has a fortress in a derelict 200 story building, a vertical slum, in Mega-City One that is ridden with crime and it is a horrible crime that brings Judge Dredd and rookie Anderson there.

Travis takes a page out of Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise and the recent movement in superhero movies, he has tried to ground this film in a real world, not just a comic book one. Although set in the post-apocalyptic future, the cityscapes resemble deteriorated versions of big North American cities. The film was actually shot on location in South Africa in Cape Town and Johannesburg for an estimated 45 million dollars.