I have to admit that this was much, much better than I expected. I guess it was because when I watched the older film I was quite disappointed with it, but also because the first film was one of those type of films where Dredd, the protagonist, goes up against a villain that has some huge plans, and he has to basically stop him from taking over the world. Yeah, that's pretty much a rather tired trope that sort of makes a film rather boring. Well, to be honest, this film was anything but.
The film starts off with Dredd taking on a rookie. This doesn't seem to be something that is all that out of the ordinary for judges, including highly decorated ones like Dredd. Anyway, they go out on patrol and the rookie decides to go and investigate a triple homocide that has been reported in one of the towers, which also happens to be a slum. Well, things end up going pear shaped pretty quickly because they arrest one of the ring leaders of the gang that is attempting to take control of the tower, and the gang boss, Mama, decides to shut the whole tower down.
So, pretty much most of the film takes place inside the tower, where at first they are attempting to find a way out, and then once they get out, they decide that it is time to go back in to attempt to shut down this gang. The thing is that with a city the size of Mega-City 1 (it pretty much takes up most of the North-Eastern seaboard) this gang probably isn't one of the most powerful out there. Oh, and not only do they have to take out the gang, but Dredd is assessing a rookie, and they are also taking a prisoner, one that they have decided that killing is not the best option because they want to take him back for questioning.
The thing with Judge Dredd, being a long standing comic, there is an awful lot of source material in which to draw upon. Sure, I am not all that familiar with the stories, only having been exposed to them in my teenage years with computer games (I never really got my hands on the 2000AD comics). So, I really appreciated the fact that they didn't decide to go for one of those earth-shattering stories that many film adaptions tend to go for - they are boring by the way - but rather just one of those 'day in the life of' stories, which end up being so much more interesting.
So, yeah, this was actually a pretty awesome film. It pretty much kept me on my toes all the way through, and kept me wanting to watch it to see how it ended. Yeah, it was so much better than the first one, though I have to admit that it is a shame that they didn't end up making any more of them, especially considering the source material available. Still, sometimes, in fact most times, a good movie will pretty much stand on its own, and it is best to simply leave it at that.
The film starts off with Dredd taking on a rookie. This doesn't seem to be something that is all that out of the ordinary for judges, including highly decorated ones like Dredd. Anyway, they go out on patrol and the rookie decides to go and investigate a triple homocide that has been reported in one of the towers, which also happens to be a slum. Well, things end up going pear shaped pretty quickly because they arrest one of the ring leaders of the gang that is attempting to take control of the tower, and the gang boss, Mama, decides to shut the whole tower down.
So, pretty much most of the film takes place inside the tower, where at first they are attempting to find a way out, and then once they get out, they decide that it is time to go back in to attempt to shut down this gang. The thing is that with a city the size of Mega-City 1 (it pretty much takes up most of the North-Eastern seaboard) this gang probably isn't one of the most powerful out there. Oh, and not only do they have to take out the gang, but Dredd is assessing a rookie, and they are also taking a prisoner, one that they have decided that killing is not the best option because they want to take him back for questioning.
The thing with Judge Dredd, being a long standing comic, there is an awful lot of source material in which to draw upon. Sure, I am not all that familiar with the stories, only having been exposed to them in my teenage years with computer games (I never really got my hands on the 2000AD comics). So, I really appreciated the fact that they didn't decide to go for one of those earth-shattering stories that many film adaptions tend to go for - they are boring by the way - but rather just one of those 'day in the life of' stories, which end up being so much more interesting.
So, yeah, this was actually a pretty awesome film. It pretty much kept me on my toes all the way through, and kept me wanting to watch it to see how it ended. Yeah, it was so much better than the first one, though I have to admit that it is a shame that they didn't end up making any more of them, especially considering the source material available. Still, sometimes, in fact most times, a good movie will pretty much stand on its own, and it is best to simply leave it at that.