In 1995, Sylvester Stallone portrayed the character in a movie adaptation called Judge Dredd, directed by Danny Cannon. This was back when comic book movies weren't really handled with the respect they should have been, and (please excuse the pun) it didn't really do the source material any justice.
17 years later, in our very own futuristic setting where comic book movies are often treated like art, everyone's favorite Street Judge was adapted for film again. This time Karl Urban starred as the frowny-faced title character in 2012's Dredd (also known as Dredd 3D), directed by Pete Travis.
I saw Dredd for the first time after it was released on home media. I really loved it. Karl Urban was great, and I loved that the character never took off the helmet after first putting it on at the beginning of the movie. He almost never does so in the comic, and when he does, the reader is unable to see his face. Stallone's Dredd had his helmet off for much of the 90's movie. Something I found really interesting about the character of Judge Dredd in this movie is that there was very little character development. It would be incorrect to say there wasn't any, because there was. There just wasn't that much. Whereas that's generally a negative when it comes to movies, for some reason it really worked for this one, and it actually felt kind of refreshing. The character of Judge Anderson, played by Olivia Thirlby, definitely had a lot more character development than Dredd did, and that kept the movie from feeling completely devoid of it. Seeing her so conflicted throughout the movie was great.
For some reason, the movie felt more like a fan-film to me than it did a Hollywood adaptation. But you know... actually good. The reasons for this feeling are probably the relatively small budget and the fact that the people making it probably respected the source material, as well as the way it was shot, the mostly self-contained setting, and the lack of Hollywood cliches usually forced into adaptations in an attempt to make the story appeal to a mass audience. I imagine that was intentional, because the 90's adaptation couldn't possibly be more Hollywood, and fans didn't like that much. In this day and age, I think the general movie-going public have begun to notice and get sick of those cliches.
The use of slow motion, not as a stylistic flourish as in most action films, but to actually portray the effects of the fictional drug Slo-Mo, was really interesting and quite beautiful. I also loved the use of stretched out elements in the film score during those parts. The Slo-Mo scenes made me wish I had seen the movie in the theater in 3D. Concerning the visual effects, the only thing I didn't like (and probably the only thing I didn't like about the entire movie) was the CGI blood splatter. I know it probably allowed the filmmakers more control with the 3D imagery, but it looked very fake to me. When it comes to blood splatter in movies, physical effects tend to look most realistic. Maybe they thought it wouldn't look realistic in slow motion.
I really hope they make a few sequels to Dredd, as it was one of my favorite movies of 2012. The few glimpses we got of other areas in Mega-City One at the beginning of the movie were nice to see, and I'd love to see more of it, even if it's just another relatively small area. And if they do make a sequel, I sure as hell plan on seeing it in the theater. As much as I enjoyed Looper, I wish I had gone to see Dredd 3D instead. Oh well.
When Disney makes that standalone Boba Fett movie, I think they should take some cues from Dredd, and have Fett not take off his helmet at all. One of the great things about Fett was always his mystique. Fans wondered what his face looked like under there, trying to picture something that went with his original voice (before it was changed to Temuera Morrison's for the Star Wars DVD release in 2004). Actually showing what he looks like at this point would ruin that, and Dredd proved that it's quite possible to have the main character of the movie never show his face. Fett could do without much character development as well, which would also help maintain the mystique. Rather than have young Boba Fett or something, it would be much better to just see him around the time of The Empire Strikes Back on one of his bounty hunting jobs, much like how Dredd seemed to be just a day in the life of Judge Dredd.