Full DREDD Trailer Needs More SloMo

Todd Brown, Founder and Editor

Lesson learned from the trailer for Pete Travis' Dredd? Bullets move fast. Everything else moves slooooooooooowly. Suddenly the behind the scenes power wrangle on the film makes a whole lot more sense.

The future America is an irradiated waste land. On its East Coast, running from Boston to Washington DC, lies Mega City One- a vast, violent metropolis where criminals rule the chaotic streets. The only force of order lies with the urban cops called "Judges" who possess the combined powers of judge, jury and instant executioner. Known and feared throughout the city, Dredd (Karl Urban) is the ultimate Judge, challenged with ridding the city of its latest scourge - a dangerous drug epidemic that has users of "Slo-Mo" experiencing reality at a fraction of its normal speed.

During a routine day on the job, Dredd is assigned to train and evaluate Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a rookie with powerful psychic abilities thanks to a genetic mutation. A heinous crime calls them to a neighborhood where fellow Judges rarely dare to venture- a 200 story vertical slum controlled by prostitute turned drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) and her ruthless clan. When they capture one of the clan's inner circle, Ma-Ma overtakes the compound's control center and wages a dirty, vicious war against the Judges that proves she will stop at nothing to protect her empire. With the body count climbing and no way out, Dredd and Anderson must confront the odds and engage in the relentless battle for their survival.

The endlessly inventive mind of writer Alex Garland and director Pete Travis bring DREDD to life as a futuristic neo-noir action film. Filmed in 3D with stunning slow motion photography sequences, the film returns the celebrated character to the dark, visceral incarnation from John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra's revered comic strip.

Karl Urban takes the title role as Judge Dredd in this latest adaptation of the underground comic book. The tagline says judgement is coming and if this is what we have to go on, well, there's more slow motion at play in this two minute trailer than most films can bear in an entire feature run time. Here's hoping it's a quirk of the edit.

Around the Internet:

Zetobelt

WTF? This is a remake of The Raid!

sadoldgothjim

WTF? Can't you read? I've explicitly explained that this movie pre-dates The Raid in a post just one above yours.

Zetobelt

I can read, thank you for your kind concern. I'll said again. This a rip-off of The Raid. But not the 2011 indonesian film, but the 1994 japanese anime. Hollywood has a tendency to do films very similar to asian ones. Watch this teaser... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM0m9-liHZs

Ard Vijn

You are joking I hope? That is a fan-made hoax which Gareth is allegedly trying to get included on the BluRay as an extra.

darnmarr

The Slo-Mo is an inherent deviceof the plot: affecting time perception and colour. The Slo-Mo sequences are shot by Anthony Dodd Mantle, in 3D, on custom-made rigs and camera housings,â and you think this will be a BAD thing? You crazy.

sadoldgothjim

*sigh* Repeating this is becoming a little tiresome:

It's baffling how anyone who claims to know anything about the film industry can think that a 3D movie with extensive FX work could have been made since the Raid came out.

Of course Dredd isnât ripping off the Raid â the Dredd screenplay was leaked online in mid-2010 and the main shoot wrapped late 2010, early 2011, so Dredd was first by a comfortable margin. Lionsgate have sat on the movie (knowing it will be a hard sell with the stink of the Stallone turkey still lingering) for a release date where it wonât get steam-rollered by one of the yearâs big releases.

Gareth Evans has already acknowledged the massive coincidence in similarity between the films:

http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Film-Review/the-raid-gareth-evans-interview

Q. Do you know that the new Judge Dredd film has essentially the same plot as The Raid?

Gareth Evans: Yes, while we were in post-production on The Raid I was telling a friend of mine that weâd just finished shooting and told him what the story was about and how this unit of cops had to fight their way out of a building after their raid comes down on them, he replied: âThatâs like the new Judge Dredd movie.â I said: âWhat?â So, he sent me this thing where I could read the synopsis for it and I thought: âOh God, weâve got to get released very, very soon!â [Laughs]

kungfueurotrash

It's The Raid set in the future with flying cars and a stupid helmet...

Andrew

Personally, I think it could be a cool action flick if nothing more.

But yeah, this doesn't feel like an adaptation, and I'm glad I'm not the only one to see the similarities to The Raid. They easily could have switched Judge Dredd with Robocop, Batman, or John McClane, and the results would only be slightly different.

I like Karl Urban's Dredd voice. It's nothing like Christian Bale's Batman. He seems to be taking the role seriously, and not pretending to be cool. (Not unlike Bale.)

I will miss the political satire of the books though. If the film makers wanted to make a movie about cops raiding a drug lord's hideout, why include Judge Dredd at all?

Mr. Cavin

I totally agree with the general consensus of the room--way to go leaching away the verve and wicked energy that made Judge Dredd interesting enough to persevere these long years for what seems to be a dippy, pretentious--what did the commenter say before? "Nolanized"?--new millennium sleepwalk though rote action tropes. I promise I'll give the movie a fair shake when it comes out, but this here just looks like a very special sweeps week episode of S.W.A.T.

And, PS, yojimbo, wouldn't giving this to Verhoeven pretty much end up with ROBOCOP being made? That movie already has the fiendish satirical futurism, bad manners, and militarized corporate US anarchy that was so richly on display in 2000AD.

ChevalierAguila

Looks generic and boring, no thx bro.

yojimbo

Mmmmhhh not sure about this one . Wish Verhoeven had been given this . He would have done justice to it . To this day I still remember buying issue one of 2000AD The Lawmaster looks shite as well as the Lawgiver two bits of iconic comic design given short shrift .

stkarene

Poorly scripted, bad acting, pathetic sci-fi police state promo, The Raid copy cat???

Oh well. Something else to skip.

Sahal

Has anyone seen this image of Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim?? http://bit.ly/LFlvN7 I wished Dredd's costume had a similar design. The lawmaster bikes look terrible as well.

But this will be a classic compared to Stallone's shitty Dredd.

Saltoner

Why are all the videos lately being blocked (this one, The Master), but I can go to another site and view them without issue? Lame.

Mr. Cavin

Okay. Hey, Lionsgate, assuming you occasionally troll places like this for mention of your name: why is it that you've geoblocked some advertisements? It's an advertisement, man. It's supposed to get the market excited about your product. Here online, that market may indeed consist of end-users who can influence the sort of rights deals that may end up bringing you movie legally to foreign markets. But it also includes all your country's service men and women, diplomats, etc., who have every right to, and intention of, legally enjoying a US licensed product you have deliberately blocked us from hearing about. What gives? Since I fit into one of the categories above (it's "etc."), I have a vested interest.

Todd Brown

Ask Lionsgate.

Greg Christie

So, it's Max Payne and The Raid by way of Robocop with a bad Christian Bale Batman impression? And they completely forgot/ignored that Judge Dredd was a satire with a scathing, cynical sense of humor. I have a soft spot for the Stallone picture, Ignore Rob Schneider's pathetic excuse for comic relief and there's a lot that they got right. I think most who hate that film never actually read Judge Dredd comics. Although, obviously, Stallone should never have taken the helmet off, but still, I'm not sure if that would work for a film, having the lead protagonist who can only grunt bad one liners wear a face covering mask the entire film. Maybe in a deconstructionist art house picture, that could work, but you can't expect that in a mega budget action film. Most normal, non geeky audience members would tune out having to relate to a non character for 90+ minutes. And with all of the extensive re-shooting, I can't help but think they're going back and directly stealing from The Raid. Oh, and that's a really lame press release. "The endlessly inventive mind of writer Alex Garland and director Pete Travis bring DREDD to life as a futuristic neo-noir action film." That's a bold statement and one that would suggest I should know who these two are. I see nothing inventive in that trailer and looking at their imdb pages, I hardly think Vantage and Sunshine are endlessly imaginative.

Swarez

Wow, from this trailer this is basically a big budget version of The Raid. Visuals are nice, Urban kind of silly but I don't know, might be decent.

Qinlong

Lena Headey looks awesome...

Todd Brown

As always ...

Bryan

Say what you want about the Slow-mo effect. No movie will ever top Zombieland in terms of sheer slow motion volume.

Todd Brown

Hmm ... I may have to go back and revisit that. I remember a few gags that made use of it but it never really popped out that way to me ... interesting ...

crazybee

The slow motion effect is a byproduct of the drug used in the movie (dubbed "Slo-Mo"). I personally think it looks awesome, in terms of the visual style, the claustrophobic nature of the story (hope they spend at least a bit of time on the Megacity streets), and the action.

icn1983

The MacGuffin is a power up from "Grand Theft Auto 3" and the plot is "Raid" minus any personal motivation until presumably Anderson is brutalized or something...IN 3D!!!

Todd Brown

Yeah, I understand the story reason but, damn, there's a lot of it. Not even John Woo in his heyday would dream of using that much. I don't feel like I've really learned anything from this trailer ... visuals are good, but that was a sure thing as soon as they hired the DP. I don't feel like it's shown me anything in terms of performances and actual scope of the film. Right now it feels like a music video. We'll see what they do with the next one ...

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