New clip:
I really do love the slow build up of "Oooooooh fuuuuuuuck"ness in that clip. Helped a great deal by Lena Headey doing what she does best: being one seriously badass bitch.
Also heard that they've started showing tv spots of Dredd finally in the UK. Haven't watched 'em yet, but it looks like they're really ramping up the marketing, now. Very cool to know.
I didn't expect anything less.Originally Posted by feverishparade
Spoiler:
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
First tv spot now online. It's called "LEGEN-"
...wait for it...
DARY!
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
EDIT: Dang double post!
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
A link to Alex Garland answering the questions of 2000AD forum members: http://forums.2000adonline.com/index...c,36741.0.html
Amazing: someone heavily involved in the movie based on a much loved comic book actually giving a shit what the fans think, and being so polite about it, too. Amazing.
New tv spot, too:
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
Yeah, I thought he would just pick his favourites but he went through and answered them all! Even my silly little "I can't really think of anything film related but want to ask something" question (I'm Mardroid on that forum).
That's just awesome that he answered every question like that! The fact that he does hold the fans opinions so highly is such a great sign!
Btw, Dredd has officially been given a certificate level of 18, of which, I'm strangely relieved. Of everything I'd heard about this film, the level of violence has been the most consistently mentioned. I know there's a lot they can get away with in a 15 these days - after all, look at the Final Destination movies - but still, I'm glad they haven't taken the easy option and made even tiny cuts to make it sell easier. True, it may make less money in the long run, but at the end of the day, I'm just relieved I'll be seeing an uncut, uncompromising Judge Dredd movie.
Also, I can hopefully book my tickets soon.
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
A whole bunch of guys on the 2000 Ad forum have one tickets for a special screening tomorrow. Introduced by Karl Urban himself no less! I didn't win a ticket, but that's probably fair enough as I'm working tomorrow and it's rather short notice!
I'm very much looking forward to the film though. I doubt I'll see it the day it comes out, but I'm hoping to catch it with some of the forum folk very shortly.
Apparently, Garland thinks that Dredd could work as a tv series. That's an interesting approach. If it was made by HBO or AMC, then yeah, I could definitely see that working. Dredd's a very much "case-of-the-week" strip, so who knows. Let's see how well this does first, though. I strongly suspect it'll be decent - whether it'll be actually successful, especially with Looper coming out a week after Dredd's US release, is another matter.
Btw: another Dredd clip. Probably my favourite so far, as it really shows off just how good Urban is as Dredd. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE6UjtmNZds
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
The idea of a HBO/AMC based Dredd TV show makes me happy in all the right places.
A lot is riding on the domestic success of the film, however. Hopefully it delivers financially so that these projects can get off the ground.
Fingers crossed!
Also: ONE WEEK!!!!
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
Ticket booked for 2pm Friday. Traded the last bank holiday I worked to have the day off. This is gonna be awesome!
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
Also included this in the RTLMYS thread, but thought I might as well post this review here.
****
Having finally seen Dredd, one thing that’ll leap out is that, despite being based on a comic book character, it doesn’t feel much like a comic book movie, not the traditional kind, anyway. Despite the earliest trailer suggesting otherwise, this isn’t a movie about Dredd saving the world from the evil clutches of Ma-Ma’s empire, or even the entire city – hell, Dredd has never even heard of Ma-Ma before the start of the film, that’s how “major” a criminal she is to the Judges. There's no "origin" story for Dredd, nothing that shows how he came to be the Judge he is today. In fact, Dredd has a lot more in common with a ton of old school cop movies, in particular Dirty Harry and Die Hard – there’s the rookie Anderson he has with him on the case (who of course, Dredd doesn’t initially approve of), there’s the rather casual attitude to violence and the bleakness of the world that he has, mixed in with being trapped in one building and facing hundreds of armed guys in the process. If all of this sounds a far cry from the big scifi epic the Stallone film approached, believe me, it is. And it is all the better for it.
The simplicity of the plot is a great way of slowly introducing not just Dredd but his world to the audience, despite most of the film being set in just one block of Mega-City 1. As I mentioned before, this doesn’t come across as a major deal for Dredd – in fact, by the end of the film, you get the sense that he has to go through this kind of shit every day of the week. But as the film goes on, we get a sense of what living in Mega-City 1 is like: the bleakness, the violence, the harshness of it all, without overdoing it. The only thing that makes this any different for Dredd is that he’s temporarily teamed up with a rookie, and it’s through Anderson’s eyes only that all the violence is a big deal.
Speaking of violence, this film is full of it. Bodies are shot to shit, blown to shit, burned to shit, in fact, if there's any kind of shit possible for a perp to end up in, Dredd sends that perp the fastest way to it. Not only is it cool to look at, but occasionally throughout the film, we’re left to think about the consequences, although the pace is decent enough that it’s not during the film that we think about it, but afterwards. The right shot of the bodies of innocent bystanders that no one reacts to says far more about just how fucked up Dredd’s world is than any kind of overly sentimental wankery dialogue that screenwriter Garland could’ve included. Fortunatly, there really isn’t any of that, and what’s not said about the violence fits the film perfectly.
Moving on from the world, we move onto the characters. Dredd doesn’t come across as a three-dimensional character who develops much, that’s Anderson’s role. What we do get a man who feels like the living embodiment of the law, an uncompromising, unstoppable force of nature. Sure, he bleeds, he’s not superhuman, but he won’t let you know that. Shoot him, and if you don’t finish the job, he’ll just carry on and fuck you over anyway. In short, he’s a total fucking badass. Both Garland’s writing and Karl Urban’s acting really show that they totally get the character in a fundamental way that the makers of the Stallone movie didn’t.
As for the other lead, Thirlby is great as Anderson. Really, it’s through her eyes that we see just how fucked up Dredd’s world is, and as she gets put through a lot of shit on her first day on the job, so too does she emerge almost completely changed by the end of it. Really, it’s kind of an old character plot to use, but like I said, in a film like Dredd, it definitely works.
Another thing I’ve gotta mention: how fantastic it looks. On a visual level, Dredd can look amazingly beautiful at times. Not just because of the Slo-Mo, which looks surprisingly effective, especially with some wonderful use of bright colours that make it look more surreal than the average slow motion in an action movie, but Anderson’s psychic abilities, flash grenades, the lighting in general – at its best, Dredd looks as close to the original comic as you can get while looking fantastic in its own right.
A couple of problems: sometimes, the action can start to get a little samey after a while, not helped by every single floor and corridor looking almost exactly the same like a 70s ep of Doctor Who. And while we are introduced to a lot of Dredd’s world, such as the power of the Judges and how chaotic life in the city is, I would’ve liked to see a bit more expanded on it. This is why I greatly hope for either a sequel or, as Garland suggested, a tv series even, but I know that the chances of either happening for an R rated hardcore action movie aren’t exactly great.
So if this were the only film of Judge Dredd to be made (what, we’re not counting the Stallone film, are we?), would I be upset? A little, but not too much. The plot may not feel like a MAJOR Judge Dredd story, but it does feel like a decent Judge Dredd story, and for that much, we can be thankful. It won’t be the most popular comic book movie this year, and it hardly has much depth, but it is a refreshingly awesome hardcore action movie, old school in the best sense, and one I plan on rewatching asap. 8/10
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
Hmmm. Let me see if I can justify my reaction, Brice:
Spoiler:Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
Stallone was as right for Dredd as Lucy Liu is for Watson. (And I still can't fucking believe that's ACTUALLY HAPPENED.)
Anyway, saw it a 2nd time yesterday. Really looking forward to finding out what everyone else thinks of the new film! Just under a couple of weeks until its US release! In the meantime, here's the latest awesome tv spot.
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
It's official: Dredd is currently no. 1 at the UK box office! Not too shabby, considering only people aged 18 or over can see it!
How does this relate to its potential success in the US? Well, not much. I was kinda hoping it'd do well over here - not enough to make it's money back just yet, this is the UK, after all, but do really well chart wise due to the character's slightly iconic status at least. It won't have that kind of power in the US, so fingers crossed the good reviews and word of mouth can give it some boost, but still, fantastic to know it does well in its own country, at least.
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
Seriously Brice, are you gonna check out the new film?
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
It's awesome stuff, Brice. You're sure to enjoy it for the violence alone: within the first few minutes,
Spoiler:
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
I saw it on Saturday. I met up with some guys from the 2000 AD forum at Leicester Square's Empire cinema for the 8:45pm showing. I arrived early* and a couple of the guys were already there dressed up in Planet Replica judge outfits. They had arranged with the manager to meet there to help promote the film, and lots of pictures were taken with members of the general public. Quite amusing.
Anyway after a bit, the others arrived and the manager had set aside 20 seats for us.
Overall I'd say I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I did start to feel a bit bored somewhere in the middle, but that was only for a little while, then it got interesting and exciting again.
If I had any complaints it would be that the various promotional material on-line did spoil the story for me a tad. I'm not one of those guys that freaks out over stuff like that (seriously, I find the way some people react to minor spoilers ridiculous) but in the case of this film, the story is actually very basic. That's not a bad thing in this case, being an introductory film, but spoilers go further if that makes sense.
A good film. I'll certainly get the DVD or Blu-Ray. (Not that I have a Blu-ray player yet.) Urban, Thirlby and Headey were great in their respective roles. As was that minor character with the ginger hair who played Mama's tech guy.
By the way, you may be interested to know that the prequel comic will be bundled with the next issue of Judge Dredd Megazine. (It should be available soon in the UK but I think those Stateside will have to wait a good while longer.) Or there's the free web version... And a motion version.
I'm waiting for the Megazine version as I get that each month anyway.
*I wanted to pop in Forbidden Planet before it closed to change a faulty book. If books can be described as 'faulty'. Basically it repeated pages and missed pages out...**
**In case you're curious it was The Incredible Hulk: Silent Screams written by a certain Peter David. A good read by the way.
Glad to hear you and the guys enjoyed it as much as I did, Brainslinger! Sounds like you had an awesome time, overall!
(And yes, not only do I know about the Megazine, but, well:
Spoiler:
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
Nice! I usually download the Prog and Meg from Clickwheel to save money, but I'm tempted to get the hard copy this month...Glad to hear you and the guys enjoyed it as much as I did, Brainslinger! Sounds like you had an awesome time, overall!
(And yes, not only do I know about the Megazine, but, well:
Spoiler:
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