So, I kinda liked it. I mean, I got a little bored somewhere in the middle during (what felt like) a 10-minute machine gun scene, but other than that, it was okay. I guess I was expecting a lot more action and a lot less menace.
Nevertheless, there are a lot of good parts. Headey is her evil best as the psycho Ma-Ma, Urban never takes his helmet off (which, I'm told, is a big deal) and Olivia Thirlby kills it as Psi-Judge Anderson. The action is appropriately gritty, intense, and brutal. A great secondary character played by the always-typecast Wood Harris (will he ever play the lead in a RomCom?). Nice little twists and turns.
What I liked best, though, was the treatment of females in the movie.
They aren't spared any of the brutality around them and certainly dish it out with the best.
- Ma-Ma is one of the best drugs lords I've ever seen on screen: brutal, efficient, sef-made. She doesn't sashay about in a skin-tight leather number either - she's dressed the way you'd expect a street thug living in a slum to be dressed. She inspires equal amounts of fear or respect. In short: she is one dangerous mother. And Dredd knows it. Don't miss that badass scar on her face, either.
- Anderson is a failed academy recruit with extraordinary psychic abilities. Her uniform matches Dredd's perfectly (no random boob/butt implants): when Dredd tells her that her helmet is optional but advisable, she pragmatically replies that it blocks her best weapon - her psychic abilities. Just when you think pretty girl Anderson is in for a world of hurt, she mentally breaks down the best of them, leaving her targets (literally) pissing their pants.
...Awesome.
I'd probably have given this movie a meh 2.5, but because of the Anderson/Ma-Ma dynamic, I'm upping it to 3 out of 5 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment