Kelly WandJudge Dredd
November 11th 2006 00:56
Being a huge fan of the weekly comic book 2000AD, I remember being at the cinema for the first public showing of this film in London. The atmosphere was electric. The morning sun had barely risen above the façade of the Odeon in Leicester Square. Despite the fact that it was still earlier than most of us were used to waking up (for some it was pretty much near our bed time), all the freaks had come out to play. Judge Dredd was a strange kind of hero given the fact that he was basically a Nazi icon emerging at a time when was sliding into Fascism under the heel of Margaret Thatcher. Still, the freaks loved our Dredd. He wore cool clothes and the comic strip was bursting with freaky characters like the fat bastards who used “Belly Wheels” in order to move. Although he was a fascist scumbag, his fascism at least served an ideal of justice and there was enough irony soaked into the pages for us to see the joke.
So how did the film go down? Shall we say that Stallone was not the most popular choice for Dredd. The fan base figured we should have held out for Clint and that was it. Comic fans can be very over protective. It wasn’t going too badly until Stallone pulled off his helmet. Well, we didn’t want to see that. Dredd never took his helmet off but, if he ever did, the last thing we would want to see is fucking Rambo staring out at us. There were audible groans in the auditorium. Despite appearances from the Angel Gang and an ABC Warrior, nothing would lift our spirits. Judge Dredd was just another dreary special effects action movie and not the divine vision we had imagined.
It has taken me nigh on twenty years to return to the film and work out if I was – perhaps – just a little unkind in my estimation. Well yes and no. The film is certainly much better than I remember it and has a decent visual style. Stallone is just Stallone, an actor who you could never tell if his tongue was in his cheek because it sounded like he was trying to swallow a bag of marbles. The writers made mistakes. The best bad guys didn’t get enough screen time and Dredd – as a character – only really works as a symbol. The comic book understood that. You didn’t really want to know what Dredd thought or felt. If director Danny Cannon (who?) hadn’t felt obliged to make Stallone act (if that’s what you call it), the film would have worked better.
I have to admit that I enjoyed the film this time around but only just. Fairs fair. It is certainly better than “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones”. Then again, what isn’t.
So how did the film go down? Shall we say that Stallone was not the most popular choice for Dredd. The fan base figured we should have held out for Clint and that was it. Comic fans can be very over protective. It wasn’t going too badly until Stallone pulled off his helmet. Well, we didn’t want to see that. Dredd never took his helmet off but, if he ever did, the last thing we would want to see is fucking Rambo staring out at us. There were audible groans in the auditorium. Despite appearances from the Angel Gang and an ABC Warrior, nothing would lift our spirits. Judge Dredd was just another dreary special effects action movie and not the divine vision we had imagined.
It has taken me nigh on twenty years to return to the film and work out if I was – perhaps – just a little unkind in my estimation. Well yes and no. The film is certainly much better than I remember it and has a decent visual style. Stallone is just Stallone, an actor who you could never tell if his tongue was in his cheek because it sounded like he was trying to swallow a bag of marbles. The writers made mistakes. The best bad guys didn’t get enough screen time and Dredd – as a character – only really works as a symbol. The comic book understood that. You didn’t really want to know what Dredd thought or felt. If director Danny Cannon (who?) hadn’t felt obliged to make Stallone act (if that’s what you call it), the film would have worked better.
I have to admit that I enjoyed the film this time around but only just. Fairs fair. It is certainly better than “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones”. Then again, what isn’t.
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