Joka Goes To The Movies: Judge Dredd vs Dredd
Aug 3, 2014 15:35:41 GMT -5
A Ghost in the Wind likes this
Post by Joka on Aug 3, 2014 15:35:41 GMT -5
(This is an series I was writing in another fed where I would critique the remakes of movies next to the originals and then critique them both on any written material they were inspired from. This is all written In-Character, but kind of not, I mean my character is just an exaggerated version of mahself. I use to love writing these and am thinking about doing it again. Tell me if you love it, hate it, don't care about it, wanna kick me in the bawls, like skittles, or any thoughts you have on my critiques or the way I've written the article. I hope you all enjoy and look forward to hearing your critiques on my critiques!)
**WARNING** Spoilers Ahead!
First and foremost... I am a huge comic book nerd. I have read comic books my entire life and watched comic book movies almost as long. I have a list of favorite characters including the likes of Punisher, Hellboy, Wolverine, Gambit, Cable, and one of my all time favorites is without a doubt, Judge Dredd!
Lemme start off with a little fun factoid for everyones noggins. Everyone said after Judge Dredd came out that Dredd was a carbon copy of Robocop and the movie was playing off and copying the Robocop movies. It was actually the other way around. The inspiration for Robocop in the movies of the same name came from Judge Dredd and his appearance in the British magazine, 2000 AD. Robocop is the copy... not Judge Dredd!
Judge Dredd, and the comic based around him, is actually a comic strip that is featured in the British Magazine, 2000 AD. Judge Dredd is the magazines longest running strip and has been featured in the magazine since it's second publication in 1977. Dredd is a futuristic law enforcement officer in a dystopian future version of earth where various Mega-Cities are scattered amongst the charred and radioactive remains of the world. In this future version of Earth. Police have been eradicated in favor of a quicker system of judgement. Judges are the law in this comic strip and are empowered to arrest, sentence, and execute criminals at the scene of the crime.
Judge Dredd was named the Seventh Greatest Comic Character by the British magazine Empire. In 2011, IGN ranked him 35th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes!
As you can see... Judge Dredd is a FAWKIN' BELOVED character! He is full of awesome sauce. Widely feared, meticulous, ruthlessly aggressive, ultra violent, and methodical! A man after my own heart, if you take away all the obeying the law-disciplined-honorable man stuff out of there. Joka don't roll like that!
Comparisons to the Written Cannon
Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd in the 1995 Original - This version of Judge Dredd (Joseph Dredd) is taken from an already established comic book version. The Judge Dredd in this movie is feared by criminals, renowned for his accolades as a Judge, a well decorated Judge in the Hall of Justice, and famous amongst the citizens of not only Mega City One, but all Mega Cities and colonies throughout the solar system. As much as people wanna hand Sylvester Stallone some shit for his role in Judge Dredd, he did the character justice and played a damn good Judge Dredd, even using a Dredd catchphrase from the comic "I knew you'd say that" or "I knew they'd do that".
Judge Dredd in the 2013 Remake - The Dredd in this one was so much sweeter to watch on the big screen. First and foremost they followed the comic in this movie so well, that they took a cue from the comic and had Judge Dredd wearing his helmet the entire time. Karl Urban plays Dredd in this movie and you never get to see his face, save for the bottom part. In the comics, Dredd never once, not one FUCKING time, shows his face. Even when he takes his helmet off in the comics, they pull a Wilson from the show Home Improvement, and strategically hide the top part of his face behind scenery and objects. In this version of the movie, this is an early version of Dredd back when he was fresh out of the academy, so he hadn't gained his fame, notoriety, infamy, and was only slightly known and feared among criminals. I personally think Karl Urban played a better Dredd. This Dredd reminds me more of the Dredd from the comics. Cold like a ghosty ghost, methodical like a mofuckin' robot, and following the law by the book, even when he was in mortal danger!
Lawgiver
The Lawgiver is Dredds personal firearm and is a DNA encrypted multi-purpose handgun issued to all judges which can only be fired by the judge it is issued to. The Lawgiver has a special boobytrap for those stupid enough to try and steal it from a Judge and use it. In the 1995 Original, it would send out an electrical charge that would stay until it was dropped or the target holding it was killed. In the 2013 remake, as is the same in the comics, the Lawgiver would explode, severing the persons hand holding it as well as possibly killing them from shrapnel or the blood loss from losing the hand. Now that I think about it... I might set something like that up in my cheese grater. Fucker tries to use my own weapon against me and BOOM... say bye bye to your hand! Learn to wack it with your other arm homesnizzle!
Now... where was I? Oh yes... the gun! Going off looks alone, the 2013 remake gets the win, but neither Lawgiver from either movie gets it right. Who can blame the design team though. The gun from the comics came with a big ass dial and didn't get the voice activation until Judge Dredd took on Judge Death... so meh on that. BUUUUUT... the 2013 remake came damn close to making their Lawgiver as accurate as possible. Gotta give props to the 1995 Original though... their Lawgiver is sexy as hell!
I could go on about the different ammo's used in the movies but they both essentially got it right. I do like in the remake when he uses a Hot Shot to fry a perps head during a hostage negotiation. Hot Shots in the comics were heat seaking incendiary bullets with highly unstable gases. Both movies do a good job of using the different and various forms of ammunition in the Lawgiver... but the remake takes the win for using the right names for the ammunition! Accuracy counts for something right?
Lawmaster
I would love to get a grease monkey to build me a replica of the Lawmaster Motorcycle from... well... either movie really! Both Lawmasters in both movies are pretty damn accurate. Both have artificial intelligence. Both have center mounted, double barrel, machine guns. Both have crowd control capabilities! I would only take points away from the 1995 version of the bike for being too big and bulky and give them to the 2013 version for being sleeker and more maneuverable. However, for those that say the Lawmaster from the 1995 version is unrealistic, anti-gravity technology does exist in the universe and alternate future of the comics, and Judge Dredd did get to ride a prototype Lawmaster with anti gravity capabilities for quite awhile in the comics. So gotta give the 1995 version props on that. In the end... the 1995 Lawmaster takes the win.
Uniform
Surprisingly... that god awful, clumsy ass, shiny piece of ugly junk uniform that Dredd wears in the 1995 movie... is actually almost entirely dead accurate. The only thing they took liberties on is the helmet. Surprisingly again, the only thing they GOT ACCURATE with the uniform in the 2013 remake... IS THE FUCKING HELMET! I just shook my damn head, smashed the TV that I was watching the movie on, and then I went and kicked a stranger right in his FUCKING bawls! After smoking a pack of cigarettes and contemplating burning down the Phoenix Headquarters... I came to realize that the uniform they used in the 2013 remake, is actually the same uniform they used for recruits in the academy, minus the badge as they aren't yet Judges. So all is well again. I again realized that they tried to make the uniform as realistic as possible in the remake, as a Judge would be hindered in such a bulky uniform in any real setting, so I again had a little bit of understanding behind their crazy thinking. You would think I would give the win here to the 1995 uniform... but nope... I'm a crazy sumbitch and I give the win here to the 2013 remake for making the helmet look exactly the same and for following the books to a T and not showing Dredds face for the entire film! You wanna argue? Come at me bro!
Supporting Characters
Judge Dredd (1995) - In the original film, the sidekick for Dredd is Judge Hershey and Fergee. Both characters from the comics. However, the film took major liberties and made Judge Hershey a Judge... and WHITE! FUCK YOU HOLLYWOOD! *cough* Judge Hershey is a Chief Judge in the comics and she also appears in the remake as the one who assigns Judge Anderson as Dredds partner. Good call for the remake guys! Now on to Fergee... I see no beef here with Fergee. They essentially kept him the same and made him a criminal turned hero. In the comics he becomes so beloved, that when he pushes Judge Cal off the Statue of Liberty and they both fall to their deaths, statues of Fergee are erected all over Mega City One. See what I did there... remember the scene where they are fighting on the Statue Of Liberty in the 1995 movie? Again... good call guys. Also... an Easter Egg from the 2013 film... during the opening monologue, a riot is playing out in Fergee Memorial Park! Interesting...
Dredd (2013) - In Dredd... Judge Dredd gets one supporting character in Judge Anderson. A psychic mutant with the most amazing psychic powers ever seen up to that point. In the comics, going as far back as some of the earliest issues, Judge Anderson is actually Dredds partner. She is transfered from the Psy-Ops division and assigned to Judge Dredd. In the movie she is a recruit straight out of the academy and assigned to Dredd for her final test. Interesting plot twist, interesting change, and good call by the director and screenwriters. I give the win here to the 2013 remake for including one of my favorite characters in Judge Anderson. Yeah it's biased as hell... don't like it... take it up with my complaint department.
*Points to mah steel toed clownboots*
As I've stated above there are alot of similarities and differences in both movies to the cannon from the comic books. The 1995 movie is based around a story arc that involves Dredds brother Rico escaping from prison to enact revenge on Dredd and all of the Judges for cloning him and Dredd and never telling them. He plans to use the cloning technology to make clones of himself so he can take over Mega City one. Dredd stops him again and this time... kills him. I was just describing the story arc there... not the plot to the movie... see how fucking similar the movie is to the comics? Although the 1995 movie actually mixed two story arcs together in the one described above with one that involved Dredd and a group from Mega City One traveling the Cursed Earth to Texas City. During which they run into the Angel Gang. The 2013 movie revolves around an early story arc in the comics that started a drug war which eventually started a viral outbreak. The story revolves around a gang taking over a major section of the city. In the comics the gang was not called the Ma Ma Gang and the Ma Ma Gang wasn't introduced in the comics until right before the remake came out. Because of this... the 1995 original film gets the win. The story arc that involved Dredd hunting down and killing his own brother and finding out about the cloning of them both, is one of the most popular, most beloved, and most brutally violent story arcs in the Dredd Comics. Also... Armand Assanti plays a kick-fuckin-ass Judge Rico! Although I'm not taking anything away from the remake by saying this as Olivia Thirlby played an excellent Judge Anderson and Lena Headey as the villain Ma-Ma is just spec-fuckin-tacular. Ma-Ma turns me the fuck on. I could see Joka and Ma-Ma making babies and having some crazy ass, serial killin' offspring!
But I digress...
I'll take this time to shy away from the comics and the cannon and get down to brass tacks here. Side-by-side, as straight action movies... there is absolutely no comparison. The original didn't shy away from showing people getting killed and definitely didn't shy away from the violence. The remake, if you could call it that as it seems more like a prequel to the events in the first film, goes above and beyond. The remake makes the violence in Judge Dredd look like you are watching an edited version of Mean Girls! It takes out all the cheesiness, all the one liners, all the catch phrases, and everything that made the original bad in any way, and focuses on the mission, the plot, the violence, and the methodical operation of Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson. Watching them stalk the corridors of Peach Trees Towers and hunt down the Ma Ma Gang in the movie is made ever so better by the graphical affects of the drug, SLO-MO, which everyone is smoking in the film. The drug slows down time for the user so every punch is seen in all it's glory. Your brain almost has to adjust as you see a bullet in slow motion enter a perps body and exit. The blood exiting the bodies look real. The Hot Shot being shot into a perps head in the beginning of the film and burning his skull from the inside out looks real! In the original... Mega City One looks like they took it straight from Star Wars. It looked too clean and too futuristic. In the remake... it looks like a slum that stretches on for thousands of miles with huge mega towers dotting the landscape. It looks more like a dystopian future than the original film was able to accomplish with its special effects.
In the end... I could rewatch both movie over and over and at the end of the day... that's all that matters in a movie. BUT... if I had to decide on watching Judge Dredd (1995) or Dredd (the remake)... well I'll make me some Waffles... grab a bottle of whiskey... and sit down and watch Dredd!
**WARNING** Spoilers Ahead!
First and foremost... I am a huge comic book nerd. I have read comic books my entire life and watched comic book movies almost as long. I have a list of favorite characters including the likes of Punisher, Hellboy, Wolverine, Gambit, Cable, and one of my all time favorites is without a doubt, Judge Dredd!
Lemme start off with a little fun factoid for everyones noggins. Everyone said after Judge Dredd came out that Dredd was a carbon copy of Robocop and the movie was playing off and copying the Robocop movies. It was actually the other way around. The inspiration for Robocop in the movies of the same name came from Judge Dredd and his appearance in the British magazine, 2000 AD. Robocop is the copy... not Judge Dredd!
Judge Dredd, and the comic based around him, is actually a comic strip that is featured in the British Magazine, 2000 AD. Judge Dredd is the magazines longest running strip and has been featured in the magazine since it's second publication in 1977. Dredd is a futuristic law enforcement officer in a dystopian future version of earth where various Mega-Cities are scattered amongst the charred and radioactive remains of the world. In this future version of Earth. Police have been eradicated in favor of a quicker system of judgement. Judges are the law in this comic strip and are empowered to arrest, sentence, and execute criminals at the scene of the crime.
Judge Dredd was named the Seventh Greatest Comic Character by the British magazine Empire. In 2011, IGN ranked him 35th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes!
As you can see... Judge Dredd is a FAWKIN' BELOVED character! He is full of awesome sauce. Widely feared, meticulous, ruthlessly aggressive, ultra violent, and methodical! A man after my own heart, if you take away all the obeying the law-disciplined-honorable man stuff out of there. Joka don't roll like that!
Comparisons to the Written Cannon
Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd in the 1995 Original - This version of Judge Dredd (Joseph Dredd) is taken from an already established comic book version. The Judge Dredd in this movie is feared by criminals, renowned for his accolades as a Judge, a well decorated Judge in the Hall of Justice, and famous amongst the citizens of not only Mega City One, but all Mega Cities and colonies throughout the solar system. As much as people wanna hand Sylvester Stallone some shit for his role in Judge Dredd, he did the character justice and played a damn good Judge Dredd, even using a Dredd catchphrase from the comic "I knew you'd say that" or "I knew they'd do that".
Judge Dredd in the 2013 Remake - The Dredd in this one was so much sweeter to watch on the big screen. First and foremost they followed the comic in this movie so well, that they took a cue from the comic and had Judge Dredd wearing his helmet the entire time. Karl Urban plays Dredd in this movie and you never get to see his face, save for the bottom part. In the comics, Dredd never once, not one FUCKING time, shows his face. Even when he takes his helmet off in the comics, they pull a Wilson from the show Home Improvement, and strategically hide the top part of his face behind scenery and objects. In this version of the movie, this is an early version of Dredd back when he was fresh out of the academy, so he hadn't gained his fame, notoriety, infamy, and was only slightly known and feared among criminals. I personally think Karl Urban played a better Dredd. This Dredd reminds me more of the Dredd from the comics. Cold like a ghosty ghost, methodical like a mofuckin' robot, and following the law by the book, even when he was in mortal danger!
Lawgiver
The Lawgiver is Dredds personal firearm and is a DNA encrypted multi-purpose handgun issued to all judges which can only be fired by the judge it is issued to. The Lawgiver has a special boobytrap for those stupid enough to try and steal it from a Judge and use it. In the 1995 Original, it would send out an electrical charge that would stay until it was dropped or the target holding it was killed. In the 2013 remake, as is the same in the comics, the Lawgiver would explode, severing the persons hand holding it as well as possibly killing them from shrapnel or the blood loss from losing the hand. Now that I think about it... I might set something like that up in my cheese grater. Fucker tries to use my own weapon against me and BOOM... say bye bye to your hand! Learn to wack it with your other arm homesnizzle!
Now... where was I? Oh yes... the gun! Going off looks alone, the 2013 remake gets the win, but neither Lawgiver from either movie gets it right. Who can blame the design team though. The gun from the comics came with a big ass dial and didn't get the voice activation until Judge Dredd took on Judge Death... so meh on that. BUUUUUT... the 2013 remake came damn close to making their Lawgiver as accurate as possible. Gotta give props to the 1995 Original though... their Lawgiver is sexy as hell!
I could go on about the different ammo's used in the movies but they both essentially got it right. I do like in the remake when he uses a Hot Shot to fry a perps head during a hostage negotiation. Hot Shots in the comics were heat seaking incendiary bullets with highly unstable gases. Both movies do a good job of using the different and various forms of ammunition in the Lawgiver... but the remake takes the win for using the right names for the ammunition! Accuracy counts for something right?
Lawmaster
I would love to get a grease monkey to build me a replica of the Lawmaster Motorcycle from... well... either movie really! Both Lawmasters in both movies are pretty damn accurate. Both have artificial intelligence. Both have center mounted, double barrel, machine guns. Both have crowd control capabilities! I would only take points away from the 1995 version of the bike for being too big and bulky and give them to the 2013 version for being sleeker and more maneuverable. However, for those that say the Lawmaster from the 1995 version is unrealistic, anti-gravity technology does exist in the universe and alternate future of the comics, and Judge Dredd did get to ride a prototype Lawmaster with anti gravity capabilities for quite awhile in the comics. So gotta give the 1995 version props on that. In the end... the 1995 Lawmaster takes the win.
Uniform
Surprisingly... that god awful, clumsy ass, shiny piece of ugly junk uniform that Dredd wears in the 1995 movie... is actually almost entirely dead accurate. The only thing they took liberties on is the helmet. Surprisingly again, the only thing they GOT ACCURATE with the uniform in the 2013 remake... IS THE FUCKING HELMET! I just shook my damn head, smashed the TV that I was watching the movie on, and then I went and kicked a stranger right in his FUCKING bawls! After smoking a pack of cigarettes and contemplating burning down the Phoenix Headquarters... I came to realize that the uniform they used in the 2013 remake, is actually the same uniform they used for recruits in the academy, minus the badge as they aren't yet Judges. So all is well again. I again realized that they tried to make the uniform as realistic as possible in the remake, as a Judge would be hindered in such a bulky uniform in any real setting, so I again had a little bit of understanding behind their crazy thinking. You would think I would give the win here to the 1995 uniform... but nope... I'm a crazy sumbitch and I give the win here to the 2013 remake for making the helmet look exactly the same and for following the books to a T and not showing Dredds face for the entire film! You wanna argue? Come at me bro!
Supporting Characters
Judge Dredd (1995) - In the original film, the sidekick for Dredd is Judge Hershey and Fergee. Both characters from the comics. However, the film took major liberties and made Judge Hershey a Judge... and WHITE! FUCK YOU HOLLYWOOD! *cough* Judge Hershey is a Chief Judge in the comics and she also appears in the remake as the one who assigns Judge Anderson as Dredds partner. Good call for the remake guys! Now on to Fergee... I see no beef here with Fergee. They essentially kept him the same and made him a criminal turned hero. In the comics he becomes so beloved, that when he pushes Judge Cal off the Statue of Liberty and they both fall to their deaths, statues of Fergee are erected all over Mega City One. See what I did there... remember the scene where they are fighting on the Statue Of Liberty in the 1995 movie? Again... good call guys. Also... an Easter Egg from the 2013 film... during the opening monologue, a riot is playing out in Fergee Memorial Park! Interesting...
Dredd (2013) - In Dredd... Judge Dredd gets one supporting character in Judge Anderson. A psychic mutant with the most amazing psychic powers ever seen up to that point. In the comics, going as far back as some of the earliest issues, Judge Anderson is actually Dredds partner. She is transfered from the Psy-Ops division and assigned to Judge Dredd. In the movie she is a recruit straight out of the academy and assigned to Dredd for her final test. Interesting plot twist, interesting change, and good call by the director and screenwriters. I give the win here to the 2013 remake for including one of my favorite characters in Judge Anderson. Yeah it's biased as hell... don't like it... take it up with my complaint department.
*Points to mah steel toed clownboots*
As I've stated above there are alot of similarities and differences in both movies to the cannon from the comic books. The 1995 movie is based around a story arc that involves Dredds brother Rico escaping from prison to enact revenge on Dredd and all of the Judges for cloning him and Dredd and never telling them. He plans to use the cloning technology to make clones of himself so he can take over Mega City one. Dredd stops him again and this time... kills him. I was just describing the story arc there... not the plot to the movie... see how fucking similar the movie is to the comics? Although the 1995 movie actually mixed two story arcs together in the one described above with one that involved Dredd and a group from Mega City One traveling the Cursed Earth to Texas City. During which they run into the Angel Gang. The 2013 movie revolves around an early story arc in the comics that started a drug war which eventually started a viral outbreak. The story revolves around a gang taking over a major section of the city. In the comics the gang was not called the Ma Ma Gang and the Ma Ma Gang wasn't introduced in the comics until right before the remake came out. Because of this... the 1995 original film gets the win. The story arc that involved Dredd hunting down and killing his own brother and finding out about the cloning of them both, is one of the most popular, most beloved, and most brutally violent story arcs in the Dredd Comics. Also... Armand Assanti plays a kick-fuckin-ass Judge Rico! Although I'm not taking anything away from the remake by saying this as Olivia Thirlby played an excellent Judge Anderson and Lena Headey as the villain Ma-Ma is just spec-fuckin-tacular. Ma-Ma turns me the fuck on. I could see Joka and Ma-Ma making babies and having some crazy ass, serial killin' offspring!
But I digress...
I'll take this time to shy away from the comics and the cannon and get down to brass tacks here. Side-by-side, as straight action movies... there is absolutely no comparison. The original didn't shy away from showing people getting killed and definitely didn't shy away from the violence. The remake, if you could call it that as it seems more like a prequel to the events in the first film, goes above and beyond. The remake makes the violence in Judge Dredd look like you are watching an edited version of Mean Girls! It takes out all the cheesiness, all the one liners, all the catch phrases, and everything that made the original bad in any way, and focuses on the mission, the plot, the violence, and the methodical operation of Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson. Watching them stalk the corridors of Peach Trees Towers and hunt down the Ma Ma Gang in the movie is made ever so better by the graphical affects of the drug, SLO-MO, which everyone is smoking in the film. The drug slows down time for the user so every punch is seen in all it's glory. Your brain almost has to adjust as you see a bullet in slow motion enter a perps body and exit. The blood exiting the bodies look real. The Hot Shot being shot into a perps head in the beginning of the film and burning his skull from the inside out looks real! In the original... Mega City One looks like they took it straight from Star Wars. It looked too clean and too futuristic. In the remake... it looks like a slum that stretches on for thousands of miles with huge mega towers dotting the landscape. It looks more like a dystopian future than the original film was able to accomplish with its special effects.
In the end... I could rewatch both movie over and over and at the end of the day... that's all that matters in a movie. BUT... if I had to decide on watching Judge Dredd (1995) or Dredd (the remake)... well I'll make me some Waffles... grab a bottle of whiskey... and sit down and watch Dredd!
