Judge Dredd:
Mega City One: I think they did a much better job getting the overcrowded 500 Million people in one big ass city feel. It feels cramped. You also do get the better view of the people through Schneider and how they live and interact. The buildings were a tiny bit to futuristic for me, but that varies wildly in the comics. All the little droids and machines every where was a nice touch.
Judges: The uniforms were better, and more accurate. I would have preferred leather instead of cloth, but other wise they were great. They took some liberties with the helmet, but it wasn't much more than a different artist using different angles to me. The Lawmaster was far better looking to me as the more Harley-ish version of the two and I think more appropriate to Dredd as he was created, which was in the old west sheriff, tough satirical, Dirty Harry cop sorta vein. 'MERICAN and over the top suits him better. The other Judges that we see too, the Judges that arrest Dredd, the guards, they all add much more gestapo fell to the organization, which to me is appropriate.
The Story: Tried to be way to epic. It needed to be dialed back. You could have just done the Rico story line and left all the cloning and trying to save the city out of it. Mega City One is always on the brink of something so it doesn't really matter. They tried to just play it off like it was just another day in the life of Dredd, but c'mon, it obviously wasn't and at the end... what the fuck changed? Nothing. If anything, what Dredd did made it WAY worse. And I somehow think Dredd would be in favor of a city of clone Judges.
In the end it was just a big hero saves the day story, which is fine for Dredd, just not as an introduction.
Stallone: Better chin. Better voice for it. He also, to me, got Dredd's humor down better. Dry, and sarcastic. It got lost in the "I knew you'd say that." and the other attempts at
forcing in the one liners, however, don't think that Dredd doesn't have one liners because you are flat wrong*. Plus blowing up the guy's car, telling Fergie that suicide is legal, the joke about the flying LawMaster were all spot on Dredd "humor". In the end though, nothing changes and he is the same character we see from his introduction. In an "epic" story like this there should be some growth, but there isn't. He just finds stuff out and is proven correct, but nothing changes.
Dredd:
Mega City One: Honestly, it is too clean looking and spread out. It looked like a big sterile Los Angeles. It has a very realistic feel to it which is great and it feels appropriately massive, but it loses the almost comical cramped feeling the comics convey. It also is very horizontal. I know they go up all those stories in the block, but in the establishing shots it looks flat. It does itself add to the dark humor a bit with the giant door closing on the sex beggar and the droids just mopping up the bodies and blood in such a common place manner.
Judges: Can barely tell them apart. Intimidating as all hell. Super gestapo feel. Almost perfect... EXCEPT the uniforms. After the helmets which are absolutely TITS!, they lose me. I mean, I like them, but it's not Dredd. In the context of realism, it's probably what they would look like, but meh... just too tacticool and boring for Dredd for me. Ugh and the Victory Vision LawMaster... barf.
The Story: Pretty perfect as far a what they were aiming for and what a proper introductory story for Dredd should be. Just a day in the life of Dredd, but with a few little things of note which makes it a story to actually tell. He took out the bad Judges, which are NOT the Dark Judges by the way, called for back up and actually bent/ignored a rule for Anderson. There is some actual character growth in the course of being Dredd, whereas the Stallone version has to not be Dredd to learn anything, and even then he doesn't really. He was just proven correct. I absolutely could have done without all the 3D nonsense though. The stark violence of the comics is far better served in
Dredd though by far.
Urban: A
very good Dredd, but I would have preferred Stallone's Dredd in this story, but with a little more of Urban's malicious seriousness in the delivery. Also, and while I liked it too, Dredd does just go in guns blazing and not using super tacticool tactics quite a bit and is the most often used, to my recollection, version because he is supposed to satire the American Anti-Hero Action Cop. That said, I CRAVE another go round with Urban.
All in all, I like the new one more due to the story and what it didn't do as much as for what it did. The characters of Anderson and Dredd are far better served. Hershey wasn't a bad character, but she was so run of the mill and Fergie was just too annoying to get past even though he wasn't bad for a adventure sidekick and calling Dredd on his bullshit. Armand Assante just blows whatsherface away as a villain, but he's fucking Armand Assante. lol
However
Dredd just isn't as much fun as
Judge Dredd and all and all I probably watch '95 more often than '12.
I almost wish someone would do a fan edit and just mash the two movies together somehow.
Oh...
LawGiver: Both suck. No dial.
* Yeah, those one liners sure are lame.
