|
dreddhead123 -> RE: Dredd (2012) (14/1/2012 11:15:13 PM)
|
Part two of my re-read... I don't think John Wagner will like this film - even if he's said the screenplay is a crowd pleaser. The fundamental problem with it... It lacks imagination and it's nasty. There's almost zero humour, there are a few funny lines but there is ZERO comedy from the situations. But back to the nasty... I'm not against violent action films, seen enough in my time, but Garland's screenplay lacks the heart of Wagner's work. John Wagner never writes Judge Dredd in a really dark, soulless kind of way. For example, in Garland's screenplay there is, for lack of a better way of putting it, a pornographic type sequence involving Anderson and a perp. It does not serve the plot, it's there to turn the male viewers on. It's totally unnecessary - it's clearly misogynistic and it's not what Judge Dredd - the character and his world - is about. It's a nasty scene and there's no call for it in a Dredd film. The screenplay is Alex Garland saying "Judge Dredd's world is a shit hole." That's it. Forget about any sci-fi angle, any imagination, and wit, any satire - it's just MEGA-CITY ONE - A SHIT HOLE. That's Garland's entire take on the character. The sci-fi dressing to this film - such as the vast scale of MC-1's landscapes - will be dulled by the sheer squalid world that is Peach Trees block and its citizens. Mega-Dump 1 would be a more appropriate name for this city. I think many JD fans will find this new film as depressing as the original. The original will seem charming compared to this version! I don't want a watered down Judge Dredd film with Fergee doing his Saturday Night Live routine but I don't think I want such a crude, ugly version like Garland's. It's like we've gone from Carry On Dredd to Dredd Hard Extreme. Rebellion and DNA have spectacularly missed the middle ground - and the middle ground IS John Wagner's Dredd. Wagner's Dredd gets the balance right but Garland has gone so "grim and gritty" he's killed off the charm, the humour, the eccenticity of Dredd's world. If you want a charmless, nasty take on Judge Dredd you will love this film. If you expect anything close to Wagner's work - you're going to be disappointed. There is no middle ground here. No attempt to be witty, to be imaginative. It's just "Fuck! Stop Dredd" dialogue all the way though. I think most fans will view Dredd 2012 as a failure. Perhaps not an action failure - the action scenes could be good but a creative failure.
|
|
|
|