Dredd (2012)

[Os Cangaceiros]

I'm a bit late to this one, but I saw it recently and thought it was really good. I think most people probably know the story by now, but it's about a crypto-fascist anti-hero named Dredd, who's part of the only force trying to keep a bare semblance of order in an ultra-violent, dystopian future: the Judges. JURIES. EXECUTIONERS. JUDGES.

The only thing that disappointed me about this movie was the film's villain. Lena Headey has kind of an aggressive, self-confident look so I thought she might be good (only thing I'd seen her in prior to this was "Game of Thrones"), but no, she was pretty forgettable.

The "Slo-Mo" hallucination sequences were the standout moments of the film, IMO. Really liked the setting too (a 200 story high-rise).

[Flying Purple People Eater]

I am the laoughh.

[#FF0000]

It seems like it's very hard to go wrong with an action movie where the hero's just fighting their way up a building. Dredd, Die Hard, The Raid, etc.

[Red Commissar]

I'm a fan of 2000AD, but I'll admit I was skeptical of this movie at first after the mess over Sylvester "I AM DA LAHWWWW" Stallone's Dredd. They managed to pull it off pretty well imo, the thing I really liked about the movie is that they really did a good job of making the world come alive. Like enough to suspend disbelief. That's what really stood out to me in the end- even though the comics are more sci-fi, the retro-futuristic setting in those one worked well too. It's a shame we won't see much out of this though.

The creators were pretty tight with the community too. There's a lot of shout outs to events in the comics and they even stuck in a few names of users on the official boards.

They got the nihilistic and dark (dry) satire vibe from the Dredd world in too, though the comedic parts were more muted. Interestingly the whole 2000AD crew give off a left-wing vibe, during its height in the 80s Dredd comics were basically guided by John Wagner, Alan Grant (before he went all randroid), and briefly Pat Mills who had left-wing views. Apparently at one point they were troubled that some of their readers, especially younger ones (back in the 80s this was pretty much the audience) thought Dredd was an okay guy so they introduced more blatant aspects to dislike about the Judges, like repressing a pro-democracy movement through underhanded tactics, and just being total dicks all around.

[Questionable]

I thought it was great.

Karl Urban has talked about how a sequel should address the darker aspects of Judge rule, such as their obvious fascism and anti-democracy, so I hope that sees the light someday.

[khad]

They got the nihilistic and dark (dry) satire vibe from the Dredd world in too, though the comedic parts were more muted. Interestingly the whole 2000AD crew give off a left-wing vibe, during its height in the 80s Dredd comics were basically guided by John Wagner, Alan Grant (before he went all randroid), and briefly Pat Mills who had left-wing views. Apparently at one point they were troubled that some of their readers, especially younger ones (back in the 80s this was pretty much the audience) thought Dredd was an okay guy so they introduced more blatant aspects to dislike about the Judges, like repressing a pro-democracy movement through underhanded tactics, and just being total dicks all around.
Didn't you ever hear the saying, "There is no anti-war war movie"?

Any reader is going to sympathize with the protagonist of a story; that is a basic law of fiction. No matter how vile or villainous, the protagonist is going to get sympathy by virtue of emotional proximity to the reader, as any compelling story/novel/series is going to hinge upon the survival of the main characters. It's rather silly to believe that one can craft this into a counterdiscourse.

Recall Apocalypse Now and how it made "love the smell of napalm in the morning" into a warmonger's mantra or how Full Metal Jacket popularized the Rifleman's Creed.

How many people read 2000 AD to give it a leftist reading, and how many just read it to see shit get blown up? Be honest, bro.

[Red Commissar]

Didn't you ever hear the saying, "There is no anti-war war movie"?

Any reader is going to sympathize with the protagonist of a story; that is a basic law of fiction. No matter how vile or villainous, the protagonist is going to get sympathy by virtue of emotional proximity to the reader, as any compelling story/novel/series is going to hinge upon the survival of the main characters. It's rather silly to believe that one can craft this into a counterdiscourse.

Recall Apocalypse Now and how it made "love the smell of napalm in the morning" into a warmonger's mantra or how Full Metal Jacket popularized the Rifleman's Creed.

How many people read 2000 AD to give it a leftist reading, and how many just read it to see shit get blown up? Be honest, bro.

Satire by hyperbole? I mean by your logic we should take Swift's Modest Proposal seriously as a pretty nifty suggestion for Irish people to deal with hunger. I'm not suggesting that Dredd is by any stretch revolutionary, but still it's obvious you don't understand how people might be able to use a setting they might not agree with to better illustrate their views and critique political beliefs about "tough on crime". Contrast that to Batman where his views are presented without an intent to discredit him.

2000AD has violence but its hardly the main attraction. Compared to some of the excesses of comics in the 90s and stuff like KickAss, it's pretty tame.

[#FF0000]

How many people read 2000 AD to give it a leftist reading, and how many just read it to see shit get blown up? Be honest, bro.

that's the problem with a lot of parody and satire, it seems like, no matter how obvious it is.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Didn't you ever hear the saying, "There is no anti-war war movie"?

Any reader is going to sympathize with the protagonist of a story; that is a basic law of fiction. No matter how vile or villainous, the protagonist is going to get sympathy by virtue of emotional proximity to the reader, as any compelling story/novel/series is going to hinge upon the survival of the main characters. It's rather silly to believe that one can craft this into a counterdiscourse.

Recall Apocalypse Now and how it made "love the smell of napalm in the morning" into a warmonger's mantra or how Full Metal Jacket popularized the Rifleman's Creed.

How many people read 2000 AD to give it a leftist reading, and how many just read it to see shit get blown up? Be honest, bro.

*Shrug* I feel like, while generally true, this isn't necessarily a given.
I suggest giving Irvine Welsh's "FILTH" a read. Even where the character is occasionally portrayed, in moments, as a helpless victim of circumstance, you can't help but think, "Oh, thank god!" at the ending.

(Actual spoiler - don't read it if you think you'll read the book.)
It turns out Bruce isn't a bad apple, insofar as he is emabled by the whole racist scumfuck pig force . . . and then he hangs himself.

[khad]

Satire by hyperbole? I mean by your logic we should take Swift's Modest Proposal seriously as a pretty nifty suggestion for Irish people to deal with hunger. I'm not suggesting that Dredd is by any stretch revolutionary, but still it's obvious you don't understand how people might be able to use a setting they might not agree with to better illustrate their views and critique political beliefs about "tough on crime". Contrast that to Batman where his views are presented without an intent to discredit him.

2000AD has violence but its hardly the main attraction. Compared to some of the excesses of comics in the 90s and stuff like KickAss, it's pretty tame.
Does a modest proposal have a protagonist? Does it have a narrative structure?

Apparently you are incapable of understanding that I was drawing attention to an inherent feature of the fictional form, one that evokes an implicit emotional connection between the reader and the protagonist.

Dredd is a fascist lawman, but Dredd is a deeply human character, who struggles with his identity and what he has to do. At times he ends up leaving due to disagreements (Tale of the Dead Man) or starts rebelling against superiors (Day the Law Died, Mechanismo, Wilderlands), but in the end he always returns to Mega-City One and restores order by kicking some more ass. Over the top parody is one thing, totally ineffective, but what Dredd does is humanize the Judge system by showing that there are principled, complex people in a cartoonishly fascist system.


that's the problem with a lot of parody and satire, it seems like, no matter how obvious it is.

And Iron Man was written to troll hippies as a caricature of a Randroid, that is until Vietnam ended and the target disappeared. 40 years later, he's evolved into a flawed, sentimental alcoholic with a list of heroic deeds longer than Joseph Kony's rap sheet. He even had his post-Vietnam ennui issue where he started questioning the role of the defense industry...right before going back to being a rich billionaire arms manufacturer.


“It was the height of the Cold War. The readers – the young readers – if there was one thing they hated it was war, it was the military, or, as Eisenhower called it, the military-industrial complex. So I got a hero who represented that to the hundredth degree. He was a weapons manufacturer. He was providing weapons for the army. He was rich. He was an industrialist. But he was good-looking guy and he was courageous… I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like – that none of our readers would like – and shove him down their throats and make them like him.”

Yeah, kind of a tall order NOT to sympathize with a protagonist.

[Dr Doom]

i thought it was kinda boring tbh. the slo-mo thing was alright the first time, but it got tiring quickly, really overplayed that shit. i guess it was unlucky to get released the same year as the raid, which had pretty much the same plot but was a lot more fun to watch.

[Os Cangaceiros]

"The Horde" (French zombie movie) was also set in a tenement high rise, IIRC. Wasn't that great, though.