Dredd 3D (2012)

Title: Dredd 3-D (2012)

Director: Pete Travis

Writer: Alex Garland

Cast: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey

Review:

Why does a film like Dredd 3-D fail so harshly at the box office? It has all the necessary ingredients for a good sci-fi/action film; in my book it should have been a moderately successful film, to have it fail so disastrously kind of boggles my film connoisseur mind. The film has good production values, it looks great, Judge Dredd looks and behaves like he should, there’s tons of violence, gore, visual eye candy, the computer generated effects are well achieved...I mean, yeah, it needed to be a bit more ‘spectacular’ I guess we could say, but in the end, even if it isn’t as loud and bombastic as Stallone’s Judge Dredd (1995), I don’t think it should have failed the way it did. Reportedly it’s only made 10 million dollars on a 50 million dollar budget!? Why didn’t this new Dredd movie take off?

Same as Judge Dredd (1995), Dredd 3-D starts out by giving us a quick intro about who Dredd is, and why these judges exist via a quick voiceover. They explain all about the escalating crime scene which has skyrocketed out of control. Chaos and anarchy rule the streets; the judges are a police force with special weapons and armor sent out to eradicate crime; something that they are currently having a difficult time doing. Mega City One is filled with violence and death; it’s like the eternal ghetto. The queen of this ghetto is a drug lord known as Ma-Ma, and Ma-Ma sells this drug called Slo-Mo, which when you take it, makes you see everything shiny and colorful and slows things down to the point where you feel as if you were watching life in slow motion, hence the name. Of course, this drug has to be eradicated and Dredd knows where Ma-Ma lives. It’s up to him and a his newly assigned telepathic rookie to find Ma-Ma and destroy her drug dealing empire.

Does Dredd 3D’s failure at the box office mean that the ‘R’ rated action film is now dead? I really don’t think so. We have seen various ‘R’ rated action films flourish in theaters, a recent example of this would be The Expendables franchise, it’s going strong on it’s second film, and it’s got tons of action and gore. So, I ask again, why did Dredd 3D fail? All I can say is that as the tried and true (and sometimes unpredictable) waters of mass consumption have proven, it is a very rare occasion when the public will go see a film about a character they don’t know much about. Unfortunately, a lot of people are not tuned into Judge Dredd’s comic book origins. To top things off, Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone also failed at the box office. To be honest, I didn’t feel like that film deserved to fail as badly as it did either. What can I say, sometimes the masses just don’t like a character and they never give it a chance to lift off the ground no matter how many times Hollywood tries; just look at The Punisher character. They have tried with three different films already; all three films failed to impress at the box office. So maybe audiences just don’t like the idea of Dredd, though I don't see why they wouldn't. I mean Judge Dredd isn't all that different from Robocop (1987), a huge box office success that spawned two sequels, a television show, comic books, an animated show, action figures for children and is currently getting the reboot treatment. So I don't know what gives with this film. 

In comparison to Sylvester Stallone’s film, this one is smaller in scale, I mean it’s not a low budget flick, but to give you an idea, Stallone’s film had 70 million dollar budget while Dredd 3D had 50. And apparently 70 million in ’94 could buy you a really expensive looking film because in my book Judge Dredd is a massive, sci-fi action epic, I loved that about it, you could see those millions up on the screen, this was when films really looked expensive as opposed to nowadays where everything just looks computer generated. While Judge Dredd concerns itself with Mega City One being taken over by a power hungry mad man, Dredd 3D is simply about Dredd showing a rookie cop what it means to be a Judge. Together they enter Ma-Ma’s domain to try and stop Slo-Mo production. Unfortunately, Ma-Ma resides on the 200^th floor of the Peach Trees apartment complex. The film doesn’t go much further then Dredd going up the tower, facing Ma-Ma’s weapons and henchmen. The film does borrow this ‘going up a tower to meet a drug dealer at the top’ premise from The Raid:  Redemption (2011), there’s no denying that, but where The Raid made things interesting by giving us a heavy dose of martial arts fighting, Dredd 3D fails in making each floor of the building more interesting. The film can be described as one long shoot out, with lots of bullets whizzing by, and piercing flesh, people hiding in corners…it gets a bit redundant. This simplistic approach towards the film was kind of a let down for me considering that Alex Garland, a writer I commonly rely on for good story and character development wrote the script. It seems like Garland deliberately kept the scope of the story small for budget reasons. 

And here’s where I go into the films one negative point: the film needed a bit more showmanship to it. It needed to be more spectacular. Shoot outs will never replace the adrenaline rush of a well orchestrated action sequence. The film opens up with a cool motorcycle chase sequence, reminiscent of the opening sequences for Robocop, but after that there’s not a whole lot of action in my book. The film does give us an over abundance of bullets and blood and that was cool, but it needed a hell of a lot more action because for a movie about cops in a chaotic crime ridden city from the future, this one felt a bit restrained in this department. What it did have a lot of was style, the camera angles were awesome, and the way the effects of Slo-Mo were achieved was visually interesting, especially in 3-D. So this is where the movie excels. Another high point was Karl Urban as Dredd, he doesn’t talk much, his basically a walking tank, if you mess with him you are dead, which is really the way Dredd should be, so the portrayal of the character they got just right. And for you puritans out there, Urban never takes the helmet off, something Stallone was guilty off and heavily criticized for. In the end, even with its hiccups, this was not a bad film, it should have made its money back, sadly, Dredd 3D is currently dying a quick death at the box office. I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those movies that audiences will discover once it hits home video. 

Rating: 4 out of 5   

The Darkest Hour (2011)

Title: The Darkest Hour (2011)

Director: Chris Gorak

Cast: Emile Hirsch, Max Minghella, Olivia Thirlby, Rachel Taylor          

Review:

The Darkest Hour is the kind of film I watch for amusement purposes only. Going into it I knew it wasn’t going to be the most thought provoking, deepest or smartest film I’d ever seen, I’d read a couple of reviews, I had a general idea of the kind of movie I could expect. But still, Im a sucker for sci-fi and an even bigger sucker for post apocalyptic films, so I decided to give this one a watch. At the very least I expected a brisk, fast paced flick with cool effects and some action.  If you ask me, The Darkest Hour is an empty film every step of the way, as most alien invasion films are. The formula behind these movies is simple: monsters appear, humans run, humans find a way to kill the creatures, humans fight back, monsters die and for all intents and purposes, this is exactly the kind of film The Darkest Hour is. But a film can stick to this formula and still entertain, the question remained, would The Darkest Hour at least do that?

In The Darkest Hour we meet a pair of computer programmers that have just created the newest website that’s apparently going to take over the world. They’ve presented their idea to a group of Russian businessmen and are ready for their first official meeting. Problem is that once they get there they find out they are no longer needed, some douche bag stole their idea and is now presenting it as his own. So as they ponder how to counter attack this humongous backstabbing, they decide to go out on a drinking spree, to see if they can hook up with some Russian girls. Low and behold they end up hooking up with a pair of American girls! Things are looking up until suddenly these strange yellow lights start dropping from the heavens! Upon closer examination they learn that these strange lights are actually energy absorbing aliens! They turn humans into ashes and they mean to invade our planet!

So yeah, nothing really new here; basically, if you’ve seen films like Independence Day (1996) and Skyline (2010), then you’ve seen The Darkest Hour. The ‘new’ element that the film brings to the table is that it was shot entirely in Russia, which instantly gives the film a unique look, especially when it comes to the Russian architecture. Another unique thing it has going for it is the concept of the aliens being invisible to the naked eye. I thought this was a nifty concept that adds a bit of suspense to the proceedings because you’re never really sure where the aliens might be coming from, at the same time the invisible aliens concept might also seem like a good way for filmmakers to save some money! I can hear the sales pitch to the producers: “and we don’t even have to build no alien suits! ‘Cause get this: the aliens are invisible!” Either way, I thought it added an interesting element in a film filled with overused ideas. I also liked the fact that the aliens activate anything with electrical parts in it, so if the aliens pass next to a light bulb, it turns on, if they walk past a car, the car turns on and so forth. Another cool element…unfortunately, that’s as far as we go in terms of originality with this movie.

And speaking of the aliens, this is where I met my first real disappointment with this film. And it’s sad really because this film could have been so much better had they put a bit more of an effort with the look of the aliens. Here’s what happens with this movie: it might be walking on tired ground, and showing us situations and premises we’ve seen a gazillion times before, but it looks good, it was well shot and it has a likable bunch of characters. Hell, at least it’s not like Skyline, a film populated by a bunch of douche bags. So anyways, The Darkest Hour is not a bad looking little movie, the cast is doing a respectable job, the film even made me care for some of it’s characters! But then the aliens show how they look and you feel like you wished they had stayed invisible. Just imagine the cheapest, crappiest computer animation you could think of, and amplify it by ten. I seriously don’t understand how this director let this alien design slip by him. I thinking it was a last minute thing, a rushed job, apparently, they had no time to do something worth watching.

A pity too since I found myself mildly enjoying the flick, and to be honest, it’s not a completely horrible movie it’s just that it has a couple of hiccups here and there that scream lazy. For example, this old man that the kids meet is a genius and he’s devised a way to kill the aliens with this microwave gun he’s invented. The thing probably took the old man months to make, and he hands it to these kids so they can fight the aliens. So anyhow, at one moment the good guys figure they need another gun to fight the aliens with, so what do they do? They build an exact replica of it in something like five minutes! I was like what?? There’s lot’s of inconsistencies like that one…things that simply take you out of the movie. You’ll be asking yourself why? How? I’ll tell you why and how, lazy filmmaking! So let’s see, plot holes galore, nonsensical happenings, and a tired plot, damn, there’s many things against this one, I recommend this one only for those with a stomach for b-movies (like me) who don’t mind so many inconsistencies and are forgiving with their bad movies. I call it for what it is, but still found some enjoyment with The Darkest Hour, even if I did feel like I’d seen this flick a million times.

So this flick was directed by a guy called Chris Gorak, he’d directed only one other film before and it was another post-apocalyptic film called Right At Your Door (2006) which I started watching once but had no time to continue. I will try and re-watch it again soon, especially since I’m on a post apocalyptic kick these days. Thing about Mr. Gorak is that he’s worked with a lot of famous directors like Terry Gilliam and David Fincher, but on a technical level; as art director and production designer. Gorak has done all sorts of jobs in all kinds of films and well; I guess he decided to put all that experience to good use directing his own film. With The Darkest Hour he finally got his chance to direct a theatrical release, unfortunately, in my opinion, Mr. Gorak still has a ways to go in terms of learning what makes a good film work. Making things believable even within your fantastical context is a good way to start. Also, trying to go for a bit more originality. As it is this feels like a low budget version of Independence Day. I can watch aliens falling from the sky, but if you show it in a believable fashion I’ll believe it. That’s the magic and illusion of movies anyways, making us believe the unbelievable. But if you give me these cheesy looking aliens, then your movie goes down a couple of notches, sorry dude!  

Rating 2 1/2 out of 5