Review: Dredd

The similarities between Dredd and The Raid has been pointed out more than enough times already - Dredd deserves more credit for how its different to most recent Hollywood action films.

Where most films pander to the widest market possible, aiming for that 12A audience - Dredd is unashamedly an 18 certificate film, not afraid to skip to skimp on the guts and gore the goes with a high bodycount. Dredd also drops the viewer straight into the action, no origin story here for Karl Urban's rebooted British comic book hero. The title character is a man who lies to shoot first and talk later, so Olivia Thirlby's rookie Anderson (unrecognizable as Juno's BFF) does most of that and arguably steals the film doing so.

Marketed as a 3D film, it looks to make decent use of it, with a few scenes giving you a sense of missing something without glasses. The use of Slo-Mo is rationed well too, avoiding falling into Zakk Snyder territory. Though only limiting the film to a 3D release seems to have back-fired, with the film leaving cinemas without recouping its budget with competition fierce for the comparatively limited number of 3D screens - a shame as Dredd deserves to be seen by more - if only for bizarre use of the Snuff Box theme about 25 minutes in.