Dredd Research Task
Producer: The film was produced by Alex Garland and it was given the green light in 2008.
Distributor: Dredd was distributed by Lionsgate and Entertainment Film Distributors.
Script writer: Alex Garland wrote the film's script.
Budget: The budget was $45 million.
Box office gross: The film made $36.5 million in the box office.
Director and Actors: Karl Urban, Olivia Thurlby, Wood Harris and Lena Headey starred in Dredd, directed by Pete Travis.
Marketing: The website Dredd report was set up to promote the film and a motion poster was released, along with trailers and a tie-in comic. An exclusive movie poster was released at the Fantastic Fest .
Critical reception:
Rotten Tomatoes:
"While not for the squeamish, Dredd 3D is an effectively gritty B movie accentuated by stylish visuals and irreverent humor" ~ Claudia Puig, USA Today.
"Proves a surprisingly unimaginative cops vs. drug lord story, complete with the weathered veteran forced to take a rookie under his wing" ~Frank Lovece, Newsday.
Metacritic:
"Dredd, a second attempt at making Judge Dredd a movie star, overcorrects, veering in the opposite direction with a dark - literally and otherwise - nearly humorless bit of ultraviolence distinguished largely by a fondness for spurting CGI blood" ~ Keith Phipps, The A.V. Club.
"Dredd works because it's an action flick with wide appeal that takes risks it doesn't need to - in its delightfully off-putting violence and daring style - and those choices pay off in a singular and exhilarating movie experience. It's savage, beautiful and loads of fun" ~ Joel Arnold, NPR.
Rotten Tomatoes:
"While not for the squeamish, Dredd 3D is an effectively gritty B movie accentuated by stylish visuals and irreverent humor" ~ Claudia Puig, USA Today.
"Proves a surprisingly unimaginative cops vs. drug lord story, complete with the weathered veteran forced to take a rookie under his wing" ~Frank Lovece, Newsday.
Metacritic:
"Dredd, a second attempt at making Judge Dredd a movie star, overcorrects, veering in the opposite direction with a dark - literally and otherwise - nearly humorless bit of ultraviolence distinguished largely by a fondness for spurting CGI blood" ~ Keith Phipps, The A.V. Club.
"Dredd works because it's an action flick with wide appeal that takes risks it doesn't need to - in its delightfully off-putting violence and daring style - and those choices pay off in a singular and exhilarating movie experience. It's savage, beautiful and loads of fun" ~ Joel Arnold, NPR.
Reasons for lack of success: Despite its positive critical response, Dredd only earned $36 million at the box office. The reasons for this were due to the marketing, the 'remake factor', the lack of mainstream appeal, and the R rating.
The marketing did not convey the film's concept of a Batman style 'dark future city' enough, which could have attracted a wider audience. Lionsgate did not invest enough into the prints and marketing to push the film hard enough and get it seen by the public.
The remake factor left Dredd in the shadow of the 1995 Judge Dredd. The message that this film is not a remake was not clear, so it was left to audience's assumption.
The lack of mainstream appeal highlighted that, in order to be successful, film adaptations of comics must appeal to more than just the fans of the comic.
The R rating limited the audience; while the comic's main audience consists of younger people (early teens), the film's rating meant it was not suitable for them, so a lot of potential viewers were lost.
Awards: Dredd won the Empire award for best 3D, and the Golden Trailer award for Best Thriller TV Spot.
Technology used: Dredd used a 3D camera and VFX was used to show the blood and gore when people are shot. The slo-mo 'look' was achieved by separating out the colours and objects in the scene, then taking them in different directions with hue and saturation . This was developed over a period of time.
Tie-ins: Tie-ins included a comic, the first frames of a motion comic, a soundtrack, and posters that are available for purchase.
Personal opinion: In my opinion Dredd was not a particularly bad film, but there are a lot of things that could be improved.
While I can appreciate that fans of the comic would enjoy the film and how it is true to the comics, I can see why other people would not like the film at all.
The CGI in the film has been praised by many critics, but I found it to be too prominent. In scenes showing 'Mega City One', the use of CGI was blatant, which took my attention away from the focus of each scene.
Most of the acting in the film was good and Karl Urban's portrayal of Dredd was very accurate, but the script was very tongue-in-cheek. It was predictable, cheesy, and poorly-written, making it very annoying and made Dredd seem like no more than a B movie.
When people weren't being blown to bits, the film was quite boring, simply because there was no atmosphere being created. Scenes where speech was the only sound were the most boring; the diegetic sounds you would expect to hear in the scene were not there and it did not seem to be selective sound as the lack of background noise did not create any effect at all.
While I can appreciate that fans of the comic would enjoy the film and how it is true to the comics, I can see why other people would not like the film at all.
The CGI in the film has been praised by many critics, but I found it to be too prominent. In scenes showing 'Mega City One', the use of CGI was blatant, which took my attention away from the focus of each scene.
Most of the acting in the film was good and Karl Urban's portrayal of Dredd was very accurate, but the script was very tongue-in-cheek. It was predictable, cheesy, and poorly-written, making it very annoying and made Dredd seem like no more than a B movie.
When people weren't being blown to bits, the film was quite boring, simply because there was no atmosphere being created. Scenes where speech was the only sound were the most boring; the diegetic sounds you would expect to hear in the scene were not there and it did not seem to be selective sound as the lack of background noise did not create any effect at all.
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