Applying a steel-toed reboot to the long-dormant franchise, Vantage Point’s Pete Travis gives us a Judge Dredd for the 21st century: humorless, scowling and shot in murky 3-D. Karl Urban, adopting a version of Christian Bale’s goofy Batman growl, plays the titular judge, who in the dark future of Mega City One finds, tries and sentences criminals in less time than it takes to call a lawyer. Co-written by Danny Boyle’s go-to dystopian Alex Garland, the movie incorporates the satirical edge of the British comic, unlike the DOA Sylvester Stallone vehicle; as Dredd and his rookie partner, played by Olivia Thirlby, enter the crime-infested skyscraper that will be their home for the rest of the movie, they pass a homeless man with a sign reading, “Will Debase Self For Credits.” Unfortunately, the flashes of wit don’t extend to the ho-hum action sequence that makes up most of the film or Urban’s colorless performance. Thirlby, as a psychic mutant who nonetheless knows her way around a firearm, has a grand time casting off Juno’s snark and kicking ass, but it’s unfortunately not contagious.
