Red Band Dredd Clip Brings Slow Motion And Splatter

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Pete Travis’ Judge Dredd reboot, Dredd, is coming soon. Scheduled for a September 21st release, the film previewed to rave reviews at San Diego Comic Con this weekend. Most of us will have to wait a while to set eyes on Karl Urban as the title law enforcement badass, but in the meantime Lionsgate has released a gory new red band clip for your amusement.

This clip conjures up conflicting emotions. The gratuitous splatter and wanton violence, and the lack of any meaningful dialogue, definitely confirms what we’ve heard, that this is a more gritty, accurate adaption of John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s comic than the 1995 Sylvester Stallone attempt. Dredd sure does like to shoot people in the face.

On the other hand, if the entire movie is this saturated in super slow motion, there are going to be problems. You get what they’re going for. Much of the plot centers around a dangerous new drug called “Slo-Mo” that reduces reality to a fraction of its usual speed. Okay, they’re trying to show the effect of the drug on its users, that’s fine. Lets hope that they don’t over use the trick just because they can. Even in this minute long clip, it started to wear thin.

In the future America is a decimated wasteland. A few massive city-states survive, and in Mega City One, which runs from Boston to Washington DC, a force of police officers called Judges, are the entire legal system rolled up into one. They arrest, try, and execute offenders on the spot. Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is notoriously violent and ruthless. He is the horror story criminals tell their kids at bedtime in this blighted urban cesspool.

Dredd is assigned to train new recruit Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), who just happens to be a gifted psychic. Circumstances dictate that the two Judges infiltrate a 200-story high-rise slum controlled by drug kingpin Ma-Ma (Lena Heady). Of course this turns into an all-out, vicious, fight for survival.

Much is being made out of the similarities between the story of Dredd and The Raid: Redemption—you’ll also notice a few resemblance in this video. Coincidence most likely, but who cares? If done well, there is certainly room for two crazy ass action movies where a small band invades a tall building.