RoboCop Or Dredd: Who Is The Better Police Officer?

By Rudie Obias | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

robocop vs dreddWho can escape from the allure of pitting two enhanced law enforcement officers against each other? While the new RoboCop remake won’t open in theaters until 2014, it’s never too early to ask who is better at the job of upholding the law: RoboCop or Judge Dredd? One of the producers of last year’s underrated Dredd had the opportunity to chime in on the subject, and his answer might surprise you.

Producer Adi Shankar answered the question about the futuristic law enforcers on Quora.com. Obviously both police officers have their advantages and disadvantages. For a moment it seems like Shankar might give the edge to RoboCop as an officer who can be upgraded and doesn’t feel pain, the producer ultimately gives the title to Dredd because he has to put up with more psychopaths and demons. Shankar says:

Dredd would be most effective against a metahuman/extraterrestrial/demonic/demi-god since in theory he has an army of judges at his disposal and has proven himself against demons (Judge Death). Dredd would also be most effective against the crazy serial killer criminal, since a. most of his rogue gallery consists of borderline psychopaths and b. his moral compass and demeanor is in a similar vein of the likes of Frank Castle aka The Punisher, Bruce Wayne aka Batman, and Eddie Brock aka Venom.

Honestly, I would give the slight edge to Judge Dredd too. Dealing with crime in Mega-City One is far more difficult than dealing with crime in the ruins of old Detroit. In the film Dredd, Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson have to handle crime in one block, Peach Trees, while the entire city, which spans from Washington D.C. to Boston, is still ravaged with crime. You get the impression that the whole city is exactly like Peach Trees, but the movie just deals with the one block. RoboCop has to deal with Detroit and the evils of corporations and that’s about it. Also the Ma-Ma Gang seems far more deadly than Clarence Boddicker’s. If we’re dealing with movies, RoboCop (1987) is much better than Dredd (2012) and Judge Dredd (1995).

Before finishing his response, Adi Shankar takes a dig at the RoboCop remake and explains that any fictional character could beat the new RoboCop (Joel Kinnaman). Shankar continues:

However, if we are referring to the new Robocop from the film due out in Feb 2014 then Judge Dredd would destroy him. I would elaborate but I don’t feel that I need to because I would argue that the Muppets (any of them), Tommy the green Power Ranger, or a random henchman or henchwoman from the laugh worthy Total Recall reboot could kick the new Robocop’s ass as well.

We’ll find out if Shankar is right when RoboCop is released in 2014. Until then, the new theatrical trailer offers up some reasons why Shankar thinks the new RoboCop is soft. However, Sony is currently test screening the RoboCop remake to surprisingly positive early reactions.

Meanwhile, comic book publisher 2000 AD has released the sequel to Dredd, but in comic book form. The publishers released the sequel on September 18, the so-called “Dredd Day of Action,” which is the one day Dredd fans tried to boost sales of the film to let Lionsgate know that they want a live-action sequel film. At the moment, it’s unclear how well Dredd sold or streamed on the 18th, but if fans want more Dredd, then the comic book sequel is a viable option.

While we may not have definitively answered the question of who is the better cop, we can at least take comfort in this outtake of Rob Schneider falling down some stairs in the horrible Sly Stallone Judge Dredd movie…