Dredd Trailer Is Ripping Off The Raid

The new trailer for the Judge Dredd reboot "Dredd" starring Karl Urban as the titular Judge has just hit the interweb. First impressions? Gareth Evan's The Raid....set in the future. The teaser isn't giving us much but the one Judge and one rookie taking on a locked down tower block full of bad guys is very reminiscent of Evan's recent martial arts extravaganza. The concept of basically locking your lead into a gauntlet certainly worked well for the low budget martial arts film but how will this translate to a big budget sci-fi thriller? Judging from the trailer, it certainly seems to be action packed. One thing that struck me instantly was how much better the shooting looks compared to Judge Dredd, which gives me hope that the Lawgiver will be a more epic weapon than in the ill-conceived Stallone version. The real question is how Urban will stand up as Dredd. So far all his lines are trailer fodder; meaningless one liners that give no indication of performance. His gruff voice certainly feels forced but that could just be the aforementioned dialogue and in more meaty scenes we may get a more nuanced performance. Outside of The Raid style scenario is a drug problem revolving around a new drug, Slow Mo. Slow Mo makes the user's perception of time slow down to crazy speeds and seems to be an important mechanic in the film. Even in this early trailer there is a dominance of super high frame rate photography. In itself this is nothing new to film, The Matrix made this practically text book for a few years. Still, it has a more photographic feel to it so hopefully it will still be interesting to see. Still, if I was Pete Travis I would be kicking myself as this seems to me to be one of those rare cases of great minds thinking alike and bad timing. It reminds me of the Kick-Ass/Super situation which unfortunately forced the lower budget Super to being released a year later, making it look like a band-wagon wannabe. In many ways I am glad that Evan's The Raid made it out first as of the two, Dredd will suffer less from the comparison. Check out the Dredd Teaser bellow and if you like, compare it to The Raid teaser also bellow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Jwd3cVd4Hn4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uWlmhMSnVdM