6. Pete Travis/Alex Garland
It goes without saying that Danny Cannon's direction of Judge Dredd was absolutely anonymous, lacking any sort of personality whatsoever, instead having the feel of a hack-for-hire assignment for the filmmaker, knocked out with unfussed lack of precision, as translates through to the final product. One need only observe Cannon's filmography since to assume that filmmaking was not for him, as he has since turned his craft to the less-judgemental world of TV direction (
CSI, Alcatraz, Nikita). The script, which is astoundingly terrible given that it was co-written by William Wisher Jr. (
Terminator, Terminator 2) and Stephen E. de Souza (
Commando, Die Hard) ignores the basic notion of respecting both the source material and its fans, for the pair have Stallone remove his helmet at the 16-minute mark, and he keeps it off for the rest of the film, much to the ire of just about every Dredd fan (for he never removed his helmet in the comics). Also, any attempt at all to develop Dredd's character is essentially wasted on a very half-assed romance that we just know is going to bloom between Dredd and Diane Lane's Judge Hershey. Meanwhile, Dredd director Pete Travis opts to keep it simple, sticking to the basic tenets that will keep comic fans happy - namely keeping Karl Urban in the Dredd helmet for the entirety of the film - and not overstepping his bounds by indulging in needless romantic interludes between the protagonists. Though director Travis is hardly a particularly experienced filmmaker (
Vantage Point, Endgame), he steers things home with a beautiful visual style, which complements Alex Garland's simple but effective script.