5 Reasons Dredd 3D Is The Best Comic Book Movie Of 2012

5. Blood & Gore How refreshing it was to see that Dredd had been given a 18 certificate by the BBFC. It immediately told us that this will be a movie for adults and that means proper swearing and violence. It may sound like I'm rubbing my hands together like a 14 year old about to watch Hostel for the first time but this isn't about getting off on torture porn, it's about the over-18's-only rating giving Dredd credibility. It told us that the film will not insult the audience and make selling lunchboxes its main priority but will be faithful to the language and violence at the core of its source material. We were treated to awesome scenes like the bullet going through the cheek of the druggy in slow motion which, even though you know is CGI, it was still a shocking moment. As is the case where Judge Anderson machine guns the face off one of Ma Ma's henchmen, while that scene may not be to the brutality level of the infamous moment in Gaspar Noe's Irreversible, involving a face and a fire extinguisher, it still had enough impact for me to be thinking about it the next day. It demonstrates that if violence is used sparingly and creatively, gory scenes like the ones mentioned above have far more force behind them than filmmakers going over the top like they do in films like Saw or A Serbian Film. Also, with film studios obsessed with getting a huge return on their investment, even at the cost of making a decent film, it does mean that a film will often be edited so that it can get the heavily sought after 12A rating in the U.K or PG-13 in the US. That rating means you have more chance of getting bums on seats and a bigger box office return as families go and see the film together. So for a comic book movie to go for an adult rating and gamble that quality will attract an audience on merit, rather than trying to cast the net as wide as possible, is very brave. I'm not saying every film should be rated 18 and for adults only, far from it, but it's nice occasionally to have a mainstream film like Dredd that has not been diluted for teenagers. The 1980's was full of 18 rated, B-movies like The Running Man, Predator and RoboCop, Dredd belongs in that club of action films for adults. And if you want clear evidence where allowing a director to go all out for an adult rating can actually benefit a film, just compare the 1990 Total Recall to the abysmal 12A rated Total recall remake that was released this year. We got a toned down action movie for teenagers that came no where near to the level of fun that was Verhoeven's 1990 classic. The same can be applied to Dredd when you compare it to the 1995 version. Where that film has no credibility as a Judge Dredd film, this years reboot has every chance of launching a run of hopefully decent, adult Dredd movies.