^I think the point is that the Stallone movie recreated the comics' version of the uniform and equipment with great authenticity (even if little else was authentic). Whereas the Urban movie toned down the uniforms in favor of something more functional, less cartoony. Both have their merits, depending on what you're looking for.
Yeah, both are definitely fun movies in their own right. The Stallone larger-than-life comic book on screen or the realistic day to day carnage of the newer version. I never read the comics and know little of the character, so I'm happy enough to accept both interpretations on their own merits.
^Just so my quote isn't taken out of context, I want to make clear that I was speaking of the two approaches to the design of the uniforms, not of the merits of the movies as a whole. I haven't seen the Stallone movie in a very long time so I'm not in the best position to judge, but I remember finding it mildly entertaining but ridiculous. The Urban movie is altogether a superior piece of work, despite its flawed ending.
I never really found Stallone's costume more faithful in any way beyond the gigantic shoulder wings. Nothing else is particularly faithful. The helmet*, lawgiver, and lawmaster of Stallone's Judge look very little like the comic. *The helmet isn't too far off, but UrbanDredd's helmet is far closer, in my opinion.
In fairness the ‘Dredd is horribly disfigured’ notion is something referenced in the early comics, but was dropped after a couple of years, or at least isn’t referenced. I think now it’s just the notion that removing his helmet would humanise him and somehow take away from this notion of him as ultimate justice. I never actually had a huge problem with Stallone taking the helmet off, though like you say it should have been later in the film. Hell I don’t even have a problem with Fergie (comedy sidekicks have been in Dredd since pretty near the beginning). I probably hate him kissing Hersehy more because that’s the ultimate betrayal of the character as far as I’m concerned. Judge Dredd did a lot right, or at least tried to, it just threw too much in, all that was missing was the kitchen sink…well Judge Death maybe! Rico, the Angel Gang, the ABC robot etc…Dredd’s pared down script is way better. Guess we’re never going to see the Dark Judges on screen…
I haven't seen it in a few years myself, I do vaguely remember how over embellished the look of it was though, complete with (as Trekker mentioned) those awful shoulder wings. I'm trying to decide whether to dig out the old DVD of it or not at this point.
I always liked the early Dredd comics (which I didn't discover till the '90s) because they were a somewhat satirical British take on the "decaying US urban crime wasteland" and vigilante vibe of the '70s, like Dirty Harry and Deathwish, and dystopias like Soylent Green, Rollerball and Death Race 2000. They had a kind of goofy over-the-top quality that, for me, is hard to recapture without picturing the context of that time. I don't remember a lot about the Stallone movie but it struck me as combining a more cartoony look with a fairly standard action movie formula, without much underlying humor or self-awareness. The newer movie was a lot better, it handled the dark humor and questioned the whole justice/vigilantism thing much more effectively IMO. It went for realism too much to recapture the comics the way I picture them, but that was never likely to happen. Overall I found it pretty good, not great but better than I expected.
^I think it had just as much to do with the "decaying British urban crime wasteland" as the American one. The imagery of the city mega blocs were quite clearly inspired by council estate blocks that sprung up in the 60's and quickly became vertical slums by the 70's. But yes, it looked at it though the lenses of a sci-fi Dirty Harry satire. As for the Dark Judges...part of me is glad that they'll probably never show up. You'd need a whole film just to set up the concept since they're very specific to the world of Dredd and have a back story all their own and another film to actually use them. You'd need a pretty strong pair of scripts to do that without it turning out like a bad Spider-Man movie. It's not like Dark Knight where the Joker is so iconic that you can just have him show up and do his thing. Also, if I'm honest, aside from the imagery, I never found the Dark Judges all that interesting. Pretty one-note characters that don't really do much beyond present a threat. I think they were very wise in Dredd when they came up with Ma-Ma as the villain rather than try and adapt some popular villain from the comics. Plus they made her human in the sense that you understand her motivations and get a sense of who she is and what she went through to get were she is.
I am sure you're right, I just meant setting it in North America seemed to connect it with US popular entertainment in that vigilante vein. But certainly the commentary applied to Britain, there was a lot of labor/employment and capitalism-run-amok stuff in there IIRC, aside from the crime.
Of course what's interesting re Dredd is the turn the comics have taken. Whilst the Judges are still effectively a fascist dictatorship, Dredd has definitely mellowed, and often the Judges are portrayed as a necessary evil, and those who want democracy fall into three categories; the well-meaning honest ones, the terrorists, or those who are either clearly insane or just after celebrity. Hell the best two elected mayors the City's ever had were A/ An Orang-utan, and B/ A serial killer! As for the Dark Judges, yeah they’re a bit one dimensional, but you could argue Ma-Ma was too, in fact a large proportion of movie villains aren’t exactly fully fleshed out. In many ways the Dark Judges are perfect for a film. Just enough character and a singular raison d'etre, crime is committed by the living, therefore kill all the living and crime ceases to exist. Add in the fact that they could look stunning if done right, and could actually be darkly humorous if handled correctly (Mainly just Death), and you have a great marketing tool—just imagine these guys on a poster? Imagine the T-shirts, the action figures etc. Of course the trouble is they aren’t characters you can throw into a first film. You have to understand the world of Dredd, and the role of the Judges, before you can then see the concept of Judges taking to the terrifying extreme. There’s also the problem that Dredd was a very grounded film, so you probably do need an intermediate film that introduces some more bizarre elements to the world, before you then take a jump off the deep end. In an ideal world Dredd would have taken a ton of money and Dredd 2 would have probably featured the Cursed Earth, and introduced some supernatural or otherworldly elements. Dredd 3 would have then been about the Dark Judges.
Interestingly, before it was revealed that Dredd was a clone of Fargo, the former Chief Judge's face was revealed in an early issue of 2000 AD.
I thought the Stallone movie captured the twisted satirical humor of the few Dredd strips I've read. Rob Schneider's character being sent to prison for tampering with city property to escape a firefight seemed like something out of those comics. Plus, MegaCity One and the bikes and the like seemed like comic material. (Not to say it didn't have its flaws...) I'll have to catch it again but the new Dredd didn't seem like it really needed Judge Dredd to be the protagonist, it seemed like it could've worked just as well as an unlicensed near-future flick.
Before the movie the only experience I had with Judge Dredd was what I read on Wikipedia, so I went in with no real expectations and I absolutely loved the movie. It was one that I really regretted waiting for the DVD release. I read in a couple different places that the guy who directed the movie had hopped to do a second movie inolving the Cursed Earth, and I think he might have mentioned plans for Judge Death, so I think you're ideal was probably pretty close to what he had in mind.
Same here, though I did see Judge Dredd. What struck me is that the movie was extremely focused and what really made it shine was the fact that it didn't add on romantic subplots, corny humor, etc. It was just a pure action movie. It was the only movie in recent memory I saw where, when it ended, my first thought was, "I want more!"
We also saw (original) Rico's face in a few flashback stories - one thing that has never really been followed up on is that there are a number of clone lines used for Judges (the ones who aren't naturally born).