We'll have to disagree. For me, Mega City One should remain faithful to the concept of 2000AD and exactly how millions have pictured it since reading the comics; a chaotic, neon-lit swarm of buildings.

Hate to say it, but Stallone's version was more faithful to the concept.



Did I say I wanted an origin story? No. What I'd like though, is to feel something for the protagonists I'm supposed to relate to and feel something for. Whether that;s via a back-story or emotional development or bits of both, I don't care. You, of all people, understand how character development in film works. I understand Dredd is generally portrayed as grim and faceless, but that makes for a pretty uninteresting character and I found it hard to care if anyone lived or died.

As I said, a good film but take away the Judge uniform and it could be any future cop action flick.

Dredd isn't a character though is he? He is the law and a representation of future faciscm not Frodo on a quest of destiny. Whenever you feel something for him its usually our own violent responses to justice being dished out behind the barrel of a gun. Judge Anderson is the heart, soul and character of [iDredd[/i not Dredd himself. Let's face it, he is his job. He is not there as a narrative tool in this story and I didn't think the film needed it which may be down to my own knowledge of Dredd so there was no need for me to find a way into it. I slotted seamlessly into in right from the beginning.

Joseph Dredd has an extensive and interesting back-story going back to before his conception. Despite his outer shell he suffers from internal conflict at times and questions his role as a Judge, even quitting a few times. He is far from just a 'Judge'.

There's probably a whole generation who know very little of any of this, and probably just saw a shoot-'em-up.

Disagree about Anderson, she was a complimentary support character who only developed later. Dredd was the main protagonist of the comics.

And I even thought the choice of 'baddies' was poor. Spoiler When Dredd's enemies have included undead Judges, mutants, robots, entire armies and various terror weapons, it all felt a bit lame. I suppose it leads nicely towards the next film but left me unsatisfied.

I think you may be expecting too much from the first in what will undoubtedly become a franchise; I actually liked the fact that they didn't fall for the usual superhero film error of giving over the first 45 minutes to the protagonists origin story, and just got on with it; if it left you wanting to know more about Dredd, job done, you'll be positively salivating for the next one.

I very much approved of the self-contained nature of the story - it assumes that the audience is bright enough to work things out for themselves; if more comic-movie conversions were done that way, less of them would be garbage, which many of them are, with a few notable exceptions - this, for me, was one of them.

Well I disagree. It was a pretty vacuous story. Lots of guns and blood, little 'Dredd' substance.

And I don't know where you're getting the idea I want 45 minutes of an 'origin' story. I don't, never said I did. But character development is a golden rule of film-making, you need to connect and relate to the protagonists or you just don't care what happens. It can be done gradually, hinted at, revealed slowly, worked into the plot. There were teeny tiny pieces of this in Dredd but nothing to titilate.

And what about those who know little of Dredd? What was there to grab them unless they're familiar with the comics? I'd say very little. How can they be 'intelligent' enough to work things out if there's nothing given away? It's ok for us who grew up with 2000AD, we know who and what we're watching, but many people won't.

I enjoyed the film for what it was - a futuristic shoot 'em up. But it didn't leave me wanting more. Art is subjective so we don't have to agree but for me it was a mile away from the comic book vision.

I'm a huge fan of Tarantino and I thought it was his best film since Pulp Fiction. It just seemed to ooze quality. Samuel L. Jackson's part reminded me of Waldorf from The Muppet Show for some reason.

Fair play - I didn't see it that way myself.

I wonder if 2000AD will be mined for further movies? I understood that there was a Rogue Trooper film in the pipeline at one point, but not sure what happened with that. I've always thought Halo Jones could make a great movie, but given Alan Moore's ambivelant relationship with Hollywood, that seems unlikely; probably for the best - it could easily turn out to be another Tank Girl.

You don't put your best storylines in the first film, well you don't when it's as epic as Judge Death. That'd be like putting The Joker in as your first villain in a Batman film and I don't think that works. If you're doing a franchise I like the idea of the first film setting the scene rather than putting all your cards on the table with the best characters because that kills any other follow-up films doesn't it? i.e. they'd be an anti-climax after Judge Death.

Rogue Trooper was probably my favourite 2000AD character. I would imagine making the various unseen characters work would be a cinematic nightmare, but would love to see a film.

Another one I'd like to see but would be very difficult to do justice to, would be Charley's War. My favourite comic strip of them all. Tragic, haunting, relentless and astoundingly violent - doubt it would be deemed suitable for kids these days.


A little presumptuous to assume they'll be successful enough suddenly create a franchise, ain't it? I didn't say Judge Death should have been included, but they could've come up with something a little more adventurous than that. It just came across as a lack of imagination. Shaping and limiting your plot based on there being sequels just leaves me feeling cheated.

Tonight / 11-05pm/BBC2

The guy who wrote [iZero Dark Thirty[/i is a co-writer on [iIn The Valley of Elah[/i. I concur with the recommendation. On ZDT I thought it was excellent. Had more of a kick to it than [iArgo[/i.

The excellent Jennifer Lawrence in the very dark [iWinter's Bone[/i on BBC2 tonight.

Watched Trance the other day. It's as good a British film as I've seen in a while certainly worth a watch. Although there's one or two many plot twists for my liking.

I know there's a couple of fans of [iTony Manero[/i on here. Director's latest is out at the moment, [iNo[/i, which I can heartily recommend. If you're a fan of [iArgo[/i and don't mind watching foreign language films check it out too. Along similar lines but even better.

I was enjoying it, and then I left feeling cheated. I hated that ending in at least four different ways.