Does the Judge Dredd slot compensate for the 1995 shocker ‘Judge Dredd’?

The first image of Judge Dredd that probably comes to mind is Sylvester Stallone, with his bulky shoulder pads and, well, prominent codpiece. And while at first sight it appears that director Danny Cannon’s wardrobe team had made a dire mistake in dressing Sly like a keen bouncer on his first night on the doors, it was ultimately the only thing they got kind of right (kind of, it was still wrong). Everything else from ‘I. AM. THE. LAW’ (or ‘WAW’), the sliced and diced five minute overview of Megacity One, to two judges romantically embracing (would never happen), Judge Dredd was an abomination that made every 2000AD fan cry.

Just take the set as an example of how unmemorable Judge Dredd was; courtrooms, prison cells, locker rooms, and even the beige boredom that is the Cursed Earth. Nothing apart from the skyline introductory shot — and when Rob Schneider is attacked by spaghetti — is visually stimulating. If Cannon had made the decision to film the remainder of the move in a self-storage unit, nobody would’ve noticed. Compare the set of Judge Dredd to other sci-fi moves of the same decade. We’re talking Blade Runner and Alien (okay, both directed by Ridley Scott, point accepted), not only two of the 20th century’s greatest sci-fi movies, but all-time greats. The one thing they both got right was the set.

Take the Nostromo. From the pure white stasis chamber, the eerie industrial under-compartment, to the passageways that although looked the same, had their own individual feel; the fantastic use of a secluded space made Alien memorable. Likewise with Blade Runner, the dilapidated run-down home of Rick Deckard is explored not through a mere birds-eye view of the city, but by spending short periods of time in multiple locations. From the eerie sub-zero eye store, Tyrell’s penthouse, and Sebastian’s penthouse, each area was memorable in its own right. On the contrary though, and while there was scope to do so, everything, from where Rico (the quintessential moral-compassless baddy) was incarcerated to Dredd’s home, everything hd the same colour pallet — bland. The comics offered Cannon boundless scope to work with, and instead he wasted it on shoddy set-design.

I. AM. THE. WAAAAW, and other things Cannon got wrong!

While the movie might have looked bland, nothing was worse than the portrayal of Dredd. In the comics he was tall, had a booming, authoritative voice and never, ever revealed his face (nobody knew what he looked like). Sylvester Stallone is short, stupid and incredibly famous and so, the perfect choice to play Dredd. During the opening credits we are introduced to flickering pages of the original comic, which of course, sets us up to expect judges that wear small black shoulder pads and, sure codpieces, but much smaller ones. Instead we are graced with giant golden shoulder pads and huge, huge codpieces. Nothing about the way he looked was correct. Nothing.