Dredd 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
Brad Sturdivant
May 27th, 2017
Before the movies, I was not familiar with the Judge Dredd character and like most non-comic book fans, my first exposure to the character was when Sylvester Stallone brought the character to the big screen in 1995. I chalked it up to another bad Stallone film, but when the character was resurrected in 2012, I learned that the character actually has a legion of fans that have been longing for a decent movie adaptation. Whether or not this film is the answer to their dreams is up for debate, but at the very least, it’s an improvement.
DREDD is set in a distant future where criminals run rampant and the job of judge, jury and executioner falls on the policemen and women assigned to protect the city. We meet up with Judge Dredd (Urban) and Anderson (Thirlby), a rookie cop with a secret as they investigate a mega residential building run by Ma-Ma (Lena Heady). They quickly find themselves trapped and their only chance of survival is to fight their way up. Likewise, Ma-Ma is intent on making sure they don’t make it out and she throws everything she can at them.
If the story sounds familiar, it’s because it’s essentially the same “story” from 2011’s THE RAID: REDEMPTION. Whichever story came first or who stole from whom is irrelevant because THE RAID: REDEMPTION is a fantastic, exciting action film and although DREDD is serviceable, it will unfortunately be compared to The Raid and it just can’t hold up. I’m sure that’s frustrating for the filmmakers since they could have gained originality points if they had gotten this to theaters a year earlier, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Karl Urban does a great job with the character and it’s easy to understand why he has so many fans, but this isn’t a film that requires many layers from an actor.
Judge Dredd has plenty of fans and now there’s even a TV show planned to give the character new life. I think the character will work better on the small screen since a lower budget and less pressure will give the character time to grow and develop. DREDD is an okay film, but in a world of billion dollar comic book movies, it doesn’t really fit in.
4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: The improvements in the colors, thanks to the HDR, are pretty impressive for this kind of film. This is a grainy, low budget, dark film and although I wouldn’t have thought it, the 4K and HDR actually do this type of film a great service. The dark scenes look much better thanks to the improved backgrounds and the images that might have been a little washed out on the Blu-ray look much better on 4K. There’s also an added layer of “grittiness” that add to the film and give it a nice quality. Sure, you can find better, more detailed presentations, but overall this looks pretty nice.
Audio: The Dolby Atmos track was another nice surprise from Lionsgate, offering a nice upgrade over the DTS track.
This title was reviewed using a Samsung UBD-K8500 with a Sony XBR75X850C TV.
The 4K UHD does not contain any exclusive features, but it does include a Blu-ray of the film and you can read our review by clicking DREDD Blu-ray Review
Also, I love that the 3D version is included here, and that makes this a very attractive set, especially for the price tag.
Click 4K Ultra HD to read more of our 4K reviews. And you can also follow us on Instagram (@flix66pics) to see previews of our upcoming 4K reviews and more pics of the packaging.
