Back when this came out, almost every action fan would go watch this film purely because of the involvement of Sylvester Stallone. The comic book fans hated it. People like me were on the fence. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. Now after so many years my sentiments have remained the same.
Visually and stylistically, Judge Dredd delivers. You really get a good sense of the world and how chaotic it is. On everything else Judge Dredd is a little lacking. This film went into a direction without establishing properly what Dredd was about. We don't really know him that well. Just because Stallone is playing him, we know he is the good guy who is being framed. I personally would have liked to seen more examples of him dealing with thugs and people how his actions could have been interpreted as unlawful. Or perhaps show examples where he did let people go because the law he knows was insufficient to address the situation. But you never get this.
The whole double cross plot could have been far more compelling. Now it's just something that moves Dredd from location A to location B. Sidekick Rob Schneider is completely useless. One could argue he is there to show that the judgements of Dredd could be questioned. Only they never go deeper into this. Sylvester just grunts. It doesn't really matter much, since all he cares for is dealing with the bad guys who wrongfully accused him.
Judge Dredd certainly is missing elements that could have turned this into a classic. I don't think it's deserving of hate. But it's not deserving of praise either. So overall, it's an average title.
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