Saturday 14 March 2015

Dredd: Uprise #1 - Rebellion

DREDD: UPRISE No. 1, October 2014
When a motion picture only earns just over $41,000,000, a demoralizing four million dollars less than what it reportedly cost to actually make, and despite some generally positive reviews as to its visual effects and acting, overall receives little critical praise, then there is not much chance that a second feature film will occur. No matter how popular its home media sales are or that it is subsequently ‘awarded’ cult hit status. Unless… the 2012 science fiction movie in question is based upon the popular “2000 A.D.” comic strip “Judge Dredd”, and the ‘official’ sequel is actually a two-issue mini-series scripted by Arthur Wyatt and drawn by Paul Davidson.

Interestingly though, even this thirty-page publication by “Rebellion” steers away from the rather insular and claustrophobic narrative of the film and instead of just showing Joseph Dredd (and Cassandra Anderson) bottled-up battling local criminals, portrays the entire Justice Department combating what initially appears to be the machinations of a seriously organized crime syndicate known as Uprise.

Indeed the future lawman is far from being the central character for much of the story, and predominantly just appears to push the main plot along. It is only when the seasoned veteran takes disgraced rookie street Judge Conti under his wing in order to search the “old Richardson building” for a suspected sniper, that Dredd is shown at his no-nonsense and dry-humored best. Instead, the British writer drip feeds the reader with a succession of one or two page long scenes, which quite quickly introduce a potentially overwhelming array of different characters to the Mega-City One uninitiated.

Most noteworthy however has to be Judge Darryl, “some old judge, probably hanging on to the job past the point he should have retired.” This portly double-chinned lawman is as violent as he is vindictive, and it is somewhat predictable that he is revealed to be the corrupt link in the chain of events which concludes the first instalment of “Dredd: Uprise”.

Unsurprisingly for such an evidently well-made and gloss-finished magazine, the artwork of Davidson is rather nicely done. The freelance illustrator’s Judge uniforms are especially representative of their ‘big screen’ counterparts. Whilst his impressive cityscapes are wonderfully detailed and sweeping as well. The man definitely has a style reminiscent of the late “Rogue Trooper” legend Brett Ewins, especially in his design of Oemling’s robot auxiliaries. Chris Blythe on colours must also take some credit for the lavishly rich look to the book’s drawings though, providing the comic with a suitably squalid overall feel despite incorporating a hint of red or green whenever the opportunity arises.
The regular cover art of "DREDD: UPRISE" No. 1 by Ben Willsher

6 comments:

  1. A shame this is the sequel, I loved this movie. Way better than the travesty that Stallone was in. I thought Karl Urban made an excellent Dredd.
    The comic looks OK though. I'd buy it, if I wasn't so obsessed by zombies at the moment. You mentioned Rogue Trooper, he was my favourite character in 2000AD, now that's a movie I would love to see made.

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    1. This is a great little two-parter Bob, though the art is far better than the story imho. I should have a review of the conclusion posted at some point this week. Plus having already looked at "Rogue Trooper Classics" #1 a few months back I've got my hands on a few more issues. Plus "IDW Publishing" have done an all-new four-issue mini-series ;-)

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  2. A very good review, Simon. Will you be at all surprised to learn that i have the trade paperback of this series? I thought not! By the way, I'm with Bob, Karl Urban as Dredd was far, far better than Sly Stallone.

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    1. Thanks Bryan. Much appreciated. No I'm not surprised at all that you own the trade paperback... I don;t think you've commented yet where you haven't :-) I suppose in many ways you probably see Stallone's "Judge Dredd" as the "World War Z" of comic book films... so I'm sure you won't be surprised to know that I'm a huge fan of Sly's version :-)

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    2. The Stallone Dredd film had a lot to admire - Mega City One looked good. I loved the Judges' uniforms and weapons. The Hammerstein droid and Mean Machine Angel were excellent. But everything else was utter pants! Dredd removing his helmet - NO! Dredd having a love affair with Hershey - NO! Naming the Council of Five after some of the comic strips' Chief Judges and then killing them all - NO! Fergie - NO! The Angel Gang - with the exception of Mean - NO!
      The script - NO! I could go on but I think you get the point. This could and should have been a lot better. The Karl Urban version was vastly superior in every way.

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    3. Bryan I was laughing so hard at your reply that I almost inadvertently deleted it instead of hitting the reply button. Superb response and one I felt sure was coming as well ;-) Tbh you rant some fine points Ref removing helmet, love affair, chief judges and most definitely Fergie. But I think as with "WWZ" if you distance the film from the book then its good entertainment. Though I accept the whole point of such films is to capture the feel of the books. Another cracking film though which I'm sure we can politely beg to differ on... However I may make mention of it from time to time :-)

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