

The visual effects were very well executed and i myself being a visual effects artist, have only one complaint. Slow mo, the drug this movie centers around, makes for some very awesome fight scenes on par with Sherlock Holmes 2: a Game of Shadows and the Matrix. Its also cool to see the way she breaks him down even after he thinks he has the upper hand. I would've actually enjoyed more of these as they were very surreal and artistic. The psychic scenes were perhaps the most well done and paints a very nice psychological battle between the judge in training and her prisoner. Whats lost in character development is regained by the subtle twisted moments and reactions to the threats imposed on each of the characters. The terror by which she controls the people is believable and vicious. Her mob-style domination of peach tree creates a claustrophobic apprehension for a threat far too big to take on in a box far too small to escape. He is a man who takes his duty seriously to the point that it consumes him, defines him. His character is described perfectly in the first few minutes by his new psychic apprentice, which is the last look you get inside of his head before its slammed shut. Stern, analytical, gruff, his toughness masking a side of him the audience never actually gets to see. Dredd himself is very one dimensional, forcedly so.

The grungy neon lights of a dystopian future, the scarlet blood and glimmering glass, the hauntingly beautiful slow motion, what makes this movie great is definitely the visual aspects. This is a beautiful work of art with a lot of stylized violence, desolate alleys with shady characters and ill intentions. This definitely isn't one of those movies with a lot of character development, but its not your typical action flick either.
