Dredd (2012)

[minus]

...just scanned through nearly 50 pages.

Clearly most of you seem ecstatic with the poster and city skyline. Some of the reformatted posters appear a lot stronger than the 'official' one. The city buildings are passable stylistically, but there needs to be more to it. It just isn't congested enough for my liking. Those wheeled wagons just don't work at all. Hopefully we'll get a trailer soon and this thread will be obsolete. Not really the Dredd I wanted, but it's done now and we'll just have to wait and see how it pans out.

[CYCLOPZ]

I think the skyline in this picture is deceptively sparse. Those small buildings are huge, and the larger ones are gigantic, judging my the detail when you look close up.

[Steve Green]

My initial thought was similar in that it felt a bit sparse, but I think the intention is to give some contrast between the (relatively) regular skyline and the enormous blocks.

I think it would have been too much of a stretch to have contemporary vehicles and a city packed with blocks that size, it would have drawn attention to the gap between budget for practical vehicles and what could be done with digital mattes on the environment - Unless they started using CGI for vehicles as well (which is not particularly a big deal for this type of shot, but once you hit the streets it could get expensive).

It's not like doubling the number of blocks would have made that much of a difference to the render time (and budget)

[Goaty]

It just one single photo!! Chill out! Counts the days till Sept 

[Bubba Zebill]

I think the skyline in this picture is deceptively sparse. Those small buildings are huge, and the larger ones are gigantic, judging my the detail when you look close up.

I think so. This is effectively the calm before the storm. For the sake of the scene, this allows Dredd (presumably) to be easily followed as heads out to patrol...and meet that storm.

Also we see an army of judges heading in, one man heading out...the most dangerous one. It's an absolute blinder, I can't get enough it.

[Bubba Zebill]

Easily followed because the skyline is impressive but not a distraction, we can follow Dredd easily. Daylight too...long been sick of dark city scenes.

[radiator]

I think they've struck a pretty decent balance between realism and futuristic spectacle - as others have said you have to weigh how the city will look in context with the contemporary-looking vehicles and weaponry etc.

It's clear the filmmakers have been very exacting on the type of film they are making - and what they can realistically achieve with the means at their disposal. It may not be the ideal vision of Dredd that we all want to see, but given the choice between a stripped back, relatively low-tech but slick and polished looking interpretation, an attempt to portray the comic on screen (which would be very ambitious on a $35/40m budget and would look so cheap as to be laughable) and no film at all, I'd go with the former.

[The Bissler]

Re the information on the Lionsgate website, it describes Anderson as "a rookie with powerful psychic abilities thanks to a genetic mutation". 
I've got the first two Anderson Psi files and all of the JD Case Files to date but don't remember hearing this explanation before, my recollection was that some people were just born gifted with psionic abilities (or developed them at a later date).  Is this something unique to the film or was it explained in a later story?  Surely a genetic mutation would have meant Anderson was a mutant and therefore banned from MC-1?

Note: I'm not bothered if they made this up for the film, I'm just genuinely interested if this ties in with the strip!

[TordelBack]

...some people were just born gifted with psionic abilities ...

That'd be a mutation, so - see Anderson's telekentic predecessor, Novar.  Mutation is how natural selection gets much of its clay.  I don't believe it has been explicitly addressed by the comic, but it certainly should have been. 

[Mario Di Giacomo]

I think the definition of "mutation" in MC-1 is a bit different.

In the progs I've read (admittedly, not many) the definition seems to be specifically "physically mutated due to residence in or ancestry from the Cursed Earth", and tends to be more aesthetic than genetic.

Hence, someone with genetic variations might not qualify, particularly if they can "pass" for human.

[The Bissler]

Thanks for the swift responses!  It does seem strange that it has never been explained in the comics, but at the same time I had never really thought about it until now - Anderson and others just were psychic and that was good enough for me!

[Richmond Clements]

Thanks for the swift responses!  It does seem strange that it has never been explained in the comics, but at the same time I had never really thought about it until now - Anderson and others just were psychic and that was good enough for me!

I'm pretty sure we've had it addressed in the comic somewhere...

[TordelBack]

In the progs I've read (admittedly, not many) the definition seems to be specifically "physically mutated due to residence in or ancestry from the Cursed Earth", and tends to be more aesthetic than genetic.

Well, no.   America Beeny's elder half-sister was terminated in utero as a mutant, and America Jara was (almost by definition) born in MC-1.

However, it is possible that psychic abilities in the Dreddverse are a long-stranding part of the human genome, and are only occasionally expressed in a functional way in rare individuals. 

[Mark Taylor]

Thanks for the swift responses!  It does seem strange that it has never been explained in the comics, but at the same time I had never really thought about it until now - Anderson and others just were psychic and that was good enough for me!

I'm pretty sure we've had it addressed in the comic somewhere...

It has. There was a story in the Meg not too long ago where Dredd goes to the cursed Earth to find a former female Judge, now working as a bounty hunter, who was kicked out of the MC-1 for having some borderline mutation. When Dredd picks her up she explicitly refers to the fact that Psis are mutants and Justice Deparment makes a specific exception for the Psi Judges. As it turns out [spoiler]Dredd is actually after her unborn child who has a good chance of being genetically normal and probably good Judge material.[/spoiler]

[TordelBack]

Ah, thanks for that Mark!  This is where dropping the Meg gets me.