Did you guys like the way the Dredd movie depicted Mega City One?

[ChickenStu]

I guess due to a somewhat conservative budget, the makers of the film couldn't make MC1 as flashy and spectacular as it is in the comics (and to some extent, in the Stallone movie). There's a distinct lack of flying cars and stuff. The only really overly futuristic elements are the stupidly tall buildings and those planes that fly around beaming images back to control.

Personally, I actually prefer it. It actually feels like a real city and I can kind of identify with it a bit more. In the Stallone movie it's like a gleaming metropolis (totally wrong) yet here it looks thoroughly FUCKED up and nasty. And plus, the opening chase wouldn't have been as thrilling if it had been in the air.

This is a great example of something being changed to suit a different medium, and I think the more grounded vision of the city (and I guess, of the future) works better.

Whilst the overtly futuristic element works gangbusters in the comic, it just looked totally stupid and plastic in the 95 film. I'm glad the newer one took this approach. Just made the movie ten times better.

What do you guys think?

[Mardroid]

I think the Judge Dredd film's version of the city is one of the things it actually got right. It's pretty close to the comic version in my view and looks okay. People - not you ChickenStu (heh. That rhymes,) - criticise it for being too much like a generic future metropolis with all those curvy shapes, etc, but from what I've seen of the comics, that's how it is often depicted.)

I was initially a bit disappointed when I saw the route Dredd's version took but... I now think it works very well. It's more 'on your nose' dystopian (while the comic/Stallone version is a dystopia disguised as a utopia) but that fits the story well. And those spaced out megalithic structures work very well.

[Mabs]

It's a chilling vision that's for sure - sort of like Mega City crossed with the City of God.

[WhizzBang]

I do not think it looked like MC1 at all. MC1 is always sunny and has lots of huge curved buildings. It is not drab with huge rectangular buildings.

[Spikes]

Was there ever a set in stone blueprint to MC1 that all artist's followed, and the cities depiction was uniform week in and week out?

MC1's look changed every time a different artist was employed on the strip - McMahon, Bolland, Ezquerra, Smith, Dillon, Kennedy....

I think the MC1 in Dredd is pretty darn top notch - and is as totally a valid depiction of MC1 as the comic depiction's are, and is for me one of the many highlights of that film. Of course i would have like to have seen more of this world, and no doubt we would have, had we been lucky enough to get a sequel(s).

[WhizzBang]

Was there ever a set in stone blueprint to MC1 that all artist's followed, and the cities depiction was uniform week in and week out?

Not set in stone, no. But take a look at Pat Mills blog: http://patmills.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/dredd-the-lawman-of-the-future/. He talks a lot about the city on this page and it having huge curved buildings.

I think if you asked most Dred artists to draw a city block they would draw the sort of fat bullet shaped buildings, sometimes with a roof that opens to have a garden. Bolland, McMahon, Ezquerra, Dillon, Kennedy etc have all drawn buildings like this as have many other artists. Ron Smith always stuck to fairly normal looking rectangular buildings like in the film, I think.

[Spikes]

When i think off MC1 (the comic version) the 'fat bullet shape' look does spring to mind the most readily, but a quick flick through the early Case Files shows that the depiction of MC1 - while never a 50/50 split, does range from that, to the more traditional skyscraper look. Ewins, Bolland, Dillon, Gibson and Smith all employed that look to varying degree's. Or drew MC1 as a combination of those two styles.

Offhand only McMahon and Ezquerra (out of the early big name artist's) drew MC1 totally like nothing else on earth.

Still, i guess the original question was whether we like the film depiction or not. I do - its grand!

[dweezil2]

I think Mega-City One as depicted fitted the tone of the film perfectly-it was the very antithesis of a generic future cityscape.
If you want one of those, look at the recent Recall remake.

[JOE SOAP]

I do not think it looked like MC1 at all. MC1 is always sunny and has lots of huge curved buildings. It is not drab with huge rectangular buildings.

It seemed quite sunny in the film and there are drab parts of the city aplenty in the comic.

[Hap Hazzard]

I prefer it.  I love that we have both versions, the various styles used in the comic suit it well and I love them.   But the movie is a more "realistic" take on the Judges and their world, and as such there's no way in just 90 years time there will have been an atomic war and then rebuilding of a humongous city that itself is concreted over the old ones, that could have grown to such a size and in such luxurious style.   The city shown in the film looks like the beginnings of MegaCity 1 when they're still struggling to get over the effects of the war and deal with all the problems and shortages that would create.  I love the look in the film. 

[Stan]

Indeed. Twelve years later and WTC1 is yet to be finished. And that's under ideal circumstances by comparison.

[clavell]

I like it too.
The films mega blocks are like todays tower blocks on a gigantic scale. It makes sense that they'd just scale up a familiar design, and they probably had to get them up quickly and cheaply, so they stuck with what worked. The way they spaced them out works better for a film as well, instead of the density usually seen in the comics. We can see how they compare to the regular buildings.

It's a chilling vision that's for sure - sort of like Mega City crossed with the City of God.

Exactly.

- C

[Dandontdare]

On the first viewing I experienced something of a perspective shift - unless you look closely it can be easy to miss the fact that the low-level stuff is actually normal tower blocks and big buildings with elevated roadways and THEN the mega blocks tower above these - It's easy at a quick glance to see it as normal tower blocks over low-level buildings. I think if there had been a bit more variety of height in the lower level stuff, it would be more obvious and impressive just how big these blocks are.

[Hawkmumbler]

I think it's spot on. Taking something like the odd designs depicted in early Dredd's and making it celluloid will only age terribly. Look at a lot of the 90's and early 00's sci-fi films. Fifth Element for example, hasn't aged to well and looks incredibly dated, the same problem plagues Dredd 95. By taking a much more probable and actually scarily realistic take on MC1 Mega-Blocks I feel it'll age very well indeed.

[darnmarr]

Best of all, it avoids the unfortunate trap of looking like a 'Tesco-Valu' version of Bladerunner.