‘Dark Judges’ Online Miniseries

[Rusty]

There were a couple of things that were a bit silly, even though almost everything about the cartoon was silly in itself, but the Lawgiver rocket function jetting Dredd off at 1000mph and the fat judge on the Lawmaster at the start was just a bit daft regardless of what context you try to place them in.

[mimikeke]

Luis: There was a moment where I proposed we include an Alien in the story, and he said to me, politely, "Luis, I don't think that's a good idea," and thank goodness he did. Seriously, he suggested we make a Judge Death movie, and he gave us great feedback. Since then, he never got tired of repeating, "You've got complete freedom. I trust you." It has been a pleasure working with him and his team.

I think if we're going all out and don't have a lot of room to tell a story, I would have been up for this.  But then you're stepping on 2 sets of toes.... 

[Bat King]

OK I've written my review.

Overall I liked this cartoon but it wasn't perfect. I didn't like the use of the Angel Gang or Rico very much. Though how the dream sequence of Death and Vienna got a few more bits of Boyhood of a Superfiend in was good.

The style of animation suited the story. The tone of the story wasn't really too far off the tome of Boyhood of a Superfiend.

My full review

[Colin YNWA]

This kinda reminded me of Heavy Metal Dredd in terms of the sheer anarchic nonsense going on in it.

Beat me to it. Didn't like Heavy Metal Dredd either.

I've kept my counsel on this as I'm becoming less and less interested in film and telly adaptions of comics and this is another example of why. Its completely cool that people want to re-imagine stuff and interrupt a story or character for a different audience. The thing is if you have a lot invested in the original its always at risk of leaving you cold and this one certainly did.

While it was a shame that the movie (2012) didn't have space for more overt satire that is so rich in the comic, this took it too far and nose dived into farce, complete farce and not the good kind.

Still when animated the art looked much better, at times and the visuals had their moments. As did the story, but alas it was just moments. Over all just not the Dredd, or indeed Death for me.

Still hope that as many of the folks - who invested so much hope into this as possible - enjoyed it.

[Judge Brian]

I guess the IDW Dredd isn't as bad as it could get.

[Bat King]

Until the last 2 issues IDW's Dark Judges issues have been horrendous.  This is better than those.

Throwing Cal in to the mix with Judge Death and adding a load of truly awful addition Dark Judges... really, really bad.

But that's opinions for you, not everyone had the same ones.

[Stan]

Funny thing is that I can imagine this feeling less incoherent to non-fans stumbling across it. It's fun and wacky, and the good is often as strong as the bad (the former mostly occurring early on), but the complete disregard for canon is quite jarring/off-putting. But worse than that, it's an inferior retelling overall. I understand there may be difficulties condensing the original origins into a 25+ minute video while not making it feel like a recap, but I'm sure it could be done without requiring the whole thing be thrown in the bin.

That said. While it bothers me that some may take this is as the real origins of Judge Death, I thought they at least portrayed him really well under the circumstances (from childhood onwards). Definitely a thumbs up on that score.

[Hap Hazzard]

First off, kudos to all involved for the work and effort involved, and for the fact they wanted to say thanks to the Dredd faithful in regards to the support for the movie. Thanks for giving us some more onscreen Dredd, your work was appreciated.

All that said, I was hoping to enjoy it more than I did, the jarring mashups of different Dredd elements, the changes, it didn't fit right for me. I'm glad so many others enjoyed it though and I hope we get more animated Dredd in future - a full length series based on Necropolis could truly be awesome. This just didn't hit the spot for me. Too jokey, too unreal like Dredd's rocket setting on the Lawgiver, too much shoehorned together that didn't make sense - why have Death as a Mega-City Judge to begin with for example, when it would've been cooler to have him still come from his own dimension and show all that to begin?
One element that stuck out in my head as something great, a little detail, was the police lighting built into the Lawmasters wheels. For some reason that struck me as very cool.

So I'm grateful for the work that was put into it, and I hope it inspires others to come up with more onscreen Dredd.

[Hawkmumbler]

Glad I didn't comment too much before the release. Because that was a bit bad.

[TordelBack]

While it bothers me that some may take this is as the real origins of Judge Death, I thought they at least portrayed him really well under the circumstances (from childhood onwards). Definitely a thumbs up on that score.

Yup, the Death stuff was the best bit.  It was the rest (Angel Gang, Rico and yup, Dredd) that didn't work for me at all.  I quite liked Judge Sydney, as well as Phobia and Nausea

[Dark Jimbo]

While it bothers me that some may take this is as the real origins of Judge Death, I thought they at least portrayed him really well under the circumstances (from childhood onwards). Definitely a thumbs up on that score.

Yup, the Death stuff was the best bit.  It was the rest (Angel Gang, Rico and yup, Dredd) that didn't work for me at all.  I quite liked Judge Sydney, as well as Phobia and Nausea

Aye, Death himself is actually really well handled. Dredd comes out of it quite well too, and I could ignore the Angels as some alt-verse version of the characters. For me the wheels came off when the Rico/Vienna elements got introudced; they really didn't fit with Death's story and just muddled things completely.

[DaveGYNWA]

Aye, Death himself is actually really well handled. Dredd comes out of it quite well too, and I could ignore the Angels as some alt-verse version of the characters. For me the wheels came off when the Rico/Vienna elements got introudced; they really didn't fit with Death's story and just muddled things completely.

Yep, that's me. Rico/Vienna just didn't fit in there - but the "Ah Vienna" did get a chuckle from me.

My main problem with the whole thing is probably a stupid thing - Judge Sidney or Judge Syd? Badge on left or badge on right? Gun in left hand or gun in right hand, perp in the opposite hand? Head on the right turntable (as you look at it) then goes to the other turntable when viewed from the other side? I found myself keeping an eye out for things like that as I went through the episodes....and they annoy the hell out of me

Valiant effort, some good bits, some bad bits - but falls short for me.

[Mardroid]

Silly. Strays from the original stories a lot....

....I really enjoyed it.

[Fisticuffs]

What a bunch of grumpy old bastards. Enjoy it for what it is! It's getting a good reception elsewhere (I watched it when Adi Shankar posted it to Reddit early) and anything to keep people thinking about Dredd is ultimately a good thing, right?

[Richmond Clements]

Enjoy it for what it is!

Well, I don't enjoy any other half-baked, badly written and poorly executed shit, so see no reason to enjoy this either.

It's getting a good reception elsewhere

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/oct/25/populist-the-guide