One of the Best Comic Book Movies of the Century Returns to Streaming (& it’s Totally Free)

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Starring Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, and Lena Headye, Dredd debuted in 2012 and centers on the violent metropolis of Mega City One. In this sprawling city with seemingly no oversight, criminals run free, making their own rules and subjecting others to their own brand of justice. But the official law lies in the hands of “judges,” who act as, you guessed it, judge, jury, and executioner, and Dredd (Urban) is the most reviled of the group. And Dredd now finds himself partnered with Cassandra (Thirlby), a rookie with powerful psychic abilities. The two receive a report of a horrific crime that sends them to the seediest part of town, the place over by Ma-Ma (Headey), a drug lord who will stop at nothing to protect her empire.

It’s a Great Update on a Comic Book Classic

While general audiences weren’t quite as impressed, critics thoroughly enjoyed Dredd, awarding it an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. While most films of a similar theme rely solely on hyperviolence and the nostalgia factor, Dredd seems to up the ante with a surprisingly tight narrative, one that has viewers investing just as much in the characters as they do in the action sequences. “Among all the pyrotechnics and bullet-filled mayhem, Urban is a striking presence, seemingly all business, but still managing to generate more emotion and pathos within a helmet than Stallone did without,” says critic James Croot.

Audiences were slightly more critical of the film, not vibing as much with the idea that Alex Garland’s script seemed to celebrate the right-wing authoritarianism of the Judges—a concept the comics were obviously not celebrating. One viewer said, “Yeah. I mean, Dredd the movie is basically ‘right-wing authoritarians are badass’, whereas the strip originated as a way of poking fun at American movies like Dirty Harry and the idea that people are okay with police straight-up murdering people as long as the criminals are a little bit worse,” said one fan. Through that lens, it becomes clearer that Garland penned the script from the perspective of the kid he was when the original movie was released.

Do you have a favorite moment from Dredd? Let us know in the comments. And don’t forget to check out the ComicBook forum to see what other fans are saying.