Summary

Judge Dredd was not a critical darling during its release. Despite a hefty budget, this science fiction action film felt tonally uneven and the biggest sacrilege of them all was Sly’s acting without the helmet for much of the running time. Nevertheless, revisiting Judge Dredd after several decades will reveal a spectacular production design courtesy of Nigel Phelps (Alien Resurrection (1997)).

Phelps, known for his contributions in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989), seamlessly blends together various aesthetics representing the world of Dredd as a hybrid of futurism, fascism, totalitarianism, brutal architecture and cyberpunk style to visualize this new cinematic dystopia. Yet, he does not stop there. He incorporates elements from Blade Runner (1982) such as its densely populated streets, denizens who wear questionable fashion choices, neon signed streets, lots of trash, and rain in a vertically extending metropolis which strongly resembles a more high-tech and oppressive Gotham City. He does not do a knock off job from the work of Lawrence G. Paul and Peter J. Hampton in Ridley Scott’s timeless classic though adding new elements with its flying taxis and heavy corporate 3D advertising in a new approach that preludes even Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element (1997).

An accurate description perhaps could be that Judge Dredd is in the middle in a spectrum where Blade Runner and The Fifth Element being are polar opposites. As for the interior environments, the sets are vast and feel organic in terms of their practical use. Phelps plays a lot in the desert that is the Cursed Earth living traces of civilization while scrolling through plane halls, bio labs or the judges’ and justices’ quarters we witnessed slick designs that feel wholeheartedly unique and worthy of admiration. In particular, the prison where Rico escapes is a marvel, a prelude of Phelps’ own bleak output later on in Alien Resurrection with its metal corridors, isolated (and suspended) cells with its brown/black colors that give it a cold and inhumane sentiment.

Colours

Persian orange, coconut, balance blue, simple black, pale navy, vivid black, light sky blue, mocha icing, mine shaft, sporty dark blue, us dollar, black ink, brown leather, bunker, black denim