Today’s two post are about something I’ve had my mind on for
a while now. In 2011, The Raid: Redemption was released. It’s about an
Indonesian SWAT team that’s trapped in a building run by a dangerous gangster.
Butts are kicked, shots are fired aplenty, and a lotta folk die. In 2012,
Dredd, based off of 2000AD's Judge Dredd, was released in theatres. The movie
is about how two law officers (Judges) get trapped in a district (Mega-Block)
ran by a dangerous gangster. Shots are fired aplenty and a lotta folk die.
If these two movies sound familiar, then you’re not the only
one who thinks that. It’s kind of unclear if the creators got ideas from each
other or if it’s just a coincidence. It’s not like the plots for these movies
are original, so it doesn’t really matter in the end. Just know that they are
both good films in their respective rights. They’re up there with some of the
best in their genres. Still, which one is better? I know there are some folk
out there that have done this, but I think it’s time to add my voice to “The
Raid vs. Dredd” debate.
Before I get to the match-ups, here is a general overview of
both movies:
- The Raid: Redemption – The Raid takes place in Jakarta, Indonesia. It follows a Special Forces unit as they are tasked with conducting a raid on an apartment block. Their goal is to take out Tama, the head gangster over the block. Of course, things go bad when Tama finds out they’re coming and unleashes the whole block which is full of a lot of criminals. Rama, a rookie cop, and the rest of the team do their best to survive in the block and meet their objective. Rama also has a personal reason for being there since his brother is in Tama’s gang.
- Dredd – Dredd takes place in a dystopic, futuristic metropolis called Mega City-One. The Judges are the law of the town and enact swift justice on criminals. We end up following Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) and a rookie named Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirbly). They’re tasked to find out about a new drug that’s hit the street. When they make it to Peach Trees, a 30-story tower, they run into trouble. Gangster Madeline Mardgril, aka Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), finds out about them, locks down the tower, and sends the lowlifes after them. Dredd and Anderson must use their weapons and abilities (Anderson’s a mutant) in order to survive and enact justice on Ma-Ma.
HEROES
In The Raid, our hero is Rama, a rookie on a SWAT unit in
Indonesia. He’s just a regular dude with a wife and a kid on the way. He’s also
a straight-up master of the fighting style, silat. He pretty much has to use
every trick in the book to survive in the block. In Dredd, we got two
protagonists with Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson.
Dredd is essentially a super-soldier tasked with keeping Mega-One City under
check. Anderson is a rookie who Dredd has to observe in the field. She’s also a
mutant with psychic abilities. Like Rama, they have to pull out all their
tricks in order to survive Ma-Ma’s tower.
All of them are pretty cool. While Rama is just a regular
dude, he’s proficient in martial arts and is good with his arsenal. He’s even
good at improvising when he pretty much loses all his weapons. On a character
standpoint, he’s a dude wanting to help his brother, Andi, which I guess is
where the “Redemption” title comes from. Dredd and Anderson are also pretty cool.
Since Dredd has been in the field for years, it’s pretty much a day on the job.
Anderson may be a rookie, but she does her best to make it through by using her
wit and her powers. Also, the acting is good with those two as well.
So, who are the better heroes? That’s pretty tough to say.
All of them face serious adversity but I think Rama gets it worse since he’s
just a guy. Also, you don’t know if he or any other survivors will even make it
out alive. Dredd is cool and throws out a few one-liners while Anderson gets a
little bit of character development. She grew up in a place like Peach Trees
and wanted to become a Judge to help the city. Of course, she gets a lot more
than she bargained for.
I considered making this a tie but I don’t want to do that
this time. Someone’s gonna win, so I’m giving it to Rama for this one. The guy
really has a mountain to climb in surviving this thing and he’s just a guy. He
doesn’t have the weapons nor the abilities that Dredd and Anderson have. All he
gets is the fact that his brother, Andi, isn’t a scumbag like the most of folk
in the building. While Dredd and Anderson are cool, I’m going for the underdog
here.
The Raid – 1
Dredd – 0
VILLAINS
Next up are the villains. The Raid has Tama and his gang. He
runs the block with a gun in one hand and a hammer in another. Seriously, Tama’s
intro was pretty brutal. Under him is Mad Dog, his main enforcer, and Andi, the
brains of the operation and Rama’s brother. While Andi is a part of the gang,
he ends up being less of a baddie and more of an ally when he finds out Rama’s
part of the raid team. There’s also another one to add: Lieutenant Wahyu, the
police officer who got this unsanctioned raid started. He wanted to take out
Tama personally since he himself was a part of Jakarta’s corrupt cops.
With Dredd, we got Madeline Mardgril, aka Ma-Ma, and her
gang. She used to be a prostitute until she killed her pimp and took over his
empire. She then used the gang to take out all the other gangs in Peach Trees
until her gang was left. Her gang is also the main supplier of a drug called
Slo-Mo and that is what gets the Judges on her trail. When she finds out that Judges
have Kay (Wood Harris) in custody, she has her gang lock the whole tower down.
Not only did she have a crapload of thugs to throw at Dredd, she also had some
corrupt Judges on her side. It looks like these movies have another thing in
common: corrupt law officers being douchebags.
This is a little tough since we got some nice villains to
chew at. Tama is a pretty brutal dude. While he doesn’t do too much, he has a
whole apartment block and the MVP of this movie, Mad Dog, on his side. As for
Mad Dog, let’s just say he much cooler than Tama since he can kick some serious
butt. That final fight between him, Rama, and Andi is awesome. Andi isn’t
really a villain here since he actually does a little bit to help Rama. He does
get punished for it, though. Finally, there’s ‘ole Jackass Wahyu, the guy who got
18 officers killed for nothing. He gets the Cardassian Vole Award for being
even more messed up than Tama was.
Buttface.
Then, we get to Ma-Ma and her gang. Their intro to the movie
is also killing some gang members who screwed up big time. They also do a
little more since Ma-Ma has them brutally tortured before they die. While Tama
was mostly a hands-off type of guy, Ma-Ma liked to get in on the action. One of
the biggest action sequences involves the gang destroying part of the tower in
order to kill the Judges. Then, we got the corrupt Judges who are here for the
money. They’re the ones who really give Dredd a hard time towards the end.
So, who gets this point? I got to give it to Ma-Ma and her
gang. While Tama’s gang was pretty cool, Ma-Ma was freakin’ sadistic. Not only
did she try to kill some officers, she sacrificed a bunch of innocent people in
order to hold on to that power. There’s the machine gun incident that killed a
lot of tenants. At the end, she activates a bomb that will destroy the whole
building if Dredd kills her. Simply put, she was one cold-blooded witch.
The Raid – 1
Dredd – 1
........................................................................
I'm gonna cut it off right here for now. I'll be back tonight with the rest of this face-off
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