Dreddful.

I’m often “late to the party” when it comes to movies and other pop culture.  I’m the guy who waits for a movie to come out on DVD, and then waits even longer to watch it.  Movies I have yet to see, that everyone around me has already seen, are Pacific Rim, Elysium, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Snowpiercer, and Guardians of the Galaxy.  But last night my wife and I took a step to remedying this problem.  We sat down and watched Dredd, and we loved it.

Even though Star Power is an optimistic view of humanity’s future, I do enjoy grim and gritty visions of it, too.  Dredd did a great job of illustrating the bleakness of its setting without too much blatant exposition.  The explosions and gore did a fine job of that.  Here at Star Power we strive to make a story that has more action than violence, but Dredd had nothing but violence, and anything else would not have worked in that setting.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, I can promise you that Galactic Defense will never act like the Judges.  They didn’t even shoot to kill Countess Nurak-Nor when she impaled one of their own.  The working relationship between Dredd and the rookie Anderson was a joy to watch, too.

Watching Dredd was a fun and splattery escape, but it reminded me that Garth and I are not the guys to be making that kind of story.  Our vision for the future is too optimistic and our law enforcers are too noble.  We’ll dip our toes into that pool every so often, but we’ll leave the deep end to others.