Big evil building. A drug Kingpin (a Lannister, in fact!). Cops fighting their way up floor by floor. Mezzanine gunfights.

You have to assume the particularly Raid-like imagery around which most of the Dredd trailer is cut really comes from perhaps one major sequence, but Gareth Evans should still be flattered by the tacit studio endorsement. Even when they made the movie too soon to rip off his great movie, they still want us to think they ripped off his great movie!

Beyond the surface similarities with that film (and Evans ain’t even mad at ’em), director Pete Travis looks to be interested in cramming some art into this dystopian tale of fascist street-cops and society-rotting super drugs. I will wait to see this thing in better quality than a TV rip before judging the effects.

The drug called “slow-mo” is cute, and Urban definitely has the scowl, but right now it looks much blander than I typically like to take my sci-fi. While the original comic book adaptation perhaps suffered from a deplorable excess of personality, sucking out all the color and dark humor for something “grounded” and lamely quippy ain’t the way to catch my eye.

How about yours? Be judge, jury, and commentator down below.