The Fifth Element vs. Dredd

smatticus

on 7/23/2014

Two films that I never entirely understood why people loved them so much. I have ranted against Dredd a lot in the past, but I suppose if either of these films were on TV again I'd be prepared to give them a revaluation. With Dredd I guess it was just because I was stoked to see it from the trailers, but when I watched it all I saw was an overlong, slow-paced, plodding, boring action film with unlikable characters and a dark, drab design/colour scheme which might not be so unbearable if the studios hadn't insisted on distributing it almost entirely in 3D (which already results in 30% projector light loss and colour saturation in the cinema, so a dark, gloomy film is just going to look even more dark and gloomy. And no, the Slo-Mo sequences do not justify that stupid, money-spinning gimmick). The Fifth Element is corny as hell, hasn't aged well, and has an androgynous Chris Tucker doing god-only-knows-what throughout a good portion of it's run-time. Then again, it does have a lot of the staples of a Luc Besson film, which I kind of enjoy despite my reservations. Plus it does have a charm and a visual style of it's own, which hasn't been replicated too much since. Dredd may be closer to the comics than the ill-advised (though admittedly quite funny) Stallone 90s entry, but that doesn't make it a good film in it's own right, and since it looks and feels like most action films of it's time (especially the far superior The Raid), I'm giving this one to The Fifth Element.