Dredd and Lena Headey

When I first saw Dredd I was blinded by the awesomeness of Ma-Ma, played by Lena Headey. A middle-aged, scared up, psychotic, compelling, commanding female villain? Holy shit, stop the presses! I had to watch the movie again before I could get past worshiping her enough to actually notice the movie.

Now that I have, I judge it well made. Without overusing exposition, Dredd set up a dystopian, crime-ridden future, in which whole cities are
contained in large structures, and peacekeepers (ha!) called Judges are
empowered to pass and execute criminal sentences on the spot. When the unbelievably badass and evil gang leader Ma-Ma needs to be taken down, Judge Dredd takes rookie Judge Anderson, a psychic, to fight their way through the
building/city of Peach Trees, which Ma-Ma controls.

More than two-thirds of the movie is Dredd and Anderson sneaking, bargaining,
and fighting their bloody way to Ma-Ma. A movie like this depends on style,
visuals, and atmosphere rather than plot and characterization, and Dredd
succeeded on the strength of its acting and visuals. It's an adrenaline-pumping
action fest which, glory hallelujah, lacks any of the usual BS that can ruin
otherwise good action fests (crap acting, bathroom humor, irritatingly stupid sidekicks, overly-endowed love interests with skimpy tops and no acting ability). Dredd offers its audience gunfights, psychic battles, and the ultimate in cool dystopian (because don't pretend a movie like this is trying to make dystopia UNattractive) sets and characters. I was happy to gorge.

***
(Edited April 6th, 2014; original Ma-ma worshiping below).
***

The 2012 movie Dredd, based on the iconic British comic book character Judge Dredd, is not up there with the best comic book adaptations.

It does, however, feature really good acting performances, especially Lena Headey's villain, "Ma-ma". An aging junkie, totally dead inside and as ready to die as she is to kill, Ma-ma is awesome without being one dimensional.

Action movies need more female villains that are less eye candy and more pure badass. Lena is a beautiful woman, who apparently didn't hesitate to muss up her hair, wear awful fake teeth, and scar up her lovely face. That on top of the solid performance gave Ma-ma a feeling of realism and gravity I've rarely seen from a female villain. Even if Dredd had done nothing else right, I'd be cheering it for that.

-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive