HBO Max Users Have Only 3 Days to Watch One of the Best Comic Book Movies of the Century

Back in 2012, the comic book movie landscape was a completely different beast to our current superhero obsessed moment. We were arguably right at the event horizon for the genre though, with The Avengers topping the year’s box office, and both The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man easily breaking into the domestic box office chart. It’s incredible to think that arguably the best comic book movie of the entire year got nowhere near that type of performance. And it’s your last chance to watch it if you own HBO Max.

Written by Alex Garland, and starring a pre-The Boys Karl Urban, Dredd was released in September 2012, and was good enough for an 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes. That score doesn’t do the gritty, violent reboot justice however, and appreciation for it has grown enormously in the decade since its release. Frustratingly for HBO Max subscribers, Dredd is also about to drop off the subscription service at the end of July. So you’ve got just a couple of days to rewatch it.

Karl Urban is excellent as the central hulking future cop, while Olivia Thirlby and Lena Headey play excellent foils. The Raid vibes are very difficult to shake off too, which is no insult to either movie. From August 1, the only place to stream Dredd will be on Amazon’s Cinemax channel, which requires an additional fee on top of Prime. Here’s the trailer to remind you why you need to watch it before it’s removed:

Good News, A New Dredd Movie Is Finally Coming

Sadly, the future of Judge Dredd on the big screen is not the long-rumored direct Dredd sequel. For some reason, Hollywood has ruled that too much of a gamble, and instead, Thor: Ragnarok and Love & Thunder director Taika Waititi is making his own Judge Dredd movie. Unfortunately, Dredd simply didn’t make anything like the box office money required to be a viable franchise investment, despite critical acclaim and arguably cult status. Considering how much better it is than Sylvester Stallone’s abominable (but perversely fun) version from the 1990s, that feels even stranger to have to admit.

Will Taika Waititi manage to capture the right spirit of Judge Dredd? His sci-fi sensibilities were an overlooked success in Ragnarok and he certainly knows how to build strange universes, but it’s doubtful what he makes will be anything like the Karl Urban version that captured so many hearts more than a decade ago. This won’t be your last chance to watch it, but since it’s leaving HBO Max for a while, maybe it’s best you take the opportunity to fall in love with it again?

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