These days violence is everywhere, be it in movies, video games or right outside your living room window if you happen to live in Hull. So it's fair to say that it's hard to really effect an audience, draw them in with a little mindless gun play and pints of fake blood. It has to be crafted, it has to seem necessary and most of all it has to toe the line between being gratuitous and justifiable. It is in this sweet spot that Dredd operates. Is it brutal? Yes. Does it make you cringe at times? Yes. Does it fit the tone, the character, the entire movies focus? Hell yes. You see being an 18 Dredd has the license to push boundaries and be downright bloody, but director Pete Travis seems to have twigged that gore alone doesn't make a film. It can in fact ruin one. So he set out to make a flick that is adult, in keeping with the Judge Dredd universe and doesn't lose itself in the process to childish Saw V antics. Something which could have easily been done with a character like Dredd, a one man wrecking machine with the ability to dole out justice straight into the brain pan of any would be criminal. A Dredd directed by Paul W.S Anderson really.
Smiling's for pussies and criminals.
So it was going to take a pretty stoic and outright badass actor to take on the role of Mega City Ones most unstoppable Judge. Someone like Bruce Willis, Jason Statham or the guy who played the green Power Ranger for instance. They got Karl Urban, and by the end of the movie I could barely comprehend why I would have ever wanted anyone else. Never removing his helmet the entire film it was going to be quite the challenge to portray Dredd as anything but an automaton, maybe packing a few quips but lacking in any real personality. For while not a complicated character to portray in any other action movie, being unable to express yourself with a full set of facial features is one huge handicap. Yet somehow, Urban pulls it off. With a voice that sounds like he chugs gravel like normal men down coffee, a mouth which has never even seen a picture, of a ghost of a smile, and an intimidating screen presence he brings Dredd to life and revels in it. He is the law and I'll be damned if I'm going to disagree.
Judges Dredd and Anderson enforcing the law.
Lena Headey as Ma-Ma: She's a wholesome lady.
Now that we have our enforcer, our title character it was up to writer Alex Garland to put Dredd in just the right situation for his select number of personality traits to shine. There couldn't be a repeat of Stallone's rambling mess or the franchise would never rise again. So enter a rookie Judge (Olivia Thirlby), a drug lord with serious anger management issues (Lena Headey) and 200 levels of degenerate criminal scum and you've got yourself a Judge's worst nightmare. Any Judge that isn't Dredd of course. Even with Olivia Thirlby's trainee Judge Anderson in tow he's a one man army and completely devout in his pursuit of justice, which amounts to some exceptionally cool set piece shoot outs and you leaving the cinema feeling pumped up to the eyeballs with manly testosterone. Anderson, it must be said, acts as a fine counter pose to Urban's slab of concrete emotional dysfunction, bringing a much needed human element to the film. As between Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) and Dredd there are some very extreme and psychotic personas flying about vying for attention, sometimes in the form of mini guns and brutal executions. So it's nice to have Anderson's grounding influence to remind us we haven't strayed into an asylum for gun wielding sociopaths.
Fear not citizens, I'm only out for a jog.
Being a post apocalyptic setting Dredd has to come with a certain desperation, a battle for survival that is defining of the time. In this area Dredd pulls off a more than passable depiction of a world in ruins, of corruption and crime running rampant. Every now and again the sets do seem a bit bear but it fits the aesthetic of the movie and doesn't feel like a cop out on the part of the budget. A few times I was reminded of the original Total Recall by the general murkiness of the world, minus the venerable Shwarzenegger that is. Without a doubt the entire movies success stems from it's serious tone, pulling away from the ridiculous campiness of the original in favour of a grittiness more in keeping with the series.
Coming to a conclusion Dredd is easily my favourite movie of the year, beating out The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises for the top spot. And this is for one simple reason. It achieves everything it sets out to do. There are no moments where I felt the plot, the script or the action had dropped the ball and to me that's just plain impressive. It's boxes of action, violence and comic book loyalty are all neatly ticked. It was tightly executed from beginning to finish and I really hope to see another in the offing, as where else can anyone be both a bit nerdy and bloodthirsty in cinema these days?
We all love anti heroes. It's hard to resist them. They're usually cooler, deadlier and downright more badass than your regular, run of the mill hero and have the odd ability to make us all feel a little edgier. Like that's what we'd be in the face of adversity. James Bourne wielding a pistol like a composite marksman, Riddick as he cleaves his way through yet another unjust bounty hunter (while selectively forgetting why he's being hunted). It all evokes a certain rebellious streak, that although we'd probably not be evil in such a situation, it doesn't mean we couldn't indulge our nastier sides from time to time. It is in this vein that Mr Bowden operates, as he has throughout his Nightlords novels, to bring us a selection of relatable, psychotic Traitor Astartes in Void Stalker.
I think something I've always enjoyed the most about Talos and his company of murderers, psychopaths and general degenerates is the way in which Bowden uses them to play with his readers sympathies. For each moment you see them briefly as less than monsters, when they perform an action that could be described as honourable, it is later stripped away by their depravity and boundless cruelty. It really pushes the envelope of the anti hero archetype, so much so that you are left with a series of horrors punctuated by a moments decency. Bowden makes sure you remember these guys are traitors, there is torture galore here, and yet when they go toe to toe with the Emperor's finest of the Genesis Chapter, boy do you want to see them kill those smug Imperium bastards. It's almost like watching Bowden's three dimensional characters cutting down the less developed creations of the Black Library, and it's exceptionally satisfying.
It's important to consider Void Stalker as part of a larger story, a conclusion to the previous novels of Soul Hunter and Blood Reaver. Does it fulfill what is promised? Is it an epic conclusion? To both of these questions I can answer with a resounding, yes. That isn't to say that the book is perfect, but that it successfully ends the series without dropping at the final hurdle, ala Spider Man. You may have noted that all the examples here so far have been movies, something I felt important to emphasise. Bowden writes in a way that could be easily translated to the big screen, enjoying a far better plethora of action moments, dramatic faceoffs and character developments than was displayed in the near woeful Ultramarines film. Interestingly, the Genesis Chapter is a progenitor of the Ultramarines, so perhaps Void Stalker aided me in working through some deep seated issues?
The story once again revolves around Talos, or the Prophet as he is known and the battle not only with the Imperium, but his brothers and himself. He reaches the climax of his introspection in Void Stalker, his realisations about his Legion and the universe around him. This is intermixed seamlessly with flashbacks to the fall of the Nightlords' last great fortress on the planet of Tsagualsa, to the Progenitors of the hated Ultramarines. Action, character deaths and murderess brutality run throughout the story, with a number of gory scenes bringing home the depravity that even Talos, the main protagonist after all, engages in with relish. It's all quite disturbing for as already discussed, these guys are not your quintessential heroes. While you can understand them you can never really support them. Only enjoy the ride. I have to admit, in the final confrontation I enjoyed each kill inflicted on the Nightlords, while simultaneously egging them on to see their reactions, their insane bravery. They are one hell of a contradiction and a testament to Bowden's ability to weave such an intricate web. Balancing the Nightlords' demented psyche with a great story, while not travelling into the realms of silliness and camp, bad guy overkill. Just thinking about such complications makes me want to peel the skin from some innocent bystander and wear it as a cape. You think I'm sick? You ain't seen nothing yet.
So to conclude, Mr Bowden has executed a fine ending to a top notch series. Sporting Astartes one can relate too, action scenes which are as bloody as they are exciting and a twist ending you don't expect, Void Stalker is the pinnacle of Space Marine writing. What makes this truly remarkable is the fact that the novel focuses on a traitor legion, something you would have thought would make the process more difficult. But as Bowden showed in the absorbing and near irresistible First Heretic he genuinely seems to understand the minds of the fallen, putting him on top of the Black Library pile for me. For many can write a great action scene, but few could truly express what it means to walk in Midnight Clad. I'll be doubtless reading this series for many years to come, and so should you.
Rob Sanders genuinely seems to understand the grim and dark of the far future, perhaps better than any other Black Library writer. His portrayal of the universe is merciless and at times, downright nasty, so as you can imagine I was pretty excited to hear he was bringing his talents to the Space Marine Battles series. Then to hear he'd been given the Legion of the Damned as his subject, well, I was pumped full of nerd sugar and ready to fly. As such I picked up the novel on it's release and demolished it within the day, and I have to say, it wasn't what I expected.
One of the greatest facets of the 40k universe is it's grandiose scale, the sheer size and magnitude of it being a singular draw for sci-fi fans and pulp fiction readers. Everything has something of a legendary status, from the might of the Astartes to the star destroying fire power of the Imperial Navy, so there's lots of meat to sink one's teeth into. This, however, can be something of a handicap when bringing the universe to life in detail, for some aspects don't quite work. The best example of this is the Grey Knights novels by Ben Counter. Given the near unstoppable and mind wiped nature of Chapter 666, no work could ever do them justice, for they are too far outside of the norm. In this regard, Rob Sanders dealt well with the mythical status of the Legion of the Damned, by making them a component of the story but not its main focus. Instead we follow Zacariah Kersh, shamed warrior of the Excoriators Chapter towards his greatest battle, and encounter with the Damned
In true form, Sander's universe is a dark one, with the Excoriators indulging in their eternal self flagellation for the failure of their Primarch, Rogal Dorn, to save the Emperor from the traitor Horus. Following a disastrous ambush by the duplicitous Alpha Legion, Zacariah Kersh is left a reviled figure having failed his Chapter Master and losing the Chapter Standard. Much like with Mortensen in Redemption Corps he is not a likable character in the traditional sense, haunted by his failure and the ghost who heralds the coming of the Damned. This Revenant will follow him throughout the story, allowing Kersh to express his doubts and feelings in relation to the story at large and was something of a masterstroke by Sanders in relation to Kersh's development as a character. It allows him to be more than another cardboard cut out Space Marine, mired in duty and lacking in personality. It makes him easier to relate with, for who hasn't failed at some point in their lives? Add to this the hostile reactions of his subordinates and the ever present threat from without the Chapter, and it's hard to find a moments calm in the 41st millennium.
Having established such a rich and intricate main protagonist and world, one would have hoped for an equally engaging battle. After all, it is in the name of the series. Sadly however, this never quite materialises for a number of reasons. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the setting is too small. The planet of Certus Minor is a cemetery world with a tiny population and equally tiny garrison. Possessing but one major city it lacks any great scope and effectively pin holes 40k's greatest strength, its sheer size. The visual of the great Chaos host, the Cholercaust, descending on this tiny Rorke's Drift of a planet is an exciting one, however the fighting never feels heroically desperate, but hopeless and resigned. This is not to say that the visuals are not impressive, the scenes depicted with great care, but rather that they lack that superhuman quality that so defines Bowden's Helsreach or Wraight's struggle for the Fang. It just falls a little flat. As sadly, does the appearance of the Legion of the Damned. In a rather peculiar turn they possess a mere 15 to 20 pages towards the end of the novel, and don't make any great impact upon the reader. They simply appear, do their duty, and fade away. It was all a little lack lustre.
So to conclude, is Legion of the Damned worth your time? Despite never quite reaching it's potential, floundering at the final bolter round, I would have to say yes. Putting aside my own Sanders worshipping it is still an extremely entertaining read, possessing treachery, disaster and the diabolical followers of Chaos. The fact that it falls shy is disappointing but not crippling, a testament to the style and skill with which the author executes the rest of the story. So while there may be too few instances of ghost Astartes spilling Khornate blood, it's still a four star read, even if you are left with a slight niggling at the end for what could have been.
