How to broaden Dredd's appeal

Dredd is terrific - an action movie that looks amazing, keeps it simple, and isn't afraid to be rated R. More movies like this and Mad Max: Fury Road would be most welcome.

But I think that Dredd would've done better had it made some changes to broaden its appeal.

As I said in another thread, I would've liked some backstory on the two main protagonists in Dredd. We know more about Ma-Ma's past than we do about Dredd's or Anderson's. And they didn't develop much rapport. John McClane had better rapport with Al Powell in Die Hard, and they didn't meet in person until the end of the movie.

I would've liked to see Dredd actually show some fear at the situation he was in. It's hard to feel concern for the main character when he himself doesn't seem concerned.

There wasn't any character arc for Judge Dredd. In RoboCop, we go from Murphy to RoboCop and back to Murphy again. Judge Dredd doesn't seem to change at all.

Add 20 minutes of backstory, character arc, and rapport, and the movie would still be under two hours long, which I think is plenty for an action movie.

I really liked the black humor in the shopping centre: "All shoppers are reminded to avoid the level one food courts until further notice. Alternative refreshments can be found on level two." But once they got into Peach Trees, there wasn't enough of that humor. Some more comic relief would've helped offset the grim tone.

And this may be heresy, but I think it would've been a good idea to see Dredd without his helmet at some point. It would've humanized him to the audience.

I get the counterargument from purists that the movie was being faithful to the comic, and I'm sure they were in heaven watching this. But I think the movie would've done better if it had been made to appeal to action audiences, not only to fans of the comic.

Just my opinion - in any case I hope there will be a sequel.