Minority Report

-Dreamworks (2002)

Summary

Short man gets accused of crime he almost… didn't… will… is going to about to almost commit.

My Thoughts

With sci-fi you never know what you're going to get these days, and to me the magical name Steven Spielberg doesn't automatically equal great movie. As usual I put in the disc with low expectations, and was pleasantly surprised.

Tom Cruise plays a man named John Anderton, the head cop of a group of crime fighters that arrest murderers before they actually commit the crime. In this future world, three psychics lie in a milk tank all day and predict murders. All is fine and dandy with the system until the psychics, or "pre-cogs" as the film calls them, show Tom committing a murder. The film turns into a modern day Logan's Run, even using the phrase "Everyone runs" when Tom goes on the lamb and tries to prove that he's been set up.

The character that Tom plays is interesting, yet is clichéd. He's a father that has lost his son and tries to make it right by being an uber cop has been done dozens of times before. The twist is that he is a drug addict, which is pretty sweet.

The film's biggest theme is that of sight and seeing. I felt like I was being hit over the head with the amount of mentions to seeing or working with eyes, or this or that eye related. Enough already, I do have a brain.

The biggest and most exciting chase was when John is when he first gets away. He gets out of his vehicle and jumps from car to car in an effort to escape. Now, I really had to wonder if Steven Spielberg and George Lucas had a bet to see who could have the best videogame like scene in a film. I'm referring, of course, the scene in Episode II when Natalie Portman becomes Mario in the droid factory.

One of the areas this film succeeds in is the few times that it actually makes you think. I liked the set-up for the film, and it led to a lot of debate (at least in my own mind). One of the most prevalent issues was what they do with those guilty of pre-crimes. Basically, they are put in suspended animation forever. I wasn't sure how that worked out, the cost of keeping someone alive like that must be enormous. Why would they want these guys/girls around forever anyway? Are they ever going to be revived?

There are a few too many gross out moments in the film, though. They made me wonder what the motivation was for getting cheap laughs at someone barfing, or by having cartoonish snot pouring down someone's nose. This happens a few times, and it is plainly disgusting without a reason for it in the first place..

My biggest complaint about Minority Report was the ending. It wasn't a bad ending, but it seemed to drag. This film suffers from a false climax as the final moments of John Anderton's murder unfold. The conclusion comes, yet the film is not over. The way the clock leads down to the final moments made me think that it was all or nothing, but the movie kept going. The true ending didn't disappoint too much, although it was a little predictable.

Extras

There is a good amount of special features included on the second disc that paints a good picture about the making of the film. There are some great behind the scenes tidbits, but be prepared for a ton of gushing on about how Spielberg is a genius and how Cruise is the best actor on Earth. There are enough featurettes giving you tons of information that you will never remember again, but it's still a good purchase for those interesting in filmmaking. There really wasn't anything that I got too excited about though, and it all kind of seemed to meld together as one big hunk of documentaries.

Score:

Film: 8.0

Extras: 7.5  

Edition: 8.0

-Paul