I am a sci-fi junkie. A veritable cyberpunk aficionado. Therefore, my thoughts on Steven Spielberg's Minority Report are probably a little biased. Of course, I am one of those weirdos who really like A.I. in its entirety. So much so that I bought the DVD when it first came out. I do, however, realize that it was a long movie, but I don't think it would be any better if it had been shortened in length. But I'm not here to talk about A.I. My subject is Minority Report.
I don't think Report was as good as A.I., that would be hard to match; A.I. is one of my top 5 favorites. That being said, Report is still a good movie in my eyes. True, it had some blatant shortcomings but it's hard for me to find a movie without a few of those these days. My favorite movie of all time, Trainspotting, has been accused many times of being a souped up toilet humor movie. Despite that or maybe because of it, I love that movie. I just state that because I can overlook the flaws when I see a good movie. The plot of Report was very intriguing to me. Although parts of it sounded very reminiscent of Time Cop, Report did not suffer any, pardon the pun, Van-Dammage.
Precrime, based off predictions by 3 "precogs," psychics that could register murders before they happened, lays the groundwork for the movie. Set in Washington, D.C., one of the worst crime cities in the U.S., Report follows the chief of the precrime department, John Anderton played by Tom Cruise. Cruise did a fairly good job in pulling off the dyamic character of Anderton. I could see hints of his Mission Impossible persona, but that just may be the setting. Likewise, Max von Sydow (who, since Dune, has had huge respect from me) plays a very compelling and deep Director of Precrime and acts as a mentor for Anderton. For sake of not giving this movie away, I won't delve much more into the actors or their characters for fear of letting some important plot information slip.
As for the setting, it's 2054 in D.C. Spielberg's vision of this future is a little glossier than his in A.I., but both were much more optimistic than Blade Runner or Johnny Mnemonic. Nice flashes of technology are littered throughout the movie. I'm sure that everyone has seen the trailor where he's jumping from car to car on the vertical highway. Well, there's quite a bit more of that futuristic style and I thoroughly enjoyed it. That's probably because I'm a nerd when it comes to that sort of thing.
The technology ties into the effects of the movie. They are pretty excellent. Spielberg uses a "washed-out" look for this film, but it's not as dark and gritty as Saving Private Ryan. It has a bluish tint somewhat like Payback, only shinier. During the action scenes, which are pretty impressive, the effects look pretty realistic even though the action, for the most part, is not. The CGI is well-placed and adds a touch of futuristic flair to a movie that is permeated by it already. None of it seems overdone in the least, though.
Now, there are some things that detract from the movie, but they are mostly plot related. Minority Report is based on cyberpunk legend Philip K. Dick. He wrote the novel that Blade Runner was based and also the short (yes, I said short) story that Kubrick and Spielberg used for A.I. I have not read this story yet, but I'm not sure if it's the story or the screenplay that suffered from the cliche. Some of the biggest themes in the movie were either easily guessed early on or not given enough detail. Describing any more of these could also be giving away the movie, so I won't go too much more. The story also starts out with the viewer thinking one thing, but shifts on the viewer and leaves him or her scrambling to catch up. The bad thing is that this happens quite late in the movie and it's not done with the precision or finesse of M. Night Shyamalan, whose upcoming Signs I can't wait long enough for.
Like I said at the beginning of this review, I thought Minority Report was a good movie. Is it worthy enough to sit with the other cyberpunk/scifi classics? I think so. In fact, I will buy it when it's out on DVD. It's good, but it's not excellent, so here's my grade: 8.9.
Posted by godemperor at July 31, 2003 12:10 PM