Minority Report - Movie Review

Stephen Spielberg is one of the most known directors in cinema. Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Jaws, and many more fantastic films are under his belt. The guy is master of directing and is very smart when it comes to films he makes. There's one film though that I have heard is a very good film of his, but isn't talked about much. That film is Minority Report. The film takes place in the year 2054 and follows Tom Cruise as Chief John Anderton, a investigator a part of "Department of PreCrime," an experimental program that uses three unique individuals who can predict the future to stop murders before they happen. It's been over six years and not a single murder has ever happened where PreCrime is located. One day though John Anderton gets a new precognition that shows him murdering a man named Leo Crow, a man that John has never heard of. With that prediction he goes on the run to find out who Leo Crow is, clear his name, and what's really going on.

This is a very interesting premise because it instantly gives you complex questions that really make you think. If we were able to predict the future to an almost perfect accuracy, would it be just or legal to use it? Is prosecuting or arresting someone for a crime they haven't committed yet even fair? By preventing the crime, doesn't that mean the crime will never happen, which goes against the prediction? What if there was some sort of error to the prediction, how would we make for that? The film doesn't give us definite answers and even when the film ended I was still considering these questions and more. Now there is a scene in the film, and to me it's the best scene in the film, where John rolls a ball across a table and another man catches it. The fact he changed something from happening doesn't change the fact it was going to happen. It's a great conflict of determinism vs free will.

When you hear the words, "Starring Tom Cruise," the first thought in your head will be, "Is this an action movie?" Yes, Minority Report is an action movie with a great mystery to it, but more important it stars Tom Cruise. Even right now the guy is recognized as a big person in the world of action films because he loves to make good action, he doesn't like incomprehensible, shakey-camera, quick-cut bullshit. He wants real good action sequences and does a ton, if not all, of the stunts in his films. That's right now and this film is 18 years old. You see where I'm going with this, the action in this movie is great! Big shots where you clearly can tell what's going on and most importantly you worry about the main characters. An action film without a main characters (or characters) that you're not worried about and are in no danger is a sin against cinema.

Tom Cruise, when he fought people, was very exciting to watch. With the way Spielberg directed the film there wasn't just a big action sequence and then a period of calm until the next action sequence, the action was a good string of events and locations and blended together smoothly while giving us breaks at just the right moments. We see him running from the authorities using cars, apartments, and at one point a conveyor belt in a car manufacturing plant. That one in particular was great to watch, him and his opponent having to dodge mechanical arms putting cars together while fighting, I was on the edge of my seat.

Now there is more to Cruise's character that just the action. This a broken man who's lost his son, having troubles with his wife, and does drugs a lot to try and free himself from his painful past. Character qualities like that make the audience able to connect with him better, which results in a stronger desire to see him win the end. These traits make him a very compelling character, someone with a story that we really want to follow. Eventually these traits come into play more deeply with the story and it's wonderful how they're utilized. I wish I could tell you, but I don't want to spoil some fantastic moments throughout the film.

But the best part of the film to me was the world. Most science fiction movies are either set in the far future or have unrealistically advanced technology in a time period closer to our present time. A great example of this is Back to the Future: Part 2, where in the year 2015 their world has flying cars, hoverboards, automatic shoelaces, and more crazy future tech. Spielberg however was very determined to make the setting of his film much more grounded and I think it really seems like a believable future. A good portion of the "futuristic" technology in the film, apart from the prediction stuff, has already been made and just isn't advanced enough. This technology includes virtual reality, eye scanning, swipe technology, to name a few. This technology wasn't really present back when the film was made in 2002, but it exists now and in 34 years, when we hit the year the film takes place I'm sure, if we're still alive, technology will catch up to that of the film.

Another massive positive of the film is the cinematography. The film was bleach a bit to make the film look bleak and over-bright at times, with some grainy shots mixed in. It makes the world feel lived in, grimy and realistic, which makes it an even more believable world and possibly future. It isn't just very clean streets and buildings, there's slums and homeless people and black market stuff going on as well. There's a scene with a fridge that I had to look away from because it was so gross! Just thinking about it making me all squeamish inside. But having these levels of society, combined with a great visuals and set pieces really makes the camera work and world come alive.

The main grip of the story is the idea I mentioned before of determinism vs free will. Cruise's character is not a murderer and him trying to find out why he would murder a random man he's never heard of is gripping idea. Who is this guy and why are they important to our main character? How will John Anderton get away from the authorities? What is with some of these missing pieces of data? Stephen Spielberg really respect his audience by not telling us the answers and letting us determine a lot of this on our own. The story is paced very well through transitioning the audience smoothly from place to place. Despite how long the film was, almost 2.5 hours, I never checked my watch to see how long the film was. Even when I thought the film was about to end and it threw me for a loop, I was like, "Oh wow... What's going to happen now?! This is getting really interesting."

Now I will say that when we get close to the end things get a little choppy in storytelling, but it's not bad. It just feels less connecting than normal. But after that, when everything is settled, we get the big Spielberg ending where everyone is happy and wrapped up in a big, red bow. That's not a bad ending for most films, especially his films, but I found that it didn't fit with Minority Report's more grim, dark tone. It felt too cutesy and out of place for me, but it definitely wasn't a bad ending. There is a theory behind why it's like that and that theory might be true, but even if it is it feels like a weird way to end the film.

Other than that my only other problem with the film, which isn't really a problem and it's something I can ignore, is that John Anderton, after discovering he's eventually going to murder somebody in the next 36 hours, could have sat down, told his partners about this precognition, and told him to lock him up for a that period of time. His people really respect him and he was always doing it job and following the law, so to have him do something so out of the ordinary like murder some stranger is out of character and they could instead interrogate him to try and find out more. But if that was to happen then there wouldn't be a movie. It would be like in the newer Far Cry games where at the start you wait for the villain to do their thing and once they come back you do your thing and the game ends early.

In the end, Minority Report was a fantastic film! It was loads of fun with an excellent story, compelling action, and a great mystery that kept my eyes on the screen. The ending could have been different and more in line with the rest of the film, but overall this is an underrated gem of Stephen Spielberg and Tom Cruise.

Tentative Score: 9/10

Definitive Score: 8.5/10

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