One of the best of Spielberg.

Rating: 9/10 (31 May 2008)

This is what Artificial Intelligence was supposed to be; a well-crafted, interesting and thought-provoking film about the near future and what it might be like. While Spielberg didn't completely fulfill that in his previous film, he remains unable to fail twice as Minority Report succeeds in all aspects. Of course, knowing Spielberg is at the helm and ILM is behind the scenes, this film is visually stunning in every single scene. The futuristic look of Washington DC very cool and sets the tone and mood of this story about a branch of the police force, the PreCrime Unit, that is able to stop crime before it happens. This occurs because of three "PreCogs," which are essentially three people that live in a pool of mineral water and see images of the future constantly. The tables turn, however, when Chief John Anderton of the PreCrime unit (Tom Cruise) is accused of a future murder. He goes on a mission to find out the truth, believing he is innocent, and discovers more than he ever hoped for.
All plot points aside, this is definitely one of the best science fiction films of the last 25 years. Despite it being visually stunning, it still has characters of great depth and a storyline that covers a lot of ground. The acting is terrific with Cruise giving one of his best performances as the hunter who becomes the hunted. Colin Farrell is strong as a young federal agent dispatched to observe the PreCrime squad, and Max von Sydow is great to watch as the wise old man of this futuristic age. Everything works for this film. The story is intriguing, the acting is believable, and most important, it has the look and feel a near-future society where technology is a huge part of life, but not so much that it becomes ridiculous. As a suspense thriller, as an action film, and as a sci-fi look into the future, Minority Report succeeds and deserves to be called one of the best works of Steven Spielberg.