intruiging but nebulous: pros and cons

Rating: Null/10 (9 September 2003)

CAUTION: spoilers ahead

- - - - pros: --great idea in principle. the idea of predicting crime is all the more relevent a post 9/11 america.

--excellent portrayal of corporate, advertising-driven society, (like the gap store, or the personalized and changing messages that greet you as you walk by). one of only a few movies where "product placement" is both extreme and fitting.
--the "balloon scene" in the mall.
--great imagery large and small, if you can get through the washed-out blue hue alternating with sepia-like scenes. --hats off to spielberg for making a grim movie.

- - - - - cons: --all of this by 2054? floating vehicles? jet backpacks? ability to record projected thoughts from thinking people in blue tanks?

--sickening blue hue: is it the future?
--close to an hour too long.
--another use of retina scans and "trading eyeballs" to use as keys?
--another use of people floating in blue water tanks?
--another assembly line fight with "i almost got killed by a fast-moving robot" scenes one after another?
--was i a comedy, or an action flick? i wasn't sure what i was when i had tom and the boys fighting in and out of the brick apt building in jet packs, upsetting the occupants' eating habits and saxaphone lessons.
--moving plants? well, if the lady who created the precogs is in charge, why not. by the way did spielberg really want to cast the little woman from poltergeist in her role as the "i know everything but i'm not telling you anything, so keep guessing" brilliant woman who is long since retired and doesn't get out much?
--boo to speilberg for sticking in the obligatory happy precog ending with fading helicopter shot.