I'm sorry - I need to believe in something in a movie - mild spoilers

Rating: 5/10 (23 June 2002)

Most of those who have seen Minority report appear to like it but it did very little for me. From the first moment I heard about the plot, I had doubts about the concept. Infallible pre-cognition and arresting people before they commit a crime are ideas which, on close examination, have so many holes in them that more suspension of belief is needed than I can cope with. (There have been much more interesting plots which postulated forms of pre-cognition which were much less reliable and therefore much more interesting) If you add to the problems of the main premise the physical characteristics of the world portrayed, which are inconsistent and in some cases pretty ridiculous, and it all becomes too much. I did not believe that the pre-cogs would be able to stay alive in the environment shown or then cope out of it, I did not believe that the police would fly around in such clunky machines when they could build such aerodynamically engineered cars. And I don't believe there is any way this can happen by 2054. Why didn't they just make it far further into the future?
There were a few good things and Spielberg is always an interesting director. But these cannot weigh against what, in essence, was a pretty weak thriller based on an unacceptable premise.
And then on top of it we have Cruise at his grungiest and most unappealing. I really should go with my gut instinct and not subject myself to things I strongly suspect I am not going to like but hope springs eternal.