Ees good, thees movie

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2002)

Tom Cruise flees from a justice system he has helped to create, in a futuristic world where guilt is predetermined through the visions of oracle-like "pre-cogs," three vegetative human beings who float in a sensory tank and gasp at their visions of murder. The lurid visions of the pre-cogs are likely, but not certain, to happen; nevertheless, any killer envisioned in a pre-cog dream is determined by the state to be guilty, and punishment for the guilty is indefinite storage in a pod-like enclosure hooked up on mind machines. Sucks. In this movie, Spielberg's usual winks at the audience are less saccharine than usual, in the context of a relentless, fast-paced chase within a claustrophobic society where technology renders escape nearly impossible; the movie is so intense that any laugh is a welcome breath of fresh air. Only reservation: ending feels false, not answering the difficult questions it raises about the uses and abuses of technology. Amazing visuals.