Try not to see the holes

Rating: 7/10 (21 June 2002)

Knowing the pedigree of this film (original concept by Phillip K. Dick and directed by Steven Spielburg) I had some pretty high hopes for it. Sure, I could see that it was an action vehicle for Tom Cruise, but Minority Report followed a recent Hollywood trend of hiring supporting good actors for action movies, so I knew that everything wasn't going to rest on Cruise's acting shoulders. The previews also showed an interesting set-up, so I had some high hopes for this film. Having seen it, my opinion of Minority Report is this:
It is a good film providing you don't think about it.
Once you start to think about it, you start uncovering plot holes of varying sizes. And every plot hole niggles away at the premise of the film. The pacing of Minority Report is such that you probably won't have time to think about the plot holes as the scenes flash by and you are distracted by the gadgets and narrative twists. Once you leave the cinema, you'll start to go, "Hey, what about...?" and the credibility of Minority Report will drop.
I can appreciate that adapting a short story for a feature film is hard and that social metaphysics often don't translate well in action films. But for every review that mentions Bladerunner in the same breath as Minority Report, consider that this appears to be Spielburg's Bladerunner, where even the dark and dingy areas of the District of Colombia (the film's setting) appear sanitised. Where Bladerunner contained a number of metaphysical issues about the nature of humanity, Minority Report adds in a cool looking gadget. The issue of Precrime (stopping murder before it happens) is brushed over with no discussion of substance - it exists, just accept it.
Minority Report does require a huge suspension of disbelief on behalf of the audience to maintain its credibility. This suspension is aided by the fast pacing of the narrative and by very good acting performances (Samantha Morton as Agatha and Max Von Sydow are great to watch). But as soon as you start to think about it...