Interesting and involving sci-fi thriller from Spielberg

Rating: 8/10 (15 July 2010)

Set in the middle of the 21st century, "Minority Report" follows John Anderton (Tom Cruise), a skilled Pre-Crime cop who is very efficient in preventing murders from happened. He lives in Washington D.C., where there hasn't been a murder in six years thanks to the installment of Pre-Crime. This law enforcement group uses visions from three future-tellers (Precogs) to determine when and where a murder will happen. But when the Precogs predict that John Anderton is planning a murder, he is forced to flee and somehow prove his innocence.
Obviously, one of the big issues here is if it is right to arrest someone from committing a crime you know will happen before the fact. Both sides of the issue are given fair treatment here; we see both the great efficiency of the Pre-Crime unit as well as the consequences it bodes for, as Steven Spielberg put it, "the .002%" Such a premise holds a goldmine of material, and Spielberg and his collaborators do a good job mining it for substance. The acting is very good as well. Tom Cruise is solid as the lead, but Samantha Morton steals the show as a Precog who starts developing a connection with Anderton. Max Von Sydow and Colin firth also make good impressions in their supporting roles.
The city of Washington D.C. is richly realized, with its magnetic highways, personalized advertisements, and no-glasses-needed 3-D video files. The cinematography presents a world that is obviously very advanced, but emotionally detached. Overall, this is a very technically accomplished picture.
As much as the creators go into the issues at hand, I ironically wished they had gone deeper. How, for example, was the U.S. Constitution changed to allow for Pre-Crime to exist? I also wished the grand motive for the existence of Pre-Crime by its creator had been better clarified; as it was, it seemed a little sketchy.
Still, this remains a solid achievement. "Minority Report" is both thrilling and smart, and is worth your time especially if you are into good works of science fiction or Steven Spielberg's repertoire.