Incredible!!

Rating: 9/10 (30 June 2002)

(CAUTION: SPOILER ALERT. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE)
Being an avid reader of Philip K Dick, and having seen all of the movies that were adapted from his stories and novels, I didn't know what I would think of Minority Report. But I must say that I was absolutely enthralled with the movie. Through solid acting, unbelievable(yet subtle) special effects, and an incredible adapted story, the words from the pages of Dick's story were brought to life. It was nice to see a movie that expanded the short story, yet did not stray too far off-tangent from the original framework the story formed.
I will be the first to admit, I never really liked Tom Cruise's acting. I always thought he seemed to stuck on himself to concentrate on what he was paid to do...act. But he was incredible in Minority Report. His portrayal of John Anderton as a human being, rather than a "supercop" that could take on hundreds of armed men with only his bare hands(like so many heroes in action films today), Cruise made his character believable. I felt his joys and his pains. As he was running away from his former colleagues, I found myself cheering him on, hoping that he wouldn't get caught. While suffering with drug addiction over the loss of his son before the days of Pre-Crime, Anderton rose through the ranks to become the director of the organization in his personal struggle to make sure what happened to him wouldn't happen to anybody else. This is Tom Cruise at his finest.
I was also just as impressed with Samantha Morton's role as Agatha. Although she did not have much dialogue, her facial expressions conveyed more than words ever could. She was able to use her facial expressions to portray a sense of innocence while simultaneously commanding authority. (SPOILER!) This was particularly apparent in the scene where she helps Cruise's character escape the police in the mall scene by using the balloon vendor.
As I mentioned earlier, the special effects were incredible, but yet they did not draw your attention away from the real focus of the movie...the story. Unlike this summer's other "blockbuster" movies, the CGI was not thrown in your face. To borrow from Roger Ebert, director Steven Speilberg has always used the technology of special effects to weave into his movies, rather than using sfx and CGI to make movies FROM like so many directors do.
The entire movie was a montage of eye-candy. Never have I seen a futuristic world look so believable and realistic. From the billboards that call to you by name(I actually got a real kick from those) to the newspapers that updated themselves with breaking news stories, it all seems quite possible 50 years from now. Perhaps I may live to see these in use someday.

The film's story was incredible. Although Minority Report was based on PKD's short story, the film's screenplay stood out on its own as a new idea. The basic framework was in place, but the screenwriters added so many new ideas that the two almost stand alone, as separate interpretations of the same idea.
Lastly, I walked out of the theater asking myself various questions of morality, which PKD excelled at making his readers ask themselves. Is it right to try and change the inevitable(arresting criminals before they commit a crime?) Does attempting to change the really help a person cope with a personal demon by preventing it from happening to anyone else. From the intense action scene at the beginning of the movie to the final "whodunnit" conclusion at the film's second half, Minority Report is the essence of what PKD would have wanted to see in an adaptation of his story.