Great looking fun, but too predictable

Rating: 7/10 (17 June 2002)

Minority Report is great entertainment, as it should be, and a vast improvement on A.I. (although I still believe that would have been good had it ended 30 minutes earlier in the script). Spielberg's latest does not suffer from its length (a few minutes shy of 2 1/2 hours) and seems to fly by.
Tom Cruise is surprisingly good and fans will be pleased do know he still gets to do his trademark 'running-in-the-rain' scene. Max von Sydow is solid as usual and Lois Smith provides some relaxing humour and mischief.
Best of all is the always good, but not always in good films, Colin Farrell who is far and away the most impressive actor on display here. I can't imagine a world in which Farrell will not become a huge star and this is just the sort of brilliantly understated performance (far less showy than his splendid turn in Tigerland) that will boost his career into the stratosphere.
Also good is Kathryn Morris. Morris is an impressive actress with a dynamite smile that clearly grabbed Spielberg's attention when she appeared as an FBI agent in DreamWorks 2000 release The Contender. Also leaping from The Contender to Report is Mike Binder in a small role which he makes the most of.
The biggest negative I can see to this film is that fun as it is it relies too heavily on plot twists you'll see a mile off. One important one is practically highlighted by Spielberg, in a surprising piece of ham-fisted direction from the legendary director, a good hour before the big "reveal". This is a shame because what was an interesting idea for a film suffers from cliche and over simplicity. Perhaps after the criticism that came A.I.'s way about over-complication Spielberg has gone too much the other way.
Hopefully Christmas' release of Catch Me If You Can, starring Tom Hanks, will find the balance. Trust in Spielberg, he will return to his great form as shown in Schindler's List, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Last Crusade, Jaws, Close Encounters etc., unfortunately Minority Report isn't it. It's good but not great. Go see it, but don't expect too much and you should enjoy.