Too long and flat to be a great movie

Rating: 5/10 (21 June 2002)

Spielberg's latest film Minority Report has much going for it. It is loaded with amazing special effects that do not intrude on the story. The story has intriguing and believable twists that leave the viewer guessing...at least about the mechanics of the crime if not the cause. It successfully shows us a world of fifty years hence that is neither as antiseptically clean as Gene Roddenberry's, nor as convincingly dark as Ridley Scott's.
Despite its positives, the film just barely passed the good-ole watch test. Although I never actually looked at my watch, I was tempted. Maybe a half hour to forty-five minutes less immersion into this future world would have improved the pace enough to keep the story energetically moving and to make me completely forget my watch.
The acting was not bad, but left fairly one-dimensional characters. Cruise had a few brief moments outside the box, but everyone else just did a good job portraying the one facet of their character that Spielberg wanted us to see. These cardboard characters along with the length mired a great film, leaving behind one that was just above average.
Murder is not the killing of another human being. It is the killing of another human being in a illegal fashion and under our system of justice can only be determined after due process. The film demonstrates the importance of that distinction in a very dramatic way, but at the same time, the message may be too subtle for many viewers. It should be a strong warning about today's cybercrime units that often fight crime using a philosophy similar to Anderton's precrime unit.
It did impact me in at least one other way. I doubt I will ever be able to drive down a crowded freeway without resisting the temptation to kick out a window and leaping between the speeding traffic.
6/10