Could have been better

Rating: Null/10 (10 February 2003)

Minority Report fails on many levels, but succeeds enough to be worth watching. Having seen it twice now, once in the theater and once on DVD, I'm pretty sure I didn't miss any of the story along the way. Even so, there's so much unexplained happenings it's absurd. I'm not the type who has to have a explanation for everything, but there's so many wild leaps and bounds in this movie it's simply outrageous at times. I'm all for sci-fi universes having their own set of rules, but Minority Report just leaves me scratching my head.
The whole powerball wannabe crime detection system makes so little sense it's scary. In the age of incredible technology, wooden balls are used? What? And why does everyone throw out their TV sets, and project faded blurry images against walls? Why would newspapers and cereal boxes have moving up to date data? There's no way this could be practical cost wise. Why on Earth would cops use "stick sticks" that makes the perpetrator throw up?! Why do the police run around like keystone cops trying to take the perps down using only said sick sticks and various other close combat techniques? Does the future have no sniper weapons? And why does Anderton Jr. run like he's one neuron short of a synapse? Okay, I'm just being mean now... but it's still true.
I'm just getting started... why on Earth do I want to see a closeup of fake mucus oozing from someone's nose for absolutely no reason at all. The ending, which I won't spoil, is completely unsatisfying and actually ends up just leaving me wondering if they couldn't come up with anything better. It's like they just gave up on the story and defaulted to the simplest answer they could find. So many scenes make absolutely no sense and was put in for reasons I can't understand. An old woman smoking a pipe laughing... for no reason what so ever, having nothing at all to do with the story. A kid, alone and bored, going around on a merry-go-round. Why? It's like some kinda surreal experiment gone very wrong. And these clear computers... give me a break. There's no way they could be useful to the users, and would never survive.
All that being said though, despite some big time flaws it's still a decent movie and it's worth watching at least once. The ending's a let down, half the story is unnecessary, and there's even two or three complete gross out scenes for no reason at all. Still, it manages to have it's moments, and the effects are pretty good. Worth renting, if you've nothing else to do.

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