Arrogant and misjudged science fiction blockbuster trying to combine thrills with spills with nasty, visceral content resulting in sheer mediocrity.

Rating: 5/10 (7 January 2010)

Spielberg's Minority Report is a sprawling, maddening, grotesque spectacle; a film that darts all over the place, catering for mainstream tastes in chase and action sequences but desperately trying to provide more substantial weight and content for the rest of us in the form of typically dystopian futures full of technology and modernity run amok; all the while complimented by wondrous visuals. Included in a number of top ten of the year lists when it was released and equally so for the decade, although mostly from American critics, mind; Minority Report's pompous and nonsensical attitude is matched only by its misjudged and somewhat misguided approach of romping through a beautifully created world, spawned entirely from computer generated imagery, as fans of either Cruise and/or Spielberg get to attend their latest flick and tick off the genre conventions under a faux banner of entertainment.
The film, one of those from Spielberg that again sees him attempt to combine style with substance and filter them both through a number of genres so long as there's a glut of action in there somewhere, does not match what he achieved in the likes of Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan; films that maintained a steady sense of threat around a number of sequences that although contained a fair deal of action, saw overwhelming odds stacked against the characters we focused on as superior forces moved in for the kill. Where once was genuine threat has been replaced with a hollow, inconsistent film-going experience. Minority Report sees a similar basis for a would-be action film unravel, but it feels unfocused and the scenes of chase twinned with the evasion of apprehension evoke more of a sense of excitement than a genuine sense of fear. Spielberg's maturity as a director over the years has seen him be able to combine degrees of substance with his approach of providing a spectacle, and its been on display in the past through better films than this; but in Minority Report, he gleefully hops along from chase, to gross-out content, to flimsy cover-up narrative in what is a pretty ordinary film.
The film takes place in Washington D.C. It's the year 2054, a further example of a Spielberg film not set in the present day. It sees Tom Cruise's John Anderton work as law enforcer at the 'pre-crime' unit, a branch that sees future crimes before sending units out and preventing them from happening. The opening murder takes place in one of those typical, supposedly idyllic American suburban neighbourhoods, as a crime of passion plays out - something instigated by a married man going back for his glasses which, of course, enable him to 'see' everything better than he already can – there are a lot of references in the film to eyes, and the ability to 'see' stuff. Like many-a lone male lead living in far off dystopian futures, Anderton has a past tragedy he must live with, something that fast tracks development in a character and reveals the character's soon-to-be evident ability to deal with anything that comes his way – if he can suffer through the loss of his son and consequently live with it, he can wade on through anything, right?
Minority Report uses a harsh, would-be rough around the edges approach combined with a polished and generally gleaming aesthetic to attract crowds in order to produce something that wants to be gritty and edgy, but just comes across as well refined, pseudo and quaint. This, as notions and ideas of 'looking' and 'watching' over the population by the state itself in this future world crudely evokes Orwell, while the exploration of these ideas are presented by way of daft, clumsily included quotes on behalf of supporting characters the lead casually interacts with; best highlighted when laugh inducing lines such as "In the valley of the blind, the one eyed man is king" are uttered from a blind drug dealer. On another occasion; an ugly, naked, young woman whom lies in a shallow pool of water all day foreseeing the future, known as a 'cog', grabs the lead's arm and melodramatically asks him "Can you see!?"
The film's primary source of antagonism is a joke of a villain in Colin Farrell's suited, booted, stern faced bad guy named Danny Witwer; a guy who swaggers around issuing obligatory threats in an obligatory tone and jabbers some spiritual nonsense which makes him seem smarter/scarier than he actually is. His presence renders the film one in which a powerful, mostly unseen enemy hunts a somewhat harmless and decidedly innocent individual caught up in a fantastic predicament that wasn't any of their doing, combining this with a labyrinth of a narrative we loose all interest in long before it concludes. For better examples that come with more substance, see either 1959's North by Northwest or any of the first three Terminator films. Minority Report maintains a pretty nonchalant attitude throughout, it's more in awe of itself than we are. The film's extended screen time that it gives to shots of the technology at the pre-crime lab's disposal, very early on, when all the moving around of this and that on some screens are overly emphasised – the camera lingering on Cruise use the technology for longer than it needs to.
With a stuck up tone, a load of caricatures running around another world brought to life, but wasted on with a tired chase/corruption narrative as well as a distinctly misguided tone, Minority Report is a wavering mess; a truly daft experience running on empty. The worst scene is the occasion in which the lead stumbles into an over-sized greenhouse where an elderly woman lays out the entire film for us: pure exposition. For all the running around and evading capture, an awful lot feels like it gets done than actually is done. Spielberg would make edgier, more interesting films than this nonsense later on in the decade; see those attempts over this one.