Curse you Spielberg! You ruined a near instant-classic!

Rating: 3/10 (6 October 2002)

I have a major grudge with this film.**SPOILERS** As a fan of Philip K. Dick (writer of the original story-I really hope you knew that), and a huge fan of such dark sci-fi noir classics like "Blade Runner", I was hoping for the best. A wonderful, wonderful concept, solid cast, high production values. I was really looking forward to this movie. The hype kept calling it the "Blade Runner" of the new millenium. I was there with my friends on opening day, first showing...it had been awhile since I'd seen a truly great new film....And for close to 2 hours, things were going pretty well. Maybe the film felt a little padded, and the eye transplant seen was amusing but a bit grotesque. No, the film wasn't perfect, but it was going well. ...The end is coming up (SPOILER ALERT), Anderton is soon to meet the man he's destined to kill. After all this time trying to avoid what's been predicted, nothing will stop fate. We find out the crucial motivation that would lead Anderton to do the deed (although I got a bit nervous as what they labelled the "orgy of evidence", something felt a little off here), and then its finally set to happen, Anderton will fulfill his destiny......Or will he? The movie goes and pulls a serious 180...And now I was angry. What's going on? At about two hours in, "Minority Report" self-destructs.
I just don't understand it. The POINT of the movie is the idea of whether Anderton is destined to do the crime following what is predicted. To follow the cool logic of Dick's original story (which was flawed but MADE SENSE) the answer would be "yes." If the movie had ended with Anderton pulling the trigger as predicted, I would have loved this movie. Unfortunately, that hack Spielberg doesn't understand the idea of decent storytelling, and lets his sentimental streak contrive a 30+ min denoument destroying the fabric of the rest of the film. Frankly, Spielberg has taken material I have long viewed to be of great potential for a classic film and made a film that misses the point. "Minority Report" is a wonderful technical achievement with great special effects, and solid acting, but it doesn't understand where to go. The notion of pre-crime is quite a determinist concept, and by wimping out on following through on the implications of the source material, we have a perfectly acceptable thrill-ride with no soul. As popcorn entertainment, "Minority Report" is more than adequate. But this is by no means a classic. Instead, this flawed sci-fi opus will likely go down as a sad failure, as it should to anyone who understands the underlying concepts behind a system like "pre-crime" that the movie missed. I can only hope someday someone does this material right.