Philsophical futuristic action

Rating: 8/10 (15 August 2009)

Recap: John Anderton is the chief officer at Pre Cog DC, a department that with the aid of three clairvoyant humans stop and arrest murderers before they have their crime. As a result of this, murders are virtually extinct in the capital, and the system is now beginning to go nationwide. Before this, the FBI want to investigate the system and sends agent Danny Witwer. Witwer and Anderton come at odds from the beginning and it turns catastrophically worse when the Pre Cogs see a now rare premeditated murder, where the perpetrator is John Anderton. Now he is a fugitive and need to find out why he will murder a man he has never met.
Comments: Another of these high budget, special effects filled blockbusters based on a Philip K Dick novel. And in my mind his novels need a high budget and it need to be packed with special effects. Because Minority Report, like many of Dick's novel, is set in the future and is highly speculative in both science and fantasy. To visualize these ideas that you need a lot of CGI.
But those ideas, those effects are what make Minority Report entertaining. And it is very entertaining. It manages to balance this immense load of special effects with just an immense philosophical question. It all goes down to if there is free will or not. Are we able to really choose for ourselves, or are we just imagining that we can but are ultimately controlled by "fate". For Anderton, and hence for us, this question is really put to the edge. Is he able to avoid committing the crime, and the police, or is he destined for a fate worse than death. To find that out Anderton takes us on a wild, entertaining ride.
Basically, when you sit down to watch this movie you have a choice, well if you believe in that. You can either just lean back and enjoy the ride, or you can be active and ponder the philosophical question the is the foundation of the movie. Or, and this is what make this movie special, you can actually do both.
As a bonus you have a few cameos and a small but hilarious (at least for us Swedes) role for Peter Stormare.
A movie to really enjoy, both when you watch it and afterwards when it almost is inevitable to think about it.
8/10