Nice Fx, but very weak sci-fi

Rating: 5/10 (16 August 2002)

If anyone has read any of my other reviews for Spielberg films, they will know I am far from a fan. For me he is the McDonalds of filmmaking. Quick, simplistic, formulaic story telling, no variety or depth in what he is showing. I liked Raiders and Indiana J as I was growing up and I still love Jaws, but since then I don't believe he has moved on. What disturbed me was not so much the success, but the acclaim he received. Let's be honest, to be successful in Hollywood (i.e. make money) to have to make films with mass appeal you have to make movies that are very bland, so they will appeal to as many people as possible. That's fine, as long as people respect that it's just tat at the end of the day.
What seems to have happened with the last couple of films (A.I. and now Minority Report) is that people are starting to realise that Mr S, is a one trick pony.
Minority Report, isn't terrible, but it's very far from great, the story is ok and some of the concepts could have made an excellent Sci-Fi movie, but with SS at the helm it's dragged down to the lowest level. Personally I don't like Tom Cruise as a action lead, he's small and looks like Pee-wee Herman could give him a fight, yet he is able to beat up and fight numerous well trained policeman. The very stupid part to this was the way the Cruise character could jump through windows, walls, etc, without even so much as a scratch.
The plot holes are also massive, if these people could see into the future then they would be able to see all the events that took place. Why couldn't they see that Burgess was going to murder Witwer. The fact that one of them wasn't there in the present time shouldn't make any difference. The eyeball thing was very stupid, as many have pointed out, John's security access would have been removed immediately and also the fact the eyes were effectively dead. Also, if they could discover someone's identity from the Pre-cogs surely then they could find out where they live, without having to guess the house.
Anyway, the special FX, are nice and plenty of them, there's a lot of action, but otherwise a poor film, 5/10.