Film making excellence!!

Rating: Null/10 (9 July 2002)

It has been highly anticipated to say the least. Minority Report on paper should be a truly great film. Spielberg directing Tom Cruise in a story based on a Phillip K Dick story. With such a weight of expectation to live up to, I am pleased to say this is not a disappointment. This is movie making at its best, a magnificent movie that's imaginative, exciting and provoking. It simply put is a classic, it'll take a few years, I suspect, until people view it as a classic, ala Blade Runner, but this is certainly one of the best movies I have seen and is in my top ten for sure.
Firstly the story. The film is set in 2054 when a special pre-crime division of the police is set up in Washington. This is where three `gifted' individuals known as pre-cogs have psychic visions of crimes that are going to happen. The pre-crime unit lead by John Anderton (Cruise) are given the names of the victims, perpetrators and when it will happen, and it is down to them to analyse the visions to work out where. They then have to set out to stop the murder before it will happen. They have been successful, not one murder in six years, and now there is a chance the technologies used in Washington will go national. Anyway enter Colin Farrells as detective Ed Witter, he is investigating how they run and is put in charge. He seems to be scheming. Anyway this system is apparently perfect. John swears by it and believes in the system completely until he discovers that he has been seen by the pre-cogs murdering someone. He has 36 hours to find out who and why, whilst running from his colleagues. On ensues some great action, and your typically good twists and turns in this sort of thriller.
Spielbergs direction as you would expect is masterful and exemplary, definitely a lesson in how to direct for any aspiring film makers. Visually this film is amazing, great cinematography and the special effects are great. They help the film along rather than swamp the film unlike say Star Wars episode 1 and 2 where they were far too reliant on their CGI and didn't bother on the script. This gets the blend right. Top of the range effects and a brilliant script. The film is darker than his usual films and is chilling at times. People sensitive about their eyes may cringe on occasion.
Tom Cruise is excellent. He is a great actor and on the evidence of this and the Mission Impossibles a great action star. He does his own stunts and not just that but very impressive stunts and that adds to his action scenes to more of a degree than any other Hollywood star. His performance is very good as the man on the run and also a grieving father who lost is son 6 years previously, a main reason why he joined pre-crime to stop it happening to anyone else. Also good is Max Von Sydow, as the creator of Pre- Crime and Tom Cruises boss. The rest of the cast are very good, especially Collin Farrell as Ed Witter, who is after Anderton. Finally Samantha Morton who is also superb as the Pre- Cog Agatha who is the most important of them. She is very good, and really draws the audience in.
Overall this film is superb, there is the odd continuity error that you expect in any film, such as how come Cruise can still use his eyes in the scanners to enter the Police building. Surely if he is wanted for murder they would ensure he can't enter their building and steal Agatha. Anyway its a minor quibble seeing as how the rest of the film is so excellent with some devilishly good twists. 10/10