"Minority Report" - 10/10

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2002)

"Minority Report", I think is about as realistic as a future science-fiction thriller could possibly get. It has a very realistic setting, characters and a police system that sometime, not too far down the road, is eerily possible. The whole "pre-crime" issue is what is at this film's heart.
Suppose a person was to get arrested before they are able to commit a crime.
Even today, this is possible, but only through the most careful of planning. But we cannot rely on careful planning forever, though. So in "Minority Report", we have the Pre-Cognitives (pre-cogs), three psychic human beings who are suspended in a flotation tank and are able to sense future crimes that are going to be committed. We learn that they are never wrong. (The actual details of a crime can be a little fuzzy, but it usually is nothing serious that will detract from making an arrest.) But they can sometimes disagree. So a "minority report" is filed whenever there is a disagreement amongst the pre-cogs. This sets up the film's plot which involves pre-crime cop Tom Cruise going on the run to prove his innocence when the pre-cogs name him as a future murderer.
This is by far Steven Spielberg's most complex film to date. Though this is not Spielberg's first venture into science-fiction, it is his best. Tom Cruise makes a very believable protagonist here. The entire issue of "Pre-Crime" is treated as something of a flawed advance in law enforcement. It raises questions of how the police can be truly certain that a person is going to commit a crime or is it inevitable that the future can be altered. You see, it is all just too complex to really put into words here, you just have to watch the movie and form your own thoughts.