Good, but very, very flawed

Rating: 7/10 (18 July 2002)

Steven Spielberg has made a couple of clunkers in his career, that's for sure. When sitting through Hook or The Lost World: Jurassic Park II, it's difficult to believe that the same man who made Jaws or E.T. or Close Encounters had a hand in them. Most of Spielberg's output, though, has been fantastic. Despite the occasional 1941, his films, even when flawed, soar above the average film. Minority Report falls into the category of fantastic and soaring, yet deeply flawed.
Minority Report is, above all else, an enormously entertaining film. I personally like actioners and thrillers and sci-fi, and Minority Report fits well into all these categories. There are a couple of action set pieces that are simply amazing, like the chase through the car factory or the spider scene. Unfortunately, in the idea department, the film is kind of a dud. Critics have immediately pointed to the politics of today to show how prescient Minority Report is, but no matter how large and powerful the intelligence industry gets I seriously don't believe that we'll ever live in a world where, even if it were possible to predict crime, law enforcement could arrest someone for a crime they were about to commit. And then, without a trial, apparently, they not only imprison the pre-perpetrators, but they encase them in suspended animation goo, apparently forever. At least they never say whether these prisoners are ever to be released. I mean, what happened to correctional institutions! And, what's worse, almost every perpetrator chooses to murder for reasons of passion since everyone knows that it's impossible to commit premeditated murder. That means that a man who was about to stab his wife and her lover with a pair of scissors - a horrific but understandable crime - is doomed to never see the light of day again (apparently). And I haven't even mentioned the time frame: this story takes place in just over 50 years from now. It specifically states that the ACLU still exists. Perhaps if the film took place a hundred and fifty years from now and the ACLU had been disbanded or something (with some heavy explanations in that department), I may have bought the story. The screenwriters never come close to making the situation believable.
And even if it weren't so unbelievable, the film has dozens of flaws besides that, and several poor, not very well thought out scenes. For example, the crimes are predicted by three psychics whose origins are dubiously explained. Part of the plot of the film is that this Pre-Crime department is supposed to expand nation-wide. The three pre-cogs are supposed to be the only ones alive, so where are they going to get others to predict the murders of every other city in the United States? These three only cover Washington D.C. I assume they aren't going to now cover the entire country (and soon, the world!). Okay, so maybe more exist. Perhaps I misunderstood that part of the exposition (which is generally very bad in this film). But if these three cover a populace only as big as the capital, they're going to need hundreds if not thousands of pre-cogs, and the three that they show in the movie seem to be so important and irreplaceable that the logistics of the project seem completely unfeasible. Then there's a scene where Tom Cruise kidnaps one of the pre-cogs to help him avoid the murder that he is accused of having been about to commit. First of all, you must know that the three pre-cogs are kept in a sort of sensory-deprivation chamber where they are suspended in a vat of liquid nutrients that is supposed to foster their psychic abilities. So Cruise kidnaps Agatha the pre-cog and escapes from the authorities in a ridiculous manner (there's apparently a drain in the bottom of the pool big enough for two people to slide down; the Pre-Crime division must have a hell of a time preventing the pre-cogs from accidentally being flushed in the first place!). Agatha, for the first time in a long while, begins to exist in the present. Then there's this scene in the mall, where she is able to protect Cruise by predicting every second of what's going to happen. She couldn't even do anything near this in the nutrient bath, and even there she could only see one thing: murders; but outside of it she sees every single thing that's ever going to happen. It just doesn't make any sense. And then there are the poorly calculated scenes. The scene with Peter Stormare (Fargo) as a black market surgeon makes little sense. It's completely ridiculous and also rather foul. The writers set up a whole history for this character, but don't follow up on it at all. And Cruise's whole backstory is very lame. Has every single individual who works for any law enforcement body had a child or wife who was murdered?

All the good stuff in Minority Report is technical. It's often beautifully done. Spielberg's direction is often fantastic. The set designs are miraculous - it would be insulting if it didn't get nominated for an Oscar in this department - as is the cinematography (a very beautiful, bleached look). The acting I would rate as merely adequate. Tom Cruise's character is not developed well enough, and therefore the performance isn't anything special. Max von Sydow, as nice as it is to see him in a summer blockbuster, has a very stereotypical role. Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), as Gideon, the warden of all the criminal tubes, should have been axed. Nelson is totally wrong for the movie. The only great performance in the film comes from Samantha Morton, who plays Agatha. She is amazing at times.
Many critics have praised this, saying that it's a great rebound after the failure of A.I. That's so incredibly insulting. A.I. is by far the superior of the two. Overall, Minority Report is a fun movie when you're watching it, but the more I think about it, the more my opinion shrinks. I give it a 7/10. Good entertainment, far too many flaws to even count. I think I could go on for days pointing them out.