Visually stunning, but too predictable *** SPOILERS ***

Rating: 7/10 (5 August 2002)

I'm not someone who spots plot twists very well, but I figured out who the culprit was a third of the way through the movie.
The effects are marvelous and blend pretty seamlessly with the rest of the film. And the film sports marvelous attention to detail in the creation of this future world. More importantly, the somewhat low-key way (well, compared to other sci-fi films anyway) in which they are presented make the futuristic details seem convincingly ordinary to its inhabitants to further the believability. The interface Anderton uses to manipulate the images is rather clunky (having to use sweeping arm motions for what today would simply be a short mouse movement), but makes for more dramatic visuals than a more realistic interface that simply needs, say, eye movements. Spielberg always opts for the more dramatic visual, as a movie director probably ought to in most situations.
As expected from Spielberg, it's well-paced and well-shot (I particularly liked how he shot the halo framing its intended target, which seemed rather Hitchcockian). The fighting sequences, while not up to "Matrix" or "Crouching Tiger" standards, are competently choregraphed and effectively shot. It stretched some credibility to have police officers taking huge telegraphed swings at each other, but I suppose it made for more dramatic visuals, as Spielberg is obviously fond of. Still, all the action sequences were incredible yet believable and exciting, and most importantly, clear (i.e. you can tell who is hitting whom), which is all I really ask for.
The acting all around is solid but unspectacular, taking second fiddle to the futuristic world Spielberg has painstakingly created. There are effective surprising and suspenseful moments earlier in the film, but as it settles into typical Hollywood formula, later moments are hardly surprising nor effective, including the "climax."
*** SPOILERS BELOW ***
(including SPOILERS for "Brazil" and "L.A. Confidential", somewhat) Okay, you've been warned!
Now as for the plot, it doesn't nearly live up to its early promise nor the potential. I won't even bother going into all the thorny issues that could have been explored but were completely glossed over. But the whole twist about Lamar Burgess and Danny Witwer felt lifted completely intact from the far superior "L.A. Confidential." And I think both sections of the the final climax has been done so many times in b-grade works that I wouldn't know where to start. It effectively destroys any suspense in the final scenes. I mean, does anybody actually expect Lamar to shoot Anderton at the end? The place for the dark ending would have been to leave Anderton incarcerated or do a twist at the very end, as I'll go into below. Given that he's rescued, and in fact has Lamar beaten regardless of whether he shoots or not (and indeed points this out for the audience as well), really then, what's the point of having Lamar even bother pointing a gun at him? There was no suspense in that scene whatsoever.
Of course, the ending is so ridiculously syrupy and implausibly sunny that I was seriously expecting a wicked Brazil-like twist at the end. After all, wouldn't it have made a much better film if it turns out all the happy developments after Cruise is incarcerated (his wife figuring out Lamar after his ridiculously sloppy giveaway, breaking him out, the precog transmission, etc.) turn out to be a dream he's experiencing from that halo device, while Lamar in the real world continues to take Pre-Crime national? If this is truly supposed to be a story warning us of the dangers of this, then it would actually be the much more fitting ending. As it is, it feels almost as tacked-on as the "Blade Runner" sunshine ending and doubly implausible.
So on the whole, an entertaining movie with too many predictable elements to break it from the pack of average thrillers. The only thing remarkable about it are the effects.