Not really trying to be intelligent

Rating: 5/10 (22 May 2013)

'Minority Report' is a big budget, Steven Spielberg-directed futuristic thriller: I found it disappointing, for three reasons. Firstly, it's definitely not "hard" sci-fi: although it has an intriguing premise, a lot of the mechanics of how its world is supposed to actually work is not made clear, unlikely stuff seems to happen for the sole reason it's useful for the purposes of advancing the plot, and society seems divided between gleaming halls and squalor in a way that makes for impressive visuals but is never explained. Secondly, the hero (played by Tom Cruise) appears to be possessed of near super-powers: it's a standard plot line where an individual is forced to run from an entire system, but it's hard to sympathise with him when he seems to be capable of extraordinary feats without breaking sweat, jumping between moving vehicles hundreds of metres above the ground, or single-handedly fighting off an entire armed-response crew. Finally, the story of institutional corruption ultimately focuses on individual motives: the leading protagonists transpire to be extraordinarily personally connected to the system that they manage. And while "police chief is actually a murderer" makes for a neat story, in the real world, bad policemen cause damage in generally more subtle, less direct ways. Ultimately, nothing engaged me here: there was plenty of material, but too little interest in exploring it in depth: the ideas provide a backdrop for an action movie, but they're sadly not as important as might first seem.