Thank you Spielberg - Finally a movie worth seeing in the theater

Rating: 10/10 (23 June 2002)

Heading into see Minority Report, I was very excited and had high hopes. For me that is usually a recipe for disappointment, but that was NOT the case this time. As usual, Spielberg did a magnificent job again with only a couple of minor cheesy scenes which when you see it you'll know what I mean, but it did not detract from my overall impression of the movie.
Being a traditionalist when it comes to movies, I don't usually go for the futuristic/sci-fi atmosphere as usually those movies are done in such an unbelievable way that it just bores me. However, even though this one takes place in 2054 it doesn't bother me, because of the way that Spielberg presents it. He does it in a tactful way that lets people like me accept things like the futuristic mass transit system, the glass looking futuristic computers or the eye scanners at every mall and store that allowed the advertisements to personally address each customer.
I think that one reason it was easier for me to accept the futuristic atmosphere of a "Pre-crime" unit in Washington D.C. is due to the Pre-crime department's dependency on the three "pre-cogs". The pre-cogs were 3 human individuals who had a "gift" to be able to see murders before they happen, anywhere from minutes to days in advance, depending on whether the murder was an all of the sudden passion crime or a thought out, planned murder. Even though the department uses very high tech computers in their crime prevention, none of it could work without the 3 pre-cogs, who were human. So that human element helped me relate to all the high tech futuristic aspects that the rest of the movie sustained.
Anyways, w/o going on to describe the entire movie, let me just say that I thought Cruise did an extremely good job playing detective John Anderton. However, I truly believe that had any other director worked with this script, it would not have been nearly the same quality as it turned out to be. Much of the credit must go to Spielberg. This movie had so many elements. There was the high tech computers intertwined with the pre-cogs' abilities to foresee future murders which posed the moral dilemma of imprisoning people who have yet to actually commit any crime. To further explore that moral dilemma, sometimes not all 3 pre-cogs saw the same thing in their visions. Apparently, sometimes one of them would see something different, and that vision was called the minority report and was discarded. They had to be thrown out or else the Pre-Crime Department would have to be shut down if the public knew that sometimes these contradicting minority reports existed.
While it may seem like you know how the movie ends, you probably do not, as it has a few twists, and in addition to that it goes beyond the point of which you would expect it to end. I'd recommend this movie to anyone who wants to be entertained not only with an interesting main plot, but with several sub-plots and the way that Spielberg mixes the "Hollywood-ness" of it all with the actual drama of the story line. Nobody in my mind does that better than him.
In the end, I really liked this movie, it was probably my favorite theater movie I've seen in a long time, since seeing The Matrix. And I've seen quite a few good ones (Enemy at the Gates, The Others and 13 Days to name a few.) Ironically, I found Minority Report to have a good bit of humor, spaced out at the perfect times to get the audience laughing together in what was otherwise an action-drama flick. And don't be surprised if on more than one occasion you find yourself jumping out of your seat on those "sudden, in your face" type of shots that put a spike in your heartbeat.

Great movie, well worth my money. Can't wait for it to come out on video now. If you liked the Matrix, you'll probably like this one too. Although I'd rank this a notch under the Matrix.