Well-made, if so dolled up that the original intent is lost

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2013)

Americans can be put in prison for something they haven't done, on the accusation that they will do something – but enough about the administrations of Bush and Obama. Set in 2054, this has DC's police force(with a vote coming up to make it national) be a PreCrime division - people are arrested before committing murder. How? Via the visions of the future of the three PreCogs, Agatha(Morton, doing an incredible performance, a lot of it without words, using the expressiveness of her face, particularly her eyes), Arthur and Dashiell. They were the children of drug addicts, and thus gained this ability. Chief of the department, Anderton(Cruise, his intensity aiding tremendously, pulling us in), hunts down the perps-to-be, only one day, the prediction points to him - and says he will murder a man he's never even heard of. He goes on the run, determined to prove his innocence.
What of the ethical questions involved in this Orwellian thought-crime justice system? Read the short story of Philip K. Dick for that(in general, pursue his body of work), because any such exploration is barely present here. If one cannot adapt this story and keep that intact, one should have the self-awareness to admit that someone else should helm it. Focus is shifted to where you can't recognize it(the entire issue of powerful post-war military has downright disappeared... I wonder why the US, with its bloated "defense" budget, would remove such a compelling, historical issue - and yes, I opened this whole thing with a crack about the current situation(not even getting into drones), and yes, it has gotten a lot worse since this came out... however, this did come out after 9/11, with the Patriot Act signed in, and yet, this did not comment much on the idea of a totalitarian government).
The core of what's going on in this(I won't spoil it) didn't even need to be in this, and it's so unoriginal and out of place that it hurts - you'll note the writing contortions applied to even fit it in to the whole(yeah, don't expect overall in-universe consistency, even for all they don't explain - sometimes things that need to happen, just... do). Mystery? Convoluted. This is overlong, with a running time of 2 hours and 12 minutes sans credits(7 more with). While plenty happens, it feels like steps could have been skipped, and the excitement of the opening 20 minutes(a last-minute rescue attempt of potential victims) are inversely proportional to that of the last 20, the wrap-up.
Before I am accused of hating on Spielberg(such as for how he includes far too much of his typical sappy sentimentality), I will go into all the positives. This is a good film. Hollywood? Certainly. But as I say of James Cameron and Peter Jackson, it's the right kind - they'll entertain the masses, not sending them out to buy some brand and then forget how crappy the flick was(I'm glaring at you, Bay), rather, they stay in the audience's mind, they resonate emotionally and they make you think(well, in this case, not about the most important thing). Steven asked Janusz Kaminski, his regular cinematographer, to make "the ugliest and dirtiest movie" either of them had ever made, and, he did exactly that.
Some call this overly bleak, and I can understand why - who knew the dork who created E.T. even had a dark side? He also put serious effort into making the tech realistically futuristic, assembling a team of 16 future experts. It is quite credible, and the world feels organic. FX hold up these 11 years later, and CGI isn't overused - it always "feels" real, and is never there "just because we can". Eye candy? Sure, and like I said, it's not the stupid, pointless kind. The humor is great, keeping it from getting too dark, without being frequent enough to mess with the unflinching tension. Yes, at points this nears Hitchcockian levels.
There is some bloody, disturbing content(most of it seen in quick flashes), a bit of moderate to strong language and a little sexuality in this. I recommend this to fans of the people behind it, and of sci-fi blockbusters. 7/10