Adult oriented Science Fiction

Rating: Null/10 (18 July 2002)

Greetings all,
Last night I was quite simply bored as hell and decided to take in a movie. You guessed it, I chose the Tom Cruise/Steven Speilberg (AKA Senior Speilbrgo of Simpsons Fame) blockbuster Minority Report.
WARNING This review may contain slight spoilers
The first thing I should mention is my feelings on Tom Cruise the actor. I was yakking with a buddy a few days ago in IM about movies, specifically about the ex Mr. Nicole Kidman, and I'll share those thoughts here.
Most of the time when I see Tom Cruise in an action/adventure type of film, I never get the feeling that Cruise's characters are in any type of real peril in this type of film. I've rarely seen his non-adventure type films (i.e. Vanilla Sky), but I have seen Jerry McGuire, so I'm discounting that as it's a different type of genre entirely), and there seems to be that "invulnerable Tom Cruise" going through his attempts at this genre. Witness Mission Impossible II. Nowhere in the entire film do I get any sense that Cruise AKA Ethan Hunt is ever in any danger, despite the incredible fights he goes to, and that bone crushing motorcycle chase and fight at the end. What is the worst that happens to Cruise? He gets a cut on his face. I think Cruise's agent is off screen saying "don't mess him up too much, it'd be bad for his image". When it comes to action films, Cruise is no Harrison Ford,
who always makes me wonder if he's going to make it out alive (witness all the Indiana Jones films and The Fugitive for example). So it's rare that I enjoy Tom Cruise in an action film, simply because I always know, with complete certainty, that it'll work out for Cruise and he never makes the effort to make me doubt that. If you watch Cruise jumping from car to car as they descend a huge wall (yes, cars do that in this era), you'll see what I mean. He never really seems scared by what he's doing or the heights he's at, which any rational person would be.
So, did I get that impression in Minority Report? Yes. Did I enjoy the film anyway? Yes. What Cruise lacked in believablilty, Speilberg made up for, but it wasn't a film I'm dying to see again. This film brought up some actual issues that someone can discuss on the drive home from the theater, which is what good Sci-Fi does. For instance, the use of the three "pre-cogs", three actual people kept seriously doped up and in a pool of water so that they can predict crimes. "They're just pre-cogs" Cruise tells Colin Farrell's character Danny Witwer. How can they justify using these three people as property? Sure, they have a keeper that treats them well but they are basically prisoners, with no lives of their own, robbed of existence so that they might save the lives of normal people. Did anyone ask them what they wanted to do? No. In fact, a major part of the plot revolves around the parent of one of the pre-cogs. Also, stopping a crime before it happens mean that the crime never took place. It's an interesting theory but how do we know it was going to take place? In an attempt to illustrate his point, Tom Cruise rolls a ball across a table and Farrell catches it.
"Why did you catch that?" Cruise asks. "Because it was going to fall." Farrel replies. "How do you know it was going to fall?"
Cruise's point is that if he hadn't of caught it, can he believe that the ball might not have fallen to the floor? It's supposed to be the same here. Just because they stop the murder before it happens, the fact that it was going to happen is inevitable. Right there I saw the flaw in this thinking. In the case of the ball rolling to the floor, we're talking laws of physics, but in murder and crimes of passion we're talking human nature, which is in no way measurable. Thus, the flaw in the sytem, and it's exploited throughout the film.
Cruise's character in this film was, at least, more interesting than Ethan Hunt of Mission Impossible fame. He has a drug problem, and his son was kidnapped and (supposedly) killed before the pre-crime unit was formed.
The main part of the plot revolves around the fact that the pre-crime unit, supplied information by the "pre-cogs", is never wrong. There hasn't been a murder in Washington D.C. in 5 or 6 years. But what happens when the pre cogs suddenly predict that Tom Cruise's character John Anderton, is about to kill a man he has never heard of in a little over 30 hours. Suddenly, Cruise is on the run, determined to prove his own innocence and to get back at the man he believes set him up, Colin Farrell (the future Bullseye in the upcoming Daredevil film).
Much of the middle part of the film is taken up by Cruise on the run from Farrell, and there are some really exciting chases, including a Speilberg classic involving cars. Speilberg loves putting cars and people in odd situations, witness Jurassic Park and the escape of Dr. Grant and Tim as the jeep chases them "down" the tree they were marooned in after the attack of the first dinosaur. Again, Cruise and Farrell are fighting in a car that is being assembled by robot arms. There are some tense moments here, but as you can imagine, Cruise comes out of it with barely a scratch.
Eventually Cruise finds the creator of the pre-cogs, and she tells him of the Minority Report. This refers to the fact that while the pre-cogs are never wrong, they don't always agree on what they see. In the strongest pre-cog exists the minority report, which means that for some visions they get, there is an alternate vision of the future that may also take place, and they are stored in her. Cruise knows that there must be a minority report for him because he never heard of this person he is supposed to kill in his life, and there must be a conflicting vision that can prove his innocence. Not to mention it completely destroys the idea that the pre cogs are always right and innocent people may have gone to jail (Cruise didn't know about the existence of the minority report before this, and is outraged that he wasn't told. He believed the system was perfect.)
Speaking of Cruise coming through his action films without any major damage, the worst thing that is done to Cruise is self-inflicted, when he has to remove his eyes and have them replaced with new ones (with the help of a down and out doctor) to escape the eye-scans that are now used everywhere to identify people and tell you exactly where they are in the city. There are some "ewwwwwwwwww" moments here and a few people had to look away. This is another 1984-ish element of the story, and it made me think. With post 9/11 security beefing up, this may be more fact than fiction in the coming decade.
The special effects were, as expected, pretty fantastic. It's not nearly as breathtaking as the fantasy world of Attack of The Clones, but that's a good thing, as it's more grounded in what we have in this world and we can relate to it a bit more. The music by John Williams was pretty good, but largely forgettable.
There were some good things about this film that I really enjoyed, and helps it rise above the average Tom Cruise outing. First and foremost, the fact that, as the time for Cruise to murder the man as foretold by the pre cogs arrived, I thought the movie was over. In fact, it was no where near over. That really surprised me and I liked that a lot. You were led to believe that this was the final act of the film, but it isn't. There is a lot more to be revealed and quite a few more tense moments, including Cruise's potential failure as he is incarcerated for killing the man exactly as the pre-cogs foretold. It takes Cruise's ex-wife to rescue him and help put things right in the final act of the film. Another thing I liked was how dark and wierd it was. Usually Speilberg gives us a few kids to come along on the trip forthat "awwww" factorn when he does this type of film, but that's not the case here. This movie is definitely adult oriented and the kid sidekicks a la Jurassic Park are thankfully absent here. It's nice to see him breaking the formula.
The bottom line is, this film was enjoyable, more for Steven Spielberg's output than Tom Cruise's IMHO, but that's just my tastes. I liked it for the breaking of the Speilberg formula, for the deeper than usual philosophic questions the film brought up, and for the fact that Cruise wasn't completely invulnerable as he was in MI: 2, though he was pretty close. As I said, the most pain that was inflicted on Cruise was by himself. He routinely takes on an entire team of pre-crime cops and escapes from them with barely a scratch. Still, if you're looking for something to do on a hot summer night, and you'd like some decidely adult oriented science fiction (a rare thing in cinema these days), I'd recommend Minority Report.
Just try and overlook the classic happy ending which kind of made me want to gag.