Well realised but flawed future thriller

Rating: 7/10 (31 March 2013)

This is one of Spielberg's better films. It's a highly competent, Blade-Runneresque vision of the future that was highly influential in its depictions of gesture computing, personal transport, advertising, and people tracking. There are scenes here directly influenced by David Cronenberg and Ridley Scott. The atmosphere is tense and pace is handled very well throughout. The story is interesting in its treatment of precognition as a scientific crime-fighting tool. Spielberg does well to set up a convincing future world with a bizarre mystery at the center of the story.
Where things unravel is towards the end of the film. What begins as a clever, twisty tale with a very interesting and unusual concept, ends with a bog-standard and very tried trope which does not do the rest of the film justice. The final twist and reveal are extremely weak, not even to the level of a weekly TV detective story. It's a disappointing flaw in an otherwise exciting and thought provoking SciFi thriller.