Bland and predictable

Rating: 6/10 (25 March 2003)

This unimpressive science fiction film has an interesting premise, but ultimately fails to deliver anything more than an average cinematic experience. Tom Cruise plays John Anderton, an expert cop in the field of pre-crime. Pre-crime is a method of catching criminals before they commit murder through the use of psychics. The society has been using this technology for some time and crime rates are at an all time low. Ironically he discovers that he will commit a murder in about a day, and the movie follows him as he tries to determine what will lead to this impending act, all the while his fellow comrades are hunting him down. It is a fascinating premise, but it just did not pull me in like other science fiction movies, such as `The Matrix'. The futuristic designs are impressive, and the acting is okay, but there was not enough to keep me immersed in the film due to the underdeveloped characters. Most of their actions and their motivations did not make any sense, and the plot seemed designed only to provide twists. It is almost like the writers thought of the plot twists before anything else, and then wrote the rest of the movie around them. It did make me think about the possible moral issues that would be raised if such a system crime was used to put people in jail, but the movie merely skimmed over these issues. Overall it was an okay film, but the plot twists were somewhat silly, and it dragged on because of pointless subplots.