The future is not necessarily bright

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 2005)

Spielberg has returned to his favourite type of film  the summer blockbuster. Minority Report is a good old-fashioned crime/conspiracy thriller, but with a difference  the crimes are predicted and prevented before they even occur thanks to the ability to see the future. When the Chief of the Pre-Crime Department John Anderton (Tom Cruise) sees a prediction of himself committing murder, he finds himself on the run trying to prove his innocence and figure out who he kills and why, before he actually does it, and who has set him up.
The film is a fascinating vision of the future, and therefore comes with hundreds of futuristic-looking gadgets that sure would be fun to have around now. But this is not a bright vision of the future; colours are kept to a minimum, and the film has a grimy, grainy look to it  which shows the future to not be the perfection we would hope it will be. It makes a refreshing change from the normal science-fiction which shows the future to be all smooth and shiny, with lots of green to make it look pretty. Instead it looks drab, impersonal and unfriendly.
This is Cruise's first major foray into science-fiction, but Spielberg is an old hand at this kind of thing now, thanks to ET, Close Encounters and Jurassic Park, and his experience and expertise are clear. The story is adapted from a story written by legendary sci-fi writer Philip K Dick  and surely there is no one better than Spielberg for adapting a sci-fi tale and turning it into a crowd-pleasing blockbuster.
Colin Farrell appears, in the middle of an extremely busy film-making period for him, and again shows his versatility in playing a rather slimy young hotshot who investigates Cruise's department. Max von Sydow also stars, in possibly his biggest and best role since 1973's classic horror The Exorcist.
The story is genuinely exciting and gripping, as a good conspiracy thriller should be, and keeps you guessing right through. Some viewers (myself included) may however find some scenes disturbing  most notably a couple of scenes involving eyeballs. Eyeballs aside however, Spielberg has delivered the perfect Saturday evening film, and begins a profitable partnership with Cruise that continues into the slightly less gripping War of the Worlds. It is however probably best if you just sit back and enjoy, and try not to think about the film's potential plot-holes too much, as you will spot them. Just relish trying to figure out the answer before the film gets there. A perfect evening viewing really.