GOOD BUT... an awesome Science Fiction idea is turned into a simple Detective story

Rating: Null/10 (2 July 2002)

CONTAINS SPOILERS for Minority Report, and possibly Jurassic Park and LA Confidential.
There's some influenced from Bladerunner (Hover Ships over a farm house from the original Bladerunner storyboards), Robocop (news reports filling us in), Brazil (cops busting through windows in ropes) and LA Confidential (the twist). And those are some pretty good influences.
There's groundbreaking cinematography from Janusz Kaminski and faultless specials effects design and execution from all involved and some great action sequences.
But there are problems too -

The humor' caused a couple of grating moments - - The jetpack roasts the hamburgers while a women screams get out of my kitchen. The moldy sandwich, oh no look out Tom! Ah ha ha ha....hem Spielberg's comedy has not improved much since '1942'. - Battling the Agent over the conveyor belt. After seeing Episode 2 and Galaxy Quest I imagine Spielberg would be a little embarrassed of this (the set-up not the scene).

Surely a drug taking detective watching tapes of his dead son and estranged wife does not create sympathy for the lead character. Only pity at best.

Probably most confusing to me is that while the film has some intelligent moments it also has some stupid clichéd ones too. And if the intelligent half of the audience can work out the 'twists' why not just get it out in the open and create tension instead of surprises'. Was it just me or was it clearly obvious that Leo Crow had killed Tom's son, I mean why else would he kill him? Why did it have to be kept back and 'revealed' so late. It was annoying sitting there thinking "I hope there's something more to this". Luckily there was, but unfortunately the extra twist wasn't much better and nothing you wouldn't have seen if you've ever watched any crime movies over the decades.

All that said I still think it's a good movie, just not a great one. The script writers seem to have taken an awesome Science Fiction idea and turned it into a simple Detective story.