Why I liked this film....

Rating: Null/10 (27 June 2002)

Minority Report is an enthralling film of the highest order, containing a plausible future scenario full of spell-binding imageries and concepts, all wrapped up in a thought-provoking storyline. The movie is an amalgam of Blade Runner, The Fugitive and Mission-Impossible, and just as, if not more, exciting. But what puts this film above others is the workout your brain gets, along with the usual visual pleasantries you would get from a typical Steven Spielberg film.
The story revolves around Tom Cruise as John Anderton, a detective who works for the Pre-Crime unit of the police department around the mid-21st Century. By employing the psychic abilities of 3 pre-Cogs, John Anderton and his team are able to catch potential killers before they commit a crime. Unfortunately, John Anderton becomes tagged as the next would-be murderer by the premonitary visions the pre-Cogs have and, thereafter, finds himself on the lam, evading authorities while trying to uncover the truth behind the events that have been foretold.
Along the way, the viewer is treated to a futuristic world that is oddly familiar, but,in many ways,different from ours. There are the familiar homes situated in typical suburban settings that are straight out of any old suburban neighborhood in the U.S. and people wearing clothes that are more 20th Century than what people wore in , say, Blade Runner. However, look closely and the world of Minority Report is brimming with high-tech gadgetry and imageries:from the sophisticated pre-Crimefcrafts to the eye scanning machines that detect the ID of person, from "moving" billboards covering just about every wall to the computer screens that can show moving visual images in life-like size,...in short, it is a highly believable future world.
Aside from the briskly-paced storyline and great action sequences are the myriad questions the film raises:about free will, freedom, personal loss, etc...Although I do believe that the film sends,IMHO, the right message regarding free will, the ending seemed too mundane and blah for the task of answering such a grand philosophical inquiry, even if the film is touted mainly as a murder mystery.
However, the overall strength of the film clearly outweighs any minor flaws of the film.Clearly,Tom Cruise was right for the role of John Anderton. He is able to imbue the character with the right mixture of complexity, vulnerability and brashness to paint a solidly fleshed out character. Steven Spielberg's direction and visual flair is, as always, technically brilliant and sophisticated. A great film.