Overhyped.. Undermade.

Rating: 4/10 (2 October 2003)

Worst Spielburg yet? I think so. I've had never turned off/walked out of a Spielburg film until last night. With me, Spielburg has always been a hit or miss director, but his misses have never been so wide as with Minority Report. After a few hours (I watched another, much better film) I returned to where I'd left off in Minority Report and was pleased to see that the film did improve (however slightly) during the latter half.
The first image the audience is handed in watching Minority Report is a robotic lathe that looks like it was drawn up with some 10 year old CAD software by a drafter bent on one night of heavy drinking. This special effects showcase was off to a bad start to say the least. In fact.. the only special effects worth giving merit were the "spiders". The entire world's ability to go from muted color sharp photography in one frame to air-brushed soft focus (and poorly textured) CGI in the next was staggering. One minute I'm watching a grungy cop flick.. the next I'm watching Blues Clues as our hero pretends to jump from one moving vehicle to another without drawing undue attention to himself. I kept waiting for him to miss his mark.. look at the camera.. and then, upon looking down, fall with the full Looney Toon orchestral accompanyment. I couldn't suspend my disbelief for an instant.. special effects? 3/10
One of the worst sins of this flick was the touchless interface used in the pre-homicide detective's work area. Sure.. it looks cool... I thought we'd be in for a real treat when the lights dimmed, Cruise lowered his head, raised his arms, and we saw a spectrograph form across the middle of the screen. I figured Spielburg would incorporate some music after creating such an image of a Hi-Tech conductor. No.. no.. instead we see yard-long hand motions made to do the same functions (select, drag, zoom, focus) I can do with my mouse, one hand, and 12-18 square inches of area to move within. If you're going to create a futuristic computer interface, at least try to make it more practical than what we currently have. A keypad, a mouse and two jog-wheels would have made the whole process 10x more productive. The set being filled with lexan screens that were glued together with ugly, poorly formed seams was a letdown as well. I figured the future would have something better to offer.
The storyline was very contrived, yet used very basic character generalizations. There was nothing difficult to figure out since every aspect of the plot was spoonfed to you, so the intellectual aspect was ruined.. if you try to actually sink your brain into the intricacies of the plot, you see it holds less water than a sieve.
Anderton undergoes 12-16hours of pain to have his eyeballs swapped out, so that he won't be IDed by the sensors in every public domain.. only to whip out his old eyes (during one extremely pointless scene) so that he can scan himself into the Pre-Crime headquarters. Good thing he got those new eyes... or ..or else *shrug* Anderton purposefully enters the room where he's been fated to murder someone (with the murder weapon armed) simply because he's a moron... There is no reason established for him to enter the room, other than to advance the already disgusting plot.
Didn't know Colin Farrell was in this one until I saw him step into view.. If that was his first mainstream exposure to an American audience, I bet he's glad some people saw him in good flicks like Tigerland before passing judgement... what a poor role.
Bottom Line: Cold pointless summer flick that doesn't hold a candle to most others in the special effects, action or philosophical realms. Tripe.