Good film

Rating: Null/10 (28 June 2002)

Well, having read some of the comments on here, it seems people overall liked this film. I liked the film, but I did quibble a bit with the ending. SPOILER AHEAD......
I didn't think that if Burgess was so determined to make Precrime work at any cost that he would be so magnanimous as to take himself out when he realized that he had risked too much for it. He turned out to be such an ass that I really found it difficult to believe that he would do what he did when he realized that he had perhaps crossed ethical lines in ensuring Precrime's success.
END SPOILER
Also, I found, in retrospect, that Spielberg's insertion of Anderton (Cruise)'s kid is a rather saccharine plot device to connect Anderton to the action. I found this was the reappearance of the old Spielberg, and the one who made AI last about 20 minutes too long last year. It should have ended when we saw that the robots were frozen underwater years later.

Nevertheless, these are not major quibbles. Spielberg hs really changed from a mass-entertainment corporation to a more adventurous and curious film-maker. The provocative nature of the principles that underlie Precrime is very interesting and there is not Spielberg's usual levity to "soothe" the audience. The tone here is consistently dark and foreboding and I think that is fitting. I'm just glad that he is more emotionally honest and does not try to emotionally con the audience.
I have to give credit to Tom Cruise. He doesn't have a very flashy role, but he without his hard work and determination, this movie does not roll as it should. Cruise is someone who does not rest on his laurels and he must be credited for not taking easy, simple roles, but for challenging himself and trying to give audiences some cinematic cud to chew on. I also thought that Peter Stormare was great as the rogue surgeon who replaces his eyes (that's right). Colin Farrell has great presence and you can't take your eyes off him. He is a man who could carry a film. I found him very charismatic. Tim Blake Nelson is great as Gideon, the organ-playing prison warden, and Samantha Morton is also very compelling as the most sensitive pre-cog. She seems to feels things more acutely than most and Morton conveys the strength with which she feels things in an evocative, moody manner. Finally, I thought that the lady who Anderton meets out in the greenhouse who was partially responsible for the development of PreCrime is pretty compelling and watchable too.
I have to say though that I found Kazminski's cinematography somewhat off-putting. It is certainly evocative and adds to the ambience, but I found that it distracted me from the overall nature of life and the story then.
However, again, I find that Spielberg really has developed as a film-maker and has become a much more provocative and interesting director and I look forward to whatever his next film is.