Doesn't live up to the hype

Rating: 4/10 (13 January 2017)

I may be in the minority (lol bad puns), but I was less than impressed with the film "Minority Report". I wasn't bothered by the fact that the movie deviates from the short story of the same name by Philip K Dick. I was looking forward to seeing how the concepts of the source materials could be explored in new and interesting ways as well as with more action scenes. Unfortunately, what we got was a standard action film that pretended to be more intelligent than it actually was. John Anderton (played by Tom Cruise) is a detective who works for a special agency called "Precrime", where he helps prevent crimes before they actually happen using the predictions of a group of psychics known as "Pre-Cogs". The movie briefly touches on the moral and ethical principles of such an organization arresting people who haven't actually committed any crimes when Anderton finds his own name selected as a future killer. From that point on, Anderton is hunted by the organization he used to lead in some of the worst chase scenes I've ever seen. In an attempt to make Anderton look cool, they make everyone else look incompetent. To prove his innocence, Anderton attempts a ridiculously convoluted plan to capture one of the Pre-cogs in order to prove his innocence. This fails and ends up having no impact on the plot other than having the pre-cog become a character. Eventually a conspiracy by the agency is exposed and Anderton manages to clear his name by proving that the Precrime unit was a stupid idea. This whole movie just talks in circles, making simple ideas seem complex and deep. Most of the scenes serve as nothing more than showing off the futuristic environment, where you can't help but think that the future has way too many unnecessary advancements (talking cereal boxes?). Minority Report talks a big game, but fails to deliver anything of real value other than the aesthetics. This movie defines style over substance. Don't waste your time with this trash. There are better action and Science Fiction Films out that deserve more attention than this one.