Movie Magic Masterclass

Rating: 8/10 (6 September 2002)

The movie is a masterclass of how stupid improbable ideas can be designed to look great and realistic (`pre-crime' psychic-palm reader bollix, retina-activated ads wasting ad budgets on a passing guy instead of the crowd around him, updatable newspapers that have to be held up with both hands like old newspapers taking up two seatwidths, doing tiring aerobics/music conducting just to open an Email, telling everyone in the room your password just to utilise voice-activation tech, `skyway-hiways' driving skyscraper residents mad, etc) - give me a break. sexy looking though. Unlike most sci-fi movies, this one has been hyped for its tapping of the ideas of futurists and product designers, who unfortunately are usually more concerned with how fantastic their own visions in their own fields are than whether these are possible in the greater future reality. Hence, one has to take issue with this aspect for MR more than the out-and-out fantasies that are Star Wars, Superman or Pretty Woman.
Unlike the beautiful snooze-fest A.I. (.also my exclamation after enduring to the end of that film), MR is a proper effects masterpiece with the classiness no George Lucas directed show can come close to. Cruise is a De Niro of action stars, his very presence in a scene oozing charisma, be it as a part of an emsemble, an action sequence or a wordless close up. SS is der ubermann of Movie Magic. I'm putting more cash in his offshore accounts when the DVD comes out.