Simply *ok*

Rating: Null/10 (8 July 2002)

A lot could rightly be expected of this movie. A great deal has been made of the fact that it's the first collaboration between Hollywood's most successful director and Hollywood's biggest actor. Many years have passed in-between them both searching for the ideal project to work on jointly, and finally it's arrived. The story here is that a unit called 'Pre-Crime', which has not gone national yet, has been developed to predict murders before they occur. Using so-called 'Pre-Cogs' (3 people permanently assigned to viewing the future) the cops in the Pre-Crime unit are on stand-by should any future murders be discovered. On this eventuality they race to the scene to prevent it.
But the tables are turned when a routine check of a case reveals the murderer to be Tom Cruise's character, John Anderton.
This is a highly original story in concept, no question. But the problem is that under the hi-tech surface lies a fairly bog-standard murder-mystery. The future setting certainly provides a more interesting setting for the plot, but the plot itself, while engaging in curiosity terms, ultimately isn't that gripping.
Cruise is fine in his role - a part which requires a lot less charisma than perhaps he's used to portraying. None of the characters are all that fascinating because you don't really identify with them.
It's a fragmented and fairly mediocre story, told in a more original way. But the shine can't hide its flaws.
Good I suppose, but it could have been a lot better.