Minority Report
Philip K. Dick’s future is not the most comfortable place to be. He invariable bemoans the power that large institutions like the government can wield when armed with technology and media. Mr. Dick’s stories have given us some incredible science fiction movies starting with the seminal ‘Blade Runner’ by Ridley Scott, Total Recall by Paul Verhoeven and several other B grade movies. This time it is the big team of Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise, coming together for the first time, in the big summer picture of Minority Report. Of course this is the perfect timing for the movie and there is an obvious hype surrounding it. It is pleasant to note that most of it is not entirely ill-placed.
Tom Cruise, in one of his best roles, is John Anderton, a cop in the division of Precrime in Washington, D.C. in the year 2054. The department has thee humanoids called ‘pre-cogs’ that can predict future murder with enough surrounding details for the cops to find the killer before the act is committed. These are good times – there has been no murder in the nation’s capital in 6 years. However it is inevitably a strange, dark, unhappy world also. There is still the government to deal with, the inter-departmental dislike and distaste – power seeking leaders and immoral chiefs – a well tested formula that almost always works.
John is basically a Hollywood good cop with a troubled past tying to make it right by being overly dedicated to his mission. It comes as little surprise when our hero is accused of a murder that he will commit after 36 hours of a man he has never met. John must run to save him – and to prove that he is innocent – hence proving the system he has dedicated his life to – is wrong. Therein lays the soul of Mr. Dick’s story. Mr. Spielberg just plays along -- occasionally overusing it.
It is here that the film has its best moments. Everybody runs and runs very appealingly indeed. Mr. Spielberg with his immense repertoire of special effects produces some incredible images and then couples them brilliantly with some tongue in cheek humor that makes Minority Report a true Hollywood fun movie. Mr. Spielberg cunningly takes product placement to a new level by winding it flagrantly in the story instead of sneaking them in -- a technique that works quite well. He borrows the noir chrome look and feel from ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘A Clockwork Orange’. He puts enough elements in the movie to make you feel totally at home with a plot that is not the easiest to follow or swallow.
Ultimately, Mr. Spielberg is a director who wants to experiment with noir with does not have the heart to follow it through – or let it go when he should. His passion for multiple climaxes that we so painfully endured in A.I., is thrust upon us again for no apparent reason. It seems as if he is terribly scared of misinterpretation and wants to make sure that we get it right – his right – and that just takes the fun away. The film should have been about 30 minutes and 3 climaxes shorter.
In a shot overly scary for the wrong reasons – one begins to see the elongated taffy face of Haley Joel Osmont in the lifeless white of the lead pre-cog’s face when she rambles about the possible future of John.
In Minority report, everybody runs – and it is for the good because when they stop – they are not worth looking at.
Tom Cruise, in one of his best roles, is John Anderton, a cop in the division of Precrime in Washington, D.C. in the year 2054. The department has thee humanoids called ‘pre-cogs’ that can predict future murder with enough surrounding details for the cops to find the killer before the act is committed. These are good times – there has been no murder in the nation’s capital in 6 years. However it is inevitably a strange, dark, unhappy world also. There is still the government to deal with, the inter-departmental dislike and distaste – power seeking leaders and immoral chiefs – a well tested formula that almost always works.
John is basically a Hollywood good cop with a troubled past tying to make it right by being overly dedicated to his mission. It comes as little surprise when our hero is accused of a murder that he will commit after 36 hours of a man he has never met. John must run to save him – and to prove that he is innocent – hence proving the system he has dedicated his life to – is wrong. Therein lays the soul of Mr. Dick’s story. Mr. Spielberg just plays along -- occasionally overusing it.
It is here that the film has its best moments. Everybody runs and runs very appealingly indeed. Mr. Spielberg with his immense repertoire of special effects produces some incredible images and then couples them brilliantly with some tongue in cheek humor that makes Minority Report a true Hollywood fun movie. Mr. Spielberg cunningly takes product placement to a new level by winding it flagrantly in the story instead of sneaking them in -- a technique that works quite well. He borrows the noir chrome look and feel from ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘A Clockwork Orange’. He puts enough elements in the movie to make you feel totally at home with a plot that is not the easiest to follow or swallow.
Ultimately, Mr. Spielberg is a director who wants to experiment with noir with does not have the heart to follow it through – or let it go when he should. His passion for multiple climaxes that we so painfully endured in A.I., is thrust upon us again for no apparent reason. It seems as if he is terribly scared of misinterpretation and wants to make sure that we get it right – his right – and that just takes the fun away. The film should have been about 30 minutes and 3 climaxes shorter.
In a shot overly scary for the wrong reasons – one begins to see the elongated taffy face of Haley Joel Osmont in the lifeless white of the lead pre-cog’s face when she rambles about the possible future of John.
In Minority report, everybody runs – and it is for the good because when they stop – they are not worth looking at.