Today’s quick review: Minority Report. John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is a police officer in Washington D.C.’s pre-crime division, a group tasked with stopping crimes before they happen. Their investigations are based on the infallible predictions of three precognitive children, allowing them to identify the criminal and victim before a crime is committed and intervene before it happens. Their work has all but eliminated murder in the city but raises the ethical question of whether one can be held responsible for something that hasn’t happened yet. However, when Anderton’s name comes up as a future murderer, he has to go on the run to avoid being arrested for a crime he doesn’t even know he’ll commit.
Minority Report is a well-executed sci-fi thriller. Tom Cruise plays a competent and sympathetic John Anderton, and director Stephen Spielberg keeps up the tension throughout. The setting is a fully realized vision of the future, one of the better ones in modern cinema. New technologies, such as cars that ride up buildings and slick gesture-based interfaces, offer a veneer of progress even as ubiquitous retinal scanners and precognition enforce a police state. The film takes on a dark tone as it explores the pros and cons of a system designed to perfect human nature.
Minority Report is well worth a watch for anyone looking for a thriller with ample intellectual fodder. The difficult moral decisions in the movie are portrayed as choices between bad and worse, and the setting is a playground for a good thriller plot. The only major downside of the film is its lack of lighter elements mixed in the darker ones. This makes Minority Report a surprisingly heavy watch for a film with only moderate violence. Skip it if you’re looking for something light, as both its setting and plot are downers.
7.7 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.5 for its credible execution of a strong sci-fi premise, held back slightly by its over-dedication to its tone.