Minority Report

I am obsessed with this film. I've watched it five times since buying the DVD about a month ago. I confess I haven't yet checked out the supplemental material, which makes me less qualified to give a review of the complete DVD package. I want to analyze the film itself in deep detail before I watch the filmmakers tell us how they worked their magic.Let me state upfront, also, that I don't like Tom Cruise and wanted to watch the film only because it was based on a Philip K. Dick story. (I am not a huge science fiction fan but do enjoy Dick's work; he wasn't a great writer stylistically but he was a fount of interesting, peculiar and paranoid ideas.) Cruise's performance is less shallow than usual and doesn't detract from the viewing experience, which is the highest praise I'm ever likely to give him.Minority Report is flawed, yes, but engaging from start to finish. Chase scenes dominate much of the latter part of the first hour, presumably to give us an adrenaline rush in case we felt the exposition was a bit slow. I find this unnecessary, as the exposition itself is exciting indeed, but on an intellectual level. It was as if Spielberg decided he ought to have some action scenes that he could put into the trailer in hopes of attracting a broader audience. This is primarily a metaphysical story, and--to some degree, especially in the scenes involving the abducted precog, Agatha--an emotional one. (The one line of dialogue retained from the original short story was the remark that the guilt of the pre-criminals was a "metaphysical fact".)Also, the endless repetition of the lines "Everybody runs" and "Can you see?" seem like transparent attempts to create for the film catch phrases which the producers hoped would, like Schwartzenegger's "I'll be back", insinuate themselves into the popular lexicon. But these calculated attempts to improve the film's box office don't detract, not too much. The chase scenes, for example, are interesting as they reveal yet more technological wonders we haven't yet seen in this believable future world.Some spoilers are coming, so stop reading if you haven't seen the film yet.The murdered-child element was wholly a creation of the screenwriters (Spielberg probably had some input here, too--kids figure prominently in so many of his films) but it adds depth to the story. Though the fact that Crow, Anderton's predicted victim, isn't really a pedophile (the whole thing is a set-up, to provoke Anderton into murderous rage) drains away some of the emotional impact. Is Crow torn between wanting to survive while also feeling that maybe he deserves to die? No, it all turns moot.Some material has peculiar resonance for me, but this will not be so for other viewers. I have recurring dreams, ones which have a sped-up feel that looks very much like a DVD on fast-forward (and not entirely dissimilar to the look-and-feel of the precog's visions), in which I am a slave being tortured. (Think it's time for me to find another job?) The way the pre-criminals are held in the containment facility--with their bodies in stasis, but their minds "busy busy busy" as the jailkeeper says--reminds me strikingly of those dreams.Spielberg's films always have happy endings, and this is no exception. Cruise's resurrection is inconsistent with the impression given before, that "haloing" is permanent, but at least we have the satisfaction of seeing the villain get his comeuppance.This isn't an action film. Philosophical and religious themes abound in Philip K. Dick's stories. This is the first Hollywood movie to truly reflect Dick's vision, a film which can rightfully claim to be an adapation of his narratives rather than--like Blade Runner and Total Recall, not bad films but not great either--merely "inspired by" them. Of course the film is much more detailed than the short story, but this is one of those rare cases where the original is improved upon. Those characters which were added by the screenwriters were added for good reasons, ones which advance the plot. Many here at amazon have criticized the art direction; I say it's superb. Notice the repetition of underwater sequences--the pool where Anderton loses his son, the freezing bathtub where he hides from the spyders, the murder of Anne Lively...even the Fox logo at the beginning looks underwater, and has the same pale blue glassy look as the computer systems seen throughout.

First off, when I order this movie brand new from Amazon.com, they told me that the movie would arrive in a normal postal time of 3-5 business days. It arrives in two days after I made the order. Thank you Amazon, you guys never quit when it comes to good quality, postal service."Minority Report", Directed by Steven Spielberg, is an amazing portrayal of author Philip K. Dick's short story. Unlike "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" A tremendous look into the future where murder is stopped before it happens. Tom Cruise, "John Anderton" plays the part of a cop from the department of Precrime. The department of Precrime, is run by viewing the visions from the Precognitives. The "Precogs" can see the vision of a future murder waiting to happen. John Anderton "Tom Cruise" analyzes the visions by knowing Location, victim, perpetrator, time and date of the crime.Eventually John Anderton finds himself being a part of a murder to a man he has never meat before in his life. John ends up going on the run from Precrime as they attempt to arrest John, due to the fact of the visions of the Precogs being so perfect.John ends up meeting up with the man, and kills him; by accident though. John also ends up finding a flaw in the system or what Philip K. Dick calls, the Minority Report, where the system is said to be so perfect that unbeknownst to the operators that the system is infact human; and when it's human there's a flaw no matter how perfect the system is.Spielberg wanted this movie to be like "A.I Artificial Intelligence" but unlike Ai's warm color hue to the movie, Spielberg made the color hue for "Minority Report" to be a span of cooler colors using blues and whites. Spielberg wanted these colors to give a much colder prospect, since Minority Report has a much colder and darker story to the evolution of technology, and the flaws that it possesses.Remember something very clear that, this movie does possess language, and one small brief 20 second scene with sexual content. Spielberg normally does not allow any of that content in his films unless it's absolutely necessary. In this case it indeed was. During the search for John Anderton, Precrime ends up finding out his current location at an apartment complex. Some of the officers unleash "Spiders" which are tiny little robots that search the building the for the suspect by scanning their eyes. The spiders ends up going into each and every room, scanning all of the eyes of the individuals of the building. Eventually the spiders come across a couple on a bed. Anyway, Spielberg wanted this particular scene in the movie, to make a point in the movie, where technology had evolved to the point where it can invade our personal lives and affairs, and that we will never be able to hide from it; if it continues to evolve the way it is.The movie is in a nutshell a great action movie, with a great story, and a great message."In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king."