Minority Report
Composite Score: 81.73
Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow, Steve Harris, Neal McDonough, Lois Smith, Tim Blake Nelson, and Kathryn Morris
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Scott Frank, Jon Cohen, and Philip K. Dick
Genres: Action, Crime, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, brief language, some sexuality, and drug content
Box Office: $358.37 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Minority Report tells the futuristic story of a precrime cop working to prove his innocence against a crime that he did not commit. Spielberg’s cerebral sci-fi thriller now feels like the spiritual predecessor to many of Christopher Nolan’s films (Inception, The Prestige, Interstellar, Tenet) while also being tinged with many of Spielberg’s own science fiction preferences (minus aliens with large eyes and brown skin). It features a story that no longer boggles the mind quite as much as it probably did on its release in 2002, but it still manages to successfully hold its audience’s attention and deliver a satisfying mystery film against the backdrop of an intriguing futuristic universe.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
I need whoever did the film editing and placed the brightening filter over this film arrested immediately. The entirety of Minority Report has this neo-futuristic shiny feel to it created by what now looks like a 2010 Instagram filter. There were multiple points in the film where I struggled to follow the action on the screen because the film’s filter was so distracting. It suffers, no doubt, from being released around the same time as The Matrix, which is notable for its own unique film filter of greens. Minority Report’s outdoor scenes often resemble something out of Twilight, and its indoor scenes look like the Mt. Olympus scenes from Clash of the Titans (2010).
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Bad Insta filter aside, Minority Report is a quality science fiction film, exploring concepts of causality and thought vs. action against the backdrop of what ends up being a solid mystery thriller. The film’s premise of a Washington, D.C., that has become essentially a police-state overseen by a force that follows through on potential crimes that are predicted by three “pre-cognitives” who can see murders before they happen rings somewhat truer twenty years later. Its concept of stopping crimes before they happen has been explored in other films but still plays out well as the central conflict in this one. There is no question that this is a film that wants you to think, and it engages the mind well, presenting a story all about free will and causation that leaves at least some thought to be had about predetermination and all that by the end.
Tom Cruise is in his element as an action hero in Minority Report. He portrays a depth that is sometimes missed in his other characters as well though. He does his job running through the streets after criminals and (eventually) away from police quite well – although he probably was unable to do the stunt of riding a guy with a jetpack up the side of a building with no special effects. At the same time, the role of drug-addicted father who has lost a child comes naturally to Cruise as well, bringing emotional complexity to this character that helps make the film worth investing in.
Engaging and interesting science fiction concepts along with a quality action star performance from Tom Cruise are what make Minority Report one of the Greatest Films of All Time. Frustratingly dated visuals only do so much to detract from what is one of the better science fiction films of the first decade of the new millennium. If you have Showtime or know someone who does, it is definitely a film worth watching and has earned its place among the Greats.
