| Product: |
Minority Report (DVD) |
| Date: |
24/08/02 (77 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: action sequences, cinematography, intellectual as well as highly entertaining
Disadvantages: long ending
Washington DC 2054, a very dull and grey place. Roads go uo many miles into the air, and the cars are streamlined, and you dont have to drive them. You just sit back and relax.
The new way of policing is pre-crime. Catching, and arresting someone before they commit the crime.
This film stars Tom Cruise, and is directed by Steven Speilburg, so looks promising to begin with!!
Pre-crime works with something called pre-cogs. Three "people" One female, and two males. They see the future, only of murders. Their visions are projected onto a screen, and then recorded, so the police can look over it to determine where they have to go. There are 2 types of pre-crime, pre-meditated, and crimes of passion. The pre-cogs can see both, but with pre-meditated they can see it up to four days before, giving the police plenty of time to figure out where they have to go. The pre-cogs also give the name of the victim, then of the assassin. If it is a crime of passion, then the police have a very limited time, hours or less, to figure it out.
This is a very successful system. There have been no murders for 6 years. However, the head of the pre-crime unit, John Anderton (Cruise) is named as an asassin to kill a person he has never heard of. This is a premeditated crime, so he runs away ("everybody runs") to try and find out who this person is, so he can prove his innocence. He has 36 hours, and proving his innocence could mean that the system was never perfect, just as it is about to go national.
The portrayal of the future is excellent. Quite creepy. Its not all sunlight and happiness. There are arguing families, in small apartment buildings. Drunks and beggars everywhere. Retinal scans are used everywhere. You are walking through the street, of getting off a train, even going through a shopping mall. the shopping mall uses it to personally identify you, so it can harrass you by name. Stores remember if you have purchased any
thing in the past, and ask if you are going to buy another! Even the pre-cogs came about after some experimenting went wrong.
This film is a great action film, but you also have to think about it. Its like a who-done-it (the pre-cogs are named Agatha (after Christie), Arthur (after Conan Doyle) and Dashiell (after Hammett) the three greatest who-done-it writers. However, its already been done, so you have to see if he is still going to do it if he knows he is going to!
There are some very complicated plot lines to follow in this film. Along with the main story, of a man on the run, there is the creator of pre-crime, following him, because he doesnt want his invention to fail. Then there is an annoying little man, trying to kill John Anderton because he wants his job, and others.
This film explores invasion of privacy, as many futuristic films have. Retinal scans that identify you everywhere you go, and spiders that come into your home, while you are on the toilet or having sex, they dont care. This leads to John Anderton getting new eyes, so he can walk about freely.
Another issue in the film is the accuracy of pre-crime. The minority report of the title, is when one of the pre-cogs doesnt agree. Ususally Agatha, as she is the more gifted one. These minority reports question the fundamentals of pre-crime. Anderton has complete faith in the system, until his name comes out as an asassin. Then he wonders, if there wasnt police intervention, would the person have gone on to commit the crime, and if they hadnt, would it be right to arrest them.
There are a lot of loose ends to tie up at the end of the film. The plot doesnt work out as you expected it to. One disappointing thing about this film, is the drawn out ending. Theres at least 3 times when you think, this is it, and it isnt! Also the plot may not fall together as it should. This is the only downfall to this film though. I was transfixed to the screen, not daring t
o look away in case I missed anything. The action scenes are great, but this is not an action film, its more of a suspense/thriller. So dont go expecting to see lots of action.
If you get the chance, go and see this film.
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