Minority Report [Blu-ray]

Might be the best science fiction film since Bladerunner!

I watched Minority Report 3 times in theater, I may watch it even more until the DVD is released. It is first the only good picture since A.I. I disliked every movie I watched this year, only Panic Room was not too bad but Minority Report like A.I. is a greatly shot motion picture. Everything is first class in the film, music by Williams creates a suspenseful and dark future atmosphere and tension like Herrmann did in Hitchcock movies. Kaminski's colours and lights are again extraordinary like in A.I., Kahn's editing is on its top since Saving Private Ryan, but I especially liked the editing on this one since there are some scenes with such a good montage which carry a lot of suspense and power mostly because of their montage. The futuristic setting is well done but not the heart of the film. The story is really strong. Spielberg chose this time a murder story with lots of thinking in it. The only bad thing about the film is that it has some irrelevant small scenes in it. I didn't read the short story of K. Dick but I'm sure Spielberg added some humour and some more action to the film just to make sure that the film makes some box office. The Anderton's Great Escape scene in the metro escape was too much irrelevant for the story, it had nice FX in it and it was a well shot action scene but it's not going well with the mood of the movie. Spoilers ahead, not read below if you didn't see the movie yet.I really think the best part of the film begins when Anderton and Agantha leave Rufus Riley's Cyberhouse and continues until Anderton kills Leo Crow and drops the gun. That 15 minute interval is a perfect example of filmmaking and all that time I never blinked. Every single frame in those 15 minutes is amazingly well shot and edited. After that when we hear the story of Sean by Agatha, that scene is also extraordinary. And off course the beginning of the movie with the first rescue is great and the screen fades to black with a vision of Agatha in the water. That 15 minutes is also a masterpiece on its own.Don't get me wrong, I like every scene in the film but those 3 intervals I mention above have the perfect sequel of scenes with driving tension and no irrelevant mood-breaking action or humour in them. For example the scene when Anderton takes Agatha from the temple is also great work of editing but after the car scene comes a humour scene where Anderton picks some clothing for Agatha and the Japanese name Anderton's eyes carry makes people laugh, but I ask why? What would happen if take the scene out. We don't need critically where and how Anderton buys or steals Agatha something to wear. Those scenes are definitely mood-breakers in the middle of 2 serious scenes and I believe that they were put for the box office there. Also Anderton's escape scene after the metro exit. We really don't need that scene. He finds himself inside of a car being built and then escapes with that car to Hineman. Come on, that scene is ok in a Lost World type comedy action movie, but not in a Sciencefiction-Drama. I like action but in this movie only the main parts I'm more interested in and those are which carry the story. Rufus T. Riley's cyberhouse scene also could be more serious but not filled with humour by Rufus himself. Anyway, in general the movie is good. The best since A.I. but I like A.I. more since it had less moodbreaker scenes than this one. I hope Catch Me If You Can will feature a more serious mood than this one. And long live Spielberg. : )

If you could see the future, could you prevent it from happening? Or would events somehow conspire to make it come true?That's the question -- never quite answered -- that lies at the heart of "Minority Report," a tightly-plotted, well-acted sci-fi movie that dabbles in chronophilosophy when it isn't bouncing through intertwined murder mysteries. Steven Spielberg's direction is tight and dramatic, the actors all do excellent jobs, and the one downside is the lackluster fight scenes.In the not-too-distant future (next Sunday A.D.), murder is no longer a problem in the Washington DC area. The PreCrime Unit uses three "precogs" to predict where and when a murder will happen, and apprehend the murderers before they have a chance to kill.Ever since his son was kidnapped, Captain John Anderton (Tom Cruise) has thrown himself into his PreCrime work. His faith in it is absolute, even when the justice of it is questioned by a clever young auditer, Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell). But then one of the precogs sees a vision of Anderton committing a crime: in 36 hours, he will shoot a man he has never even met before.Like anyone else, Anderton immediately goes on the run, hoping that there is some way that the precogs could be mistaken about what will happen. His former partners and coworkers are all trying to hunt him down before he kills, but they aren't able to keep him from kidnapping the precog Agatha (Samantha Morton). Is Anderton doomed to his fate, or is the future not what PreCrime thinks it is? And who has set him up?You can't really have a story about knowing the future without delving into the whole "free will vs. determinism" debate -- are we masters of our own fate, or will the future unfold as it was foretold? While it only lightly touches on the debate itself, "Minority Report" hinges entirely on those questions -- and while obviously it can't answer them entirely, it wraps the story in twists and double-twists that swing it both ways.Spielberg's direction is tight, sleek and fast-moving, and he tosses in casually cruel touches (the eye-scanning spiders) that show the lack of real justice in PreCrime's world. He also shows that he's pretty amazing at making a murder mystery, twisting together some seemingly unconnected murders with a truly plausible precog-related motive. Everything makes sense by the end.The movie's biggest problem is that the action scenes just aren't that good. The most ludicrous one is Cruise and Farrell fistfighting in a car factory as giant deadly robot arms assemble a car AROUND CRUISE, followed by Cruise simply driving out of the building. Yeah, that won't need fuel or anything.As for Cruise, he's pretty good here. He's playing the same character he usually plays -- a pure-hearted yet tormented man fighting against the Big Bad System, and his flaws (addiction to a drug I didn't really understand) don't detract from his heroism.Honestly, I was more intrigued by Colin Farrell's subtle performance as Danny Witwer -- a quiet, religious, intense man whose sense of justice is needled by the existence of PreCrime, and whose hunt for Anderton makes him realize that there's more going on here.. And there's a ring of other excellent performances -- Samantha Morton's ethereal Agatha, Max von Sydow, Neal McDonough, and the wildly underused Kathryn Morris as Anderton's estranged wife."Minority Report" is a solid, sleek action movie draped in a mantle of philosophical ponderings, and only the clumsy action sequences bog it down. Even if you're not a fan of Cruise, this movie should be seen.

A chilling Sci-fi look into the future as to where law enforcement could go