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Minority Report Movie Review

Minority Report is a 2002 science fiction thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell and Max von Sydow. It’s the director’s magnum opus.

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“Sometimes, in order to see the light,

you have to risk the dark“

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In a story based on the 1956 short story by famous SF author Philip K. Dick, a future technology makes it possible for cops to catch criminals before a crime is committed. John Anderton is accused of one such crime and sets out to prove his innocence. Just like all the best hard science fiction stories, this one is immensely sophisticated. It deals with some essential themes such as the government’s role in protecting citizenry, privacy in a world that is dominated by the media and, most importantly, it examines free will versus determinism.

There is a fine line between just intending to commit murder and actually setting out to do it with resolution. The film explores that fine line superbly through many interesting discussions. The dialogue is fantastic in the movie with every single conversation being either fascinating and truly thought-provoking or character-revelatory and important to the rest of the proceedings.

The plot is excellent. It’s the richest, most carefully crafted storyline of all the director’s movies as it’s not just smart, but also perfectly written, meticulously detailed and executed in a manner of a neo-noir mystery. The thriller elements are terrific, there are some strong action set pieces to be had here as well, but above all else that noirish atmosphere made for one truly unforgettable viewing experience. All of the twists and turns also worked splendidly.

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Tom Cruise is excellent as wrongly convicted and pursued John Anderton. This is one of his best performances as he’s both believable and memorable here. Colin Farrell is also great as he usually is in a lesser, but very important supporting role. Samantha Morton as Agatha is quite fascinating as the story’s most essential precog. But the standout clearly has to be Max von Sydow as the delightfully villainous, highly smart and manipulative Director Lamar Burgess. All of his scenes are electrifying, especially the one where he accidentally revealed his committed murder.

The best scenes include the explanations of the precrime, previsualizing and the roles of the precogs. Those were all fascinating as the film’s world building is truly outstanding. The entire mystery worked for me, and the twist for who the killer is was revealed at just the right time. The action also worked for me as it was sparse, but highly memorable every single time.

Minority Report, again, is perfect in its world building. The future as imagined here is very plausible and not that far-stretched actually. The film did predict successfully some things, but some are of course more fantastical, though still along the realistic side of things. It’s the type of near future SF that I tend to gravitate toward the most.

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As for its technical aspects, they’re all splendid. The direction from Spielberg is confident and terrific, the pacing is excellent and the film flies by despite its quite long runtime. That’s because it’s engaging in plot and visuals throughout. The cinematography is great, some set pieces are splendid and the noirish atmosphere is perfectly realized through the film’s darker color palette. The score is also great. The movie is never at all emotionally manipulative as are most of this director’s films, leading to a refreshing change in pace for him.