Review of Minority Report

Introduction

Science Fiction movies in general have brought grand visions and ideas to the screen. The fertile imaginations of sci-fi writers only serve to inspire the equally fertile imaginations of filmmakers. Through their creations we have travelled to distant stars, journeyed to the distant future or the past, as they have expressed fantastic ideas in ever-innovative ways. Movies based on the work of Philip K. Dick aren`t like that, but they are often fantastic views of dystopian futures that rival among the most memorable in sci-fi cinema. His stories would be set in the near future, in worlds similar to our own and recognizable and the social comment would be cutting and often chilling. Rather than introduce arcane ideas like parallel universes or all conquering aliens, Philip K Dick would take one, often small concept and plot its ramifications and effects on human society. Take for example his short stories, `We Can Remember It For You Wholesale` and `Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?` You may know them better as Total Recall and Blade Runner. Both stories take our society, add just one twist and see what happens a few decades down the line. Total Recall takes the idea of implanted memories, and ends up asking just what is the human soul? If a man is the sum of his memories then what happens if you change them? (Well that message is buried somewhere under the Arnie fuelled action) Blade Runner takes the idea of machines created in our own image. At what point do our creations become slaves? What would be our responsibilities as gods to this race? Even more fundamentally, if they are identical to us, aren`t they as human as us?

It isn`t surprising that with ideas as thought provoking and as compelling as Dick`s, screenplays based on his work are always being produced. Minority Report similarly takes the idea of criminal prevention based on precognitive visions to its logical conclusion. However, there was the concern that with the kind of dark and chilling futures that Philip K Dick is renowned for, would director Steven Spielberg, better known for family fare and Saturday matinee action movies, be able to do the story justice?

John Anderton is the chief of the Precrime unit, an experimental division of the police in 2054 Washington DC, who with the aid of precognitive visions from three modern day oracles, arrest murderers before they can commit their crimes. In the six years that the experiment has been running, the murder rate in Washington DC has shrunk to zero and the experiment is soon to be extended nationally. Prior to this, the Attorney General wants the division audited, to see if the system is as perfect as it claims to be. He assigns Detective Danny Witwer to find any flaws in the system. This isn`t good for Anderton, as since the disappearance of his son and his estrangement from his wife, has become dependent on illicit substances in his private life. Anderton`s boss and mentor, Director Lamar Burgess urges him to clean house and keep an eye on Witwer, but when the `precogs` declare that a murder is imminent, and Anderton is to be the killer of a man he doesn`t even know, his world is torn apart and he is forced to run from his former colleagues, not knowing who to trust or who framed him.

Video

Minority Report gets an absolutely stunning 2.40:1 anamorphic transfer. There are absolutely no artefacts and obviously no print damage on this recent film. The image is sharp and clear, and the harsh colours come through strongly. Spielberg decided to use a `bleach bypass` process to create a stark and forbidding image of the future. Consequently all warm colours, reds and oranges have been leached from the palette, leaving a cold blue vision that instantly puts the viewer on edge. The image has deliberate grain to further add to the austere mood and there is often an overexposed feel that occasionally adds an ethereal quality, especially to the precognitive characters and their visions. Similarly the future Washington DC is powerfully realised with some excellent effects work blending seamlessly with the live action.

Audio

There is a choice of DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 English soundtracks. I could only listen to the DD track, but I still found it to be a powerful and dynamic soundtrack that effectively immerses the viewer into the film. It`s not too flashy but you can certainly hear its presence during the numerous action scenes and the unworldly visions. John Williams maintains his partnership with Spielberg and again provides the score. The music is perfectly suited to the picture and punctuates the action well. However, the classical pieces used when Anderton was scanning the visions are far more striking and memorable.

Features

While the first disc is devoted solely to the movie, the second disc is packed with extras. But before I continue, I must mention the menus. They are brilliantly designed, very atmospheric and beautiful to look at, but they just give too much of the plot away.

Disc 2 is divided into 6 sections, with all the footage subtitled in English, most of it presented in a non-anamorphic ratio with DD 2.0 sound.

From Story to Screen contains to featurettes running a total time of 18 minutes. The cast and crew talk about the story and what drew them to the project, they also talk about working with each other.

Deconstructing Minority Report looks at the design of the movie. There are five featurettes lasting a total of 33 minutes. This covers the creation of the future world and how a think tank spent three days prognosticating. There`s also a look at the set designs, production design, costume design and sound design. It should be mentioned that there is a minor sound sync issue on the first featurette The World Of Minority Report (An Introduction)

The Stunts of Minority Report contains three featurettes looking at the creation of three key action sequences in the film. Total running time, 8½ minutes.

`ILM and Minority Report` unsurprisingly looks at the special effects. This comprises six featurettes running a total of 18½ minutes. This is mostly a digital exploration and looks at how key effects were created, from the holograms to the Maglev action scene.

The Final Report sums up the movie and we hear from Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg once more. It`s essentially 4 minutes of last minute backslapping.

Finally the Archives contain the 300 design sketches and stills from the movie, three storyboard sequences set to the appropriate soundtracks, 4 trailers and finally cast and crew filmographies as well as production notes.

Steven Spielberg has never been hot on commentaries and this disc once again is lacking in that regard. But I have always been impressed by the quality of extras that do come with Spielberg movies and I can site the first two Jurassic Park movies and especially the Jaws disc as having examples of engrossing and entertaining making of documentaries. That trend has been put paid to with the Minority Report extras disc. Including the trailers and the storyboard sequences, there is over an hour and half of footage on this disc, but the short piecemeal format of the multitude of featurettes is distracting and lightweight, without there being any depth to the subjects discussed. A decent hour long making of documentary would have had the time and space to look at the film with some perspective. But if you take the average featurette on this disc as 5 minutes long, then after you have dispensed with the intro, outro, mutual appreciation as well as movie footage, then you end up with barely a minute of substance. That doesn`t add up to much over the whole disc.

Conclusion

I`m surprised to hear myself say it, but Steven Spielberg has pretty much missed the point with his adaptation of Minority Report. In my eyes, the story is all about a police state gone wild. If a person can be arrested, charged and convicted of a crime that doesn`t take place, then what remains of human rights? The excuses of precognition, predestination and unalterable fate allow the state to run riot over its own people. Yet Spielberg tends to shy away from these issues. Indeed in the extras, he even states that he would in theory be in favour of such a system if it could be proved to be flawless.

It`s no surprise then that the Precrime concept as shown in this film is not the most chilling aspect of Minority Report`s future world. In its place, Spielberg has decided to create a rather clichéd Orwellian world of Big Brother on every street corner. The ubiquitous iris scanners shown in this film are indeed plausible, but the most chilling aspect that Spielberg creates is the incessant tailored advertising that would madden even the most fervent of consumers. Of course that is a convenient excuse for perhaps the most blatant use of Product Placement ever seen on celluloid. It`s useful when a minor aspect of a future world in a film has corporate sponsors lining up at the door. Studio executives must have been rubbing their hands with glee. One would think that in fifty years, new companies and products would have made their presence felt.

What`s left under the glossy surface is an intelligent and nail biting thriller, directed with customary élan by Steven Spielberg. He uses his prodigious talents with action and suspense to bring a stunning and exciting adventure to the screen. What Spielberg is best at is the summer blockbuster, and that`s all there is here. There are flashes of his customary humour, even in this dark world and he elicits amazing performances from the cast.

Tom Cruise is always the ideal everyman in his films and that accessibility is perfect for the character of John Anderton. A broken man, whose grief over his lost son has driven him to melancholy and drug use in his private life, in other hands would be an unsympathetic character, but with Tom Cruise he is still likeable. Max Von Sydow is rapidly turning into the grand old man of cinema and he once again turns in a dependable performance as Lamar Burgess, but I found a degree of similarity to his character in Judge Dredd of all films. Colin Farrell is excellent as Danny Witwer and almost steals the movie from under Cruise, but Samantha Morton must be commended for a stunning performance as the precognitive Agatha. Both childlike and ethereal, her character is the hardest to pull off convincingly, but she absolutely nails it. Neal McDonough is an actor to watch though, here he plays cop Gordon Fletcher, and he has already had a prominent role in Band Of Brothers. He`s definitely a star of the future.

Two final drawbacks were the car factory fight and the ending of the film. The factory sequence seems out of place in the film and almost added as an afterthought. The similarity to a certain sequence in Attack Of The Clones is also unmistakeable. I found the ending though to be disappointing. Spielberg uses his customary brilliance to keep the film pacey and he ramps up the tension and suspense right up till the end, but the end for me is anticlimactic and unsatisfying.

While Minority Report fails to hit the mark in terms of story, it still remains an exciting and enjoyable summer blockbuster, more intelligent than most. It`s a stylish and visually stunning foray into film noir from Steven Spielberg, and while it won`t go down in history as a classic, it will provide a good few hours of entertainment. The disc is excellent in terms of picture and sound quality, but the extras are lacking.