Review of Minority Report (2002) by Kevin N — 06 Mar 2012

I love this movie. I loved it when I first saw it as a kid during its initial release and I still find in it today the pleasures I found in it then. It's slick, dazzling science fiction wrapped around a thriller, and Tom Cruise is cast perfectly as the movie's central character, John Anderton.

He is equal parts angry and emotional in the role, and I think it's one of the best action performances he has given to date. But Steven Spielberg doesn't just rely on Cruise's experience in the genre to tell the story; the film is a visual feast, every inch of it lined with realistic futuristic material.

It's fascinating to watch the movie a meer ten years after its release because of how accurately the real world seems to be following this cinematic one. Touch-screens fill the mise-en-scene, billboards and audio advertisements target specific consumers, people are tracked wherever they go.

And this world isn't rendered progressive, either. Instead, 'Minority Report' paints a picture of a world enshrouded in fear and doubt, where authority acts first and thinks later, where freedom of speech (and thought) are repressed.

In other words, the movie has all the makings for both a gripping paranoid thriller and a thoughtful and disturbing glimpse at a not-too-distant future, and in both areas it succeeds and then some.