Review of Minority Report (2002) by David M — 17 Nov 2011

Based on a short story by Philip K Dick, this is the usual mind-bending stuff from that author.

The film itself is set in the not-to-distant future, where there is a department of police ("Precrime") that arrests murderers before they commit the act. Tom Cruise stars as a detective in that department, who finds himself identified as the future murderer of a man he has never met, leading him to go on the run in an attempt to clear his name. The question is, though, how can you avoid a man you don't know?

Due to the nature of this film, then, this raises the old question of free will versus predetermination: are we destined to carry out acts, or can the future be averted? Sluggish in parts, the film is never-the-less engrossing (and talk about having a lot of product placement!) and - as Spielberg hired a set of futurists to devie the films many gadgets - it's also interesting to see how we are moving ever closer (or not) to those very gadgets!