Righy ok decided to do a few reviews in a row to make up for some lost time (not all in one night of course as it takes me about half a night to do these believe it or not!). Anyway so I thought I would go for a sci-fi thriller, and this one is Minority Report starring Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg. So let's gie it a look....
OK so the film is set in the future in the year 2054 in Washington D.C. and its main character, John Anderon (Tom Cruise) is the chief of a police force known as pre-crime. Pre-crime is given its name as they use three genetically mutated humans who have precognitive abilities, and with them the force are able to prevent crimes before they happen as the "precogs" can see them prior to them taking place. Anderton is well respected in his department however unknown to them he is outside his work addicted to a psychoactive drug called clarity, which has been taking since the disappearance of his son six years ago. With the success of pre-crime in Washington, it is is set to go nationwide, as there hasn't been a recorded murder there for six years. Before this though the system is audited by a member of the United States Justice Department, Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) who is concerned by flaws in the system, even though Anderton insists it is perfect. Shortly after Witwer's depature, the precogs predict that Anderton will murder a man named Leo Crowe in 36 years, on which Anderton flees the building, believing that he was set up by Witwer.
After eluding his men and Witwer, Anderton goes to visit Dr Iris Hineman (Lois Smith) the lead researcher for pre-crime technology. Hineman reveals to Anderton that sometimes the three precogs can actually see different versions of the future, on which two sets of the data are used to reach an agreement, and the other vision is discarded as a "minority" report, which could see the predicted killer actually carry out different actions in the future. Anderton asks which precog would see this minority report and Hineman says it would be in Agatha (Samantha Morton) the most talented of the three. After this Anderton decides to undergo eye replacement surgery so he won't be detected by the city's optical recognition system and then gains entry to the precrime police department where he kidnaps Agatha. Anderton takes Agatha to a hacker, who wires her up to see if she has a minority report for him, but she doesn't however she suddenly receives an image of the murder of a woman named Anne Lively, which Agatha previously showed to Anderton the day before he was incriminated.
Anderon heads with Agatha to the apartment where he is supposed to kill Crow, and on entering the room Anderton finds hundreds of pictures of children, one of which is Andeton's son, Sean. Anderton then soon accepts that he is supposed to murder Crow, who suddenly enters room, and Anderton holds him at gunpoint but decides to let him live. Crow however then tells Anderton that he is supposed to kill him and if he doesn't his family won't receive a bif payoff. Anderton refuses to kill Crow, but Crow instead grabs the gun and shoots himself, falling out the window, bringing the vision to light. Anderton then flees with Agatha and goes to his ex-wife for help (Kathryn Morris) where he learns from Agatha that the image of Anne Lively that was actually another murder, and that Lively was Agatha's drug addicted mother. However at this point the police catch up with Anderton, who arrest him and take Agatha back and place her back into the system. Witwer however is not convinced that Anderton could have killed Crow and also examines the footage of Anne Lively's murder, realising that the ripples of the water are flowing in the wrong way in the footage (as Anne was drowned) it suggests, the killing took place at a different time, and what appears to have happened is the recording would have been wiped as an "echo" so the system wouldn't have caught it. Witwer than deduces that someone high up with access would have done this, and as he approaches the director of precrime, Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow) with this information, Lamar kills Witwer, revealing that he was the one that committed the Anne Lively murder, and he framed Anderton with Crow's murder. And from here its up to Anderton to try and find a way to free himself and put an end to Lamar's scheme to use precrime for his own ends and to expose his corruption.
Based on the short novel by science fiction writer, Philip K.Dick, Minority Report is an excellent sci-fi thriller, and it easily stands as one of Steven Spielberg's best films in recent years, after spending some time having made some decidedly average films since making the powerful holocaust drama, Schindler's List. The plot itself is pretty convoluted but it does tell an interesting story and the concept of precrime is quite original in itself. And again the film's theme of alternate existances and choices is what also helps make Minority Report an intruiging film in that there is that slight chance of one person that is arrested and tried might not necessarily be guilty of murder and who's actions might not have gone according to the precog's visions. And at one point Anderton recognises this as he says to Dr Hineman that he might have "haloed" (a headset used to incapacitate criminals and later they are sent into a sleep state in a prison encasing) people with an alternate future. And its to Spielberg's credit that he was able to take Dick's novel and turn it into an effective and suspenseful film.
Which brings me onto the film's performances and to begin with Tom Cruise, who is pretty good in the lead role as John Anderton. Cruise play's Anderon in a pretty straight laced way and who is mostly a serious character with a sad past, and while he is well respected in his job he mourns for the loss of his son Sean, who disappeared six years previously. Cruise does have some good scenes of course, and he has one or two good lines also, my favourite is probably in the scene where he tells the black market surgeon (played by Peter Stromare) who operates on his eyes, that he wants to keep his orignal eyes and the surgeon asks why and Anderton replies "because my mother gave them to me!". Cruise for the most part does alot of running, and he does actually have one or two entertaining chase scenes, especially where he tries to flee from the precrime police force just after he learns of the precog vision of his murdering Crow. And when his own police team mates corner him, they say he doesn't have to run and Anderton says "everybody runs". Cruise also has some amusing moments in the film such as after his eye operation, he has to wear bandages for 12 hours or he will go blind if he doesn't, and the surgeon tells him he left a sandwich and some milk for him, but as he is unable to set through the bandages, Anderton blindly opens the fridge and picks up a moldy green sandwich and takes a bit instead, spitting it out, he grabs a sour green bottle of milk, which he drinks and spits that out! Another good moment in Cruise's performance is when he confronts Crow over his son's disappearance and he has to hold himself back from killing him, and in the end he decides to read Crow his rights, before the precog vision sort of comes true.
Max von Sydow is excellent in his role as the corrupt director of precrime, Lamar Burgess, who on the surface acts as Anderton's benefactor, but he ends up framing him to take the fall for Crow's murder and for the murder of Agatha's mother, Ann Lively. Sydow's best scene is where Witwer tells him what he has discovered about the Crow crime scene and Anne Lively's murder, and Lamar says "Do you hear that sound? Nothing. No sound of boots, no clickety click sound of little spyders (robotic creatures used for IDing suspects), because right now the precogs they can't see a thing" and he proceeds to shoot Witwer in the chest. Colin Farrell who was just starting to make a name for himself back then also puts in a good turn as the ambitious young justice department member Danny Witwer, who in the end turns out to be clever for his own good. Farrell also effects a pretty decent American accent in the film, although he makes a rather strange reference to Witwer's father having being killed on the steps of his home church in Dublin, which suggests Witwer's character is of Irish heritage although perhaps they just added that in for Farrell given that his is Irish!
As for the other performances, Samantha Morton is very good as the precog Agatha, who spends most of her time in a docile state until she sees the vision of her mother Anne Lively and grabs Anderton to show hiim, after this she is in a state of panic when Anderton kidnaps here. Morton's performance is also quite poignant as she reveals in one scene how she is "tired of the future" and she recalls the memories of her mother before she was killed. Agatha's ability to predict future events also proves to be quite amusing in the mall scene where Anderton and Agatha try to evade the police, and while they walk through the mall she suddenly stops a woman and says "don't go home, he knows!" and he get's Anderton to drop a tramp some change as the police chase after them, as the tramp leans over to pick it up, he unwittingly trips up one of the cops! Kathryn Morris also does well with her role as Lara, Anderton's ex-wife, and she ends up helping Anderton, and she has a good scene with Colin Farrell when Witwer visits her and asks about the disappearance of their son and how Anderton dealt with it and she says "well if you lose a six year old son, let's see how well you deal with it!". And lastly I will mention Peter Stormare as the dodgy doctor, Eddie Solomon who performs Anderton's eye operations, and he tells him he will leave the sandwich in the fridge with some milk, and he shows him a plastic with Anderton's removed eyes "along with your leftovers!". Stormare also makes an impression in his first scene in the film as he sneezes violently producing a very unpleasant amount of snot in the process and he says "Aghh! This cold is killing me!". Its a typical yucky moment from Spielberg of course!
Which brings me onto Steven Spielberg who does a great job with Minority Report as he takes the film's complex storyline and turns it into an engaging and exciting thriller. Spielberg who has never been a stranger to action, stages the action scenes in the film very well, and he opens up the film nicely with its tense opening sequence where we see Anderton and his team work toward preventing a suburban murder, when a man catches his wife cheating on him. Spielberg also throws in some amusing touches in the film as well, which is typical in alot of his films such as the scene where the police set their electronic spyder devices to eye scan everyone in the apartment block where they suspect Anderton might be. And the spyders move right through the building, IDing a couple who are in the middle of a row, who wait to be checked by the spyders and who simply go back to having their row! Moving onto the film's score, which was composed by John Williams which is really good as you would expect, and Williams provides a great balance of suspense and drama in his music, which sees his partnership with Spielberg as strong and unwavering as before.
So as for Minority Report's flaws, any at all???? Nope its perfect. Actually no not quite, I don't have too many problems with it however, perhaps one that springs to mind is that the film's ending feels out of tone with the rest of what has went before, as it is almost a "they live happily ever" after moment (or as close as the story will allow). And Spielberg with the ending is a bit guilty of using sentimentality as he often does in his films at times, which does kind of undermine the effectiveness of what went before consdering the rest of the film is very good. Spielberg also does allow for some rather silly moments in the film as well, one such moment is in the scene where Anderton is chased by the police, who are wearing jetpacks and he grabs one of the police officers and piggybacks on them and using their jetpack booster to blast through the ceiling of one of the apartment flats, barging in on a family having their dinner! Also the film's photography doesn't really lend aesthetically well to the proceedings as it has a rather hideously disaturated look, and the cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (who also did Saving Private Ryan which had the same sort of bleak visual look) overdoes the colour grading technique employed here.
But that aside Minortiy Report is a very entertaining sci-fi thriller which is well worth checking out.
So on that note I will bid you farewellie!
No comments:
Post a Comment