Alex Moss EditorThere is always something exciting about a huge film star teaming up with a big name director and they don’t get much more famous than Tom Cruise and bigger than Steven Spielberg. In 2002, when arguably both Cruise and Spielberg were at their zenith, they teamed first for Minority Report and would then return with War of The Worlds. The latter is one of Cruise’s more interesting roles but with Minority Report you are firmly in Cruise’s iconic action-man persona.
Based on the short story by Philip K. Dick (he of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, aka Blade Runner, fame – more on that later), Minority report tells the story of Chief John Anderton (Cruise) a ‘PreCrime Detective’. Anderton’s job is to stop murders before they happen with the help of three PreCogs who can see a crime before it occurs, project said crime to Anderton and his team so they can fly into action. But when the latest projection shows Anderton killing someone he has no choice but to go on the run and challenge the system.
Minority Report might not be prime Spielberg but even second tier Spielberg tends to be of a higher standard than most cinema. What is typically Spielberg in Minority Report are the staggering set pieces. Blistering with action and tension to have you edging closer and closer to the screen. There are numerous brilliant examples here, but the standout being the ‘spiders’ searching the apartment block as John, blinded and incapacitated desperately tries to hide. The top-down camera angle as we track the spiders through the building is inventive and immersive in ways only Spielberg conjures.
More than anything, Minority Report excels thanks to a gripping script by Scott Frank. A plot and characters that twists and turns, it’s the kind of mind bending thrills that Christopher Nolan has made a career out of. And it’s rare that scenes of extended exposition are handled with such energy as here. The opening scene is a classic example of show AND tell as we witness Anderton dissect visions of the future in order to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet in real time. It’s breathtaking and immediately immerses you in the world of PreCrime.
As with so much great science-fiction, Minority Report seems to predict much of our present in its futuristic setting. Targeted adverts served with just a whiff of Paul Verhoeven satire in the face of obviously cringe inducing product placement. The almost alarming notion that wherever you go you are being tracked thanks to endless eye-scans. If you don’t see your phone as a modern day equivalent of the tech used in Minority Report then you’re likely blinded by the marketing it bombards you with.
As with most of Philip K. Dick adaptations Minority Report offers deep rooted insights into how human brains work. Here it’s a case of if you know what the future holds and have the power to change it, is it still the future? Or perhaps more precisely where does fate end and man take control of his own destiny? It’s often these ideas that Spielberg alludes to with subtle visual cues that make the film shimmer below the action surface.
If there is a slight flaw it’s that Minority Report often feels very much of its era of filmmaking. Everything is a little too glossy, a little too Apple, iPods and Mac design aesthetic looming large. What it needed was a bit more of Ridley Scott’s grit and rain of Blade Runner to bring something perhaps darker. Yes, there is an argument that Minority Report is set in a utopia hiding something darker beneath the gloss but the grime is only ever hinted at in certain scenes.
In many ways it’s an archetypal Tom Cruise performance. All action, all running with that deeply routed trauma nestled just above the surface to make him relatable. Samatha Morten on the other hand gives a harrowing performance as Agatha the PreCog, one minute frightened child the next a screaming oracle that is often chilling.
A film that positively glistens in this new 4K transfer, Minority Report is a gripping and smart thriller that refuses to conform to blockbuster predictability to leave you with something more akin to a future-set LA Confidential. Strap-in and let Spielberg and Cruise run rings around your brain.
Minority Report is available on 4K Ultra HD™ and on limited edition Steelbook® now Amazon, HMV
