Minority Report

2002 / TV

SF elements

pre-cognition

Review

[precogs afloat]

It is 50 years in the future, and there is no more murder -- because precogs predict it, and the Precrime police arrest the perpetrator before it even happens. But then the top cop at Precrime, Chief John Anderton [Tom Cruise] is predicted to murder. He goes on the run, to clear his name, and discover why he has been set up. But as he draws closer to the victim, it seems that maybe he hasn't been set up at all, and that the whole future of the Precrime division hangs on the outcome...

[Tom Cruise]

This is the usual twisty-turny paranoid Philip K. Dick plot, with oodles of red herrings, and a high tech grunge view of the future. That view is helped by an almost black-and-white colour balance to the shooting, except for certain "red" scenes. The rollercoaster ride through the plot twists is fun.

The tech is at various levels of plausibility. Whilst the constant iris scanning, for both security and targetted advertising, feels spookily imminent, the backroom eyeball transplants (to overcome said scanning) is just a tad implausible -- although it does help reinforce the fact that no amount of security, however high tech, will ever be foolproof. ( Gattaca pushes the same point, a little more plausibly.)

Rating: 3.5

[ unmissable | great stuff | worth watching | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]

reviewed 26 December 2005