Movie of the Week: Minority Report

   

    Movie of the Week (5/4/14-5/10/14): Murder is everywhere in the world and it happens everyday, whether we want it to or not. The murder of innocent people and the murder of guilty people happens yet in a future world we see where humans have come up with a way to stop murders all together. In a perfect world that is what people want, to have no more murders, but of course everything has its pros and cons. The system that is used in this film appeared to have been hiding something, something that might have put the wrong people in jail and, when in the wrong hands, could be used to commit murder again. Now, that being said some people have an image that could have proved they would have been innocent, but some do not, some future murderers have a, Minority Report.  
    John Anderton leads an elite crime fighting force called Precrime, in 2054, which is a new kind of program that can see people who are about to commit a murder. For six years it has been perfect, and in six years there has not been a murder. The system has three gifted humans called Pre-Cogs that work together to see the future murders. Anderton soon discovers that the system predicts him to commit a murder on a victim he doesn't even know. He is then on the run with his former teammates after him, with his past haunting him and used against him, he must find out who and why has set him up for a murder that he is suppose to commit in 36 hours.
    Tom Cruise plays John Anderton and I was very, very impressed with his performance in this movie. This is probably my favorite character of his because he seemed to enjoy playing it and delivers an electrified performance with a great and in depth character. Colin Farrell plays Danny Witwer, a man trying to find flaws in the system and when he seems to have found them begins chasing Anderton. Farrell was also very good in this picture and gave a very good supporting actor performance. Max Von Sydow plays Lamar Burgess, who is the Director of the Precrime force. He was very good in a role that we don't see him in very often and played it well to the point that we are shocked in the films climax, another fine performance from Sydow. We also have a good supporting cast that delivers very well in Neal McDonough, Steve Harris, Patrick Kilpatrick, Jessica Capshaw, Samantha Morton, and Tim Blake Nelson.
    In case you didn't know, this was directed my Steven Spielberg and you can most definitely tell that it has his touch. His intense and hands on direction shows that he wanted this film to be a very good film, I loved his way of directing this movie in making it feel like an action film while giving it the look of a true Sci-fi film. But he couldn't have done it without the work of cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, who has worked with Spielberg a lot. He gave the film an interesting glare look to it to make it look more futuristic, of course he used it more in the dramatic scenes do give them a boost. The lighting was also interesting here too.
    We also have fantastic editing here, to me editing that deserved an Oscar nomination, that made the film absolutely fun to watch especially during the chase scenes and the revelations scenes. John Williams score is also very moving and riveting. But this film would not be what it is with out the visual effects and production design. These two combined make this an effective movie, along with them being Spielberg's trademark in his films. They are both great and put the finishing touches on this great film because it is beautiful to look at with these fantastic visuals and sets. It is also a great story, with Sci-fi, action, and mystery all mixed in one because of a great screenplay, it is very well written. With great performances, stellar direction, eye-popping cinematography, visual effects, editing, and sets, and an intense story, this is a new modern Sci-fi classic.
3.5/4 Stars