Movies of the Decade: 9. Minority Report (2002)

Steven Spielberg is a filmmaker who rarely get's the benefit of the doubt. Spielberg too often get's scolded for his uplifting, children themed film, but he is so much more than that. He is one of our best filmmakers, I don't care what anyone says. Spielberg has made his latest classic with a "Minority Report" a sci-fi action/adventure that brings up the topic of free will vs. determinism. The year is 2054, Tom Cruise stars as John Anderton, a member of the experimental D.C. crime unit called "Pre-Crime." Pre-crime uses mutated humans with precognition abilities in order to stop murder. Pre-crime has only been used in Washington, D.C. where there has not been a murder for six years. Because there is no crime, everyone is on their toes. Most crimes are just crimes of passion that are spur decisions. The film also tackles the subject of privacy and basic human rights. But not all is right in Anderton's world. It is revealed that he has been seen in one of the pre-crime visions and that he will murder someone in a few days. Anderton believes that he is being set-up and set's out to find who did it. Spielberg seamlessly combines sci-fi with film noir. We see a Utopian D.C. with so many details of the future. To me for some reason this looks like a believable future setting. There are many gadget's and technology, but the world feels to be grounded in a area that we can believe. He also does a great job of providing a healthy mix of CGI/Special Effects and real sets. I look at the scene with computerized spiders as the best example. We are in the apartment complex made from real life sets and CG spiders roam the halls looking for Anderton. Too often directors rely on special effects for everything (George Lucas, I'm talking to you). Spielberg is a master at creating action sequences, but he get's rep remanded for not putting content into his pictures. "Minority Report" tackles the topic of free will vs. determinism. Do we choose our path or is it already designed for us. There is a scene for Cruise rolls a ball off a table and someone catches it. He asks why they caught and he responds, cause it was going to fall, Anderton asks if he was sure. "The fact that you prevented it from happening doesn't change the fact it was going to happen." The story bends the mind back and fourth, but not to the point where you get confused. It's a film that challenges the mind and engages the spirit. Spielberg has made a beautiful and haunting film that tackles moral subjects and evenly combines genre's.

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