In the near-future, say about a half a century, in 2054, a breakthrough technique in crime-fighting is being developed: a preemptive arrest that prevents a murder before it happens by arresting the would-be murderer. (Before you jump to the conclusion that the ACLU is not around in 2054, keep reading...) There are a lot of "pre"-things here--"pre-cops", "pre-witnesses", and by far the most fetching and interesting evidence-gatherers: the "pre-cogs" (contraction of "precognition", the act of perceiving events before they happen).

The pre-cogs are three humans, advanced in psychic abilities, who spend their every waking(?) hour at a police station facility (I'll call it) immersed in a large pool and floating in some sort of milky substance that enhances their abilities (presumably sensory deprivation-style). They work in unison to basically see the future while in a deep meditative state. They're all hooked up in such a way that the images in their head are recorded into a computer, then projected onto different kinds of screens. These images are then examined by the authorities, chief of whom is our hero, John Anderton (Tom Cruise).

The way the evidence is manipulated on the master computer screen is almost dance-like and graceful--the "conductor" (say, Cruise) waves his arms about in front of what looks like plexiglass with reflections on it, and the images respond to his movements. Looking increasingly like he's conducting an orchestra the more excited he gets, zoom-ins, zoom-outs, pans and tilts all happen with a few suble movements. Quite a time-saver, that. There are witnesses (or "pre" witnesses), via TV monitor, who collaborate on this work to verify conclusions. In practice, it seems, the pre-cogs are never wrong, and the checks-and-balances prevent malicious abuse.

Or do they?

So far, this program is in force only in Washington DC, but the future America is on the verge of taking the pre-crime prevention national pending some votes and government approval. The director of the precop program is Lamar Burgess (Max Von Sydow) who stands to become a folk-hero, but gain quite a bit of power if this goes through. He already has bragging rights to a massive drop in crime the six years the program has been in force in Washington.

But there is trouble in paradise. An ACLU-like organization (told you they'd be back) has sent someone to investigate John Anderton and the organization, a detective Ed Witwer (Colin Farrell). Detective Witwer is convinced that no system designed by humans can be perfect--it's just a matter of finding the flaws--and that chances are innocent people have been convicted of murder. Anderton finds this impossible to believe.

Until, one day, the pre-evidence the pre-cogs send Anderton show him in the act of murder---killing a man he doesn't even know---less than 36 hours from that moment.

On the run now, not only is he in crisis, but with time running out, John Anderton must himself investigate the very thing he believed in so much and learn the terrible flaw in the official procedures that was never disclosed in public or in private---in fact, "The Minority Report".

The performances...
This film boasts some pretty strong performances, chief among them Tom Cruise, which is a fairly rare thing for me to say--I'm not the biggest Tom Cruise fan. But he kicks righteous butt in this high-tech thriller. Every time Max Von Sydow is on the screen, I keep seeing Father Merrin (from the Exorcist)---I think he's approaching Merrin's age in real life. But, he's a good stage partner for Cruise, very strong and confident. Two break-out performances, at least for me, were Colin Farell as Detective Witwer---his loyalties increasingly in flux as he gets closer to the truth---and Samantha Morton as "Agatha", most gifted of the pre-cogs, a very sensitive and compelling character. Unfortunately, we never get to "meet" the other pre-cogs, who, outside of establishing shots, never got any screen time!

Cinematography, direction, CGI and everything else...
If you see this film, prepare to view only four colors: blue, bluer, magenta, and white. The film is very desaturated and near-monochromatic, in keeping with an almost clichéd look of the future: antiseptic and sterile. I guess it was supposed to evoke a "cold hard" feel. But it was kind of obvious.

In fact, the aggravating thing to me was how obvious and derivative everything was. Over-the-top CGI (we have a real problem with that these days) gave itself away in all chase scenes. Plot holes big enough to drive trucks through abound (in one scene, Anderton's ID still opens doors in the very high-tech facility hunting him the most vigorously). The production design kept giving me the feeling I was watching a cross between "A.I." and "The Fugitive". God bless John Williams, though, his music soundtracks never fail.

The one thing this film did not evoke was "Blade Runner" which is what I think director Spielberg was going for. To show he could do a Phillip K. Dick novel right, too.

"Minority Report" doesn't really suck or anything, but despite high action and strong performances, the very predictable-and-hole-filled plot keep it from being the neo-classic it could've been, which results in my only giving it a moderate recommendation and a rating of two and a half stars.