Minority Report: B-

I wonder if Philip K. Dick knew that he would probably become more famous from films than from literature. Minority Report is based on a Dick short story called "The Minority Report," which I haven't read, but I imagine isn't all that great considering he also wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the book from which the film Blade Runner was based. The film version of that story was one of the few times in history where the film was a lot more interesting than the book.

Anyway the movie is called Minority Report (already departing from Dick by removing the "The" from the title (actually it makes more sense to have the "The" in since the story has to do with what is actually called "a minority report," rather than using the term minority report to describe the film itself)). It stars Tom Cruise as a futuristic Washington D.C. "pre-crime division" cop named Anderton who stops people before they commit murder with the help of some weird bald psychics in a retro-futuro tub. The psychics eventually predict that Cruise will be the next killer and the action begins. Cruise must prove his innocence by proving that the report of his future is actually a "minority report" or, in other words, a report in which the psychics were wrong (I just had to justify explaining and complaining about taking the "The" out of the title).

Colin Farrell (Jesse James in American Outlaws) plays Detective Witwer, the slick federal cop who goes after Cruise with the help of Cruise's teammates from pre-crime. Cruise's boss, Lamar Burgess, is played by Max Von Sydow (who also played Ming the Merciless in my favorite film of all time, Flash Gordon). The Characters Farrell and Sydow play are plenty interesting especially as the plot unfolds. Ferrell is especially charismatic with his smirky gum-chewing. The flick eventually plays like L.A. Confidential with internal affairs intrigue. We also learn through flashbacks and when we see Cruise alone, that Cruise isn't perfect even before he got into this mess.

Yeah, so you can tell that the flick looks pretty cool from watching the previews, and the look of the film doesn't disappoint. The blue tint does look neato and artsy and all that. Another thing we get from the previews is that this is an action film. Although I was happy that it actually panned out into more of a plot-twisting piece rather than a straight up "guy on the run" flick, I was disappointed with the action the film did provide. Although action ultimately wasn't the emphasis of the movie, the action scenes they did provide were not that exciting (those stupid jet-packs were way too slow). Yeah, yeah, I know the strong points of the movie were in the setting and story, but if action is provided it better deliver. This film could have been phenomenal if it had the intrigue AND the butt-kicking, but it only had the intrigue (with cool color and lighting).

Another complaint I have which will fall on deaf ears is the wardrobe. Although Ferrell had a spectacular suit with suspenders and everything; I just it was a little too anachronistic. I think studio executives don't want wardrobe to predict what people would be wearing to trick people into thinking futuristic movies are normal non-geeky movies. Nowadays people are tricked and they see sci-fi movies without realizing it, because the characters are wearing Armani suits rather than purple jumpsuits. As a geek, I'd rather see the futuristic geeky jumpsuits that we WILL be wearing a few years from now.

By the way, there is one scene that almost made me throw up, which I guess is pretty cool.