Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Minority Report

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Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 02-08-2011, 03:21 AM:

***

Here is a movie that I think is slightly overrated. It was a pretty original idea and scope of the movie are impressive. It is always nice to see Tom Cruise work with a great director, the last two movies I saw were "Eyes Wide Shut" and now this and he much better than he is Vanilla Sky or the recent Knight and Day. Cruise is great in this movie.

The supporting cast are very good. The script is intersting with a few holes.

As for Spielberg, well IMO his stuff from the last ten years is nowhere near as good as the stuff from the late 70's and 80's. I thought Minority Report was about 20 minutes too long as the movie has few "Jurassic Park" like chases in the first half. The movie is more movie than film.

I not really sure about the special effects. I thought they were ok at best. Also, with the sound, not sure why it recieved a nomination for best sound editing. It wasnt that great.

This could of been a **** movie if it weren't for the 20 minute too long running time and washed out grainy image that looks like it was intentional.

DVD picture: *
Sound DTS: *

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 02-08-2011, 12:55 PM:

I don't have this movie in my collection, but the reviews on Widescreen Review and DVDTown give it pretty good marks in the sound department.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-08-2011, 10:09 PM:

Minority Report is a good movie. It's not one of Spielberg's best, but I found it significantly more entertaining (and less of a downer) than A.I. or War of the Worlds.

Minority Report would be even better if not for some glaring holes in the plot. There's one that, if you think about it, ruins a critical part of the story:

Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle
The character Anne Lively is attacked in a park by one guy only to be murdered by Lamar Burgess moments later. This is laughably implausible. A lady who has narrowly survived an assault and predicted murder would never be left alone by police, let alone be left with a police executive. In reality she would likely be taken to a hospital for treatment and gathering of forensic evidence to build a case against the suspect. Even if the scenario of leaving Anne Lively alone with Burgess is allowed to play out, then what about the cops who dragged away the would be killer now patsy? Are those cops complete idiots or are they co-conspirators in cold blooded murder? The movie never lets that second shoe drop.

Despite the plot holes, I still like Minority Report for some of its futuristic ideas -particularly the ones involving creepy personalized advertising. Some of that stuff is already threatening to come true. A few other ones, like having your own freeway flyover ramp running up to your apartment is silly (consider what that would cost).

Too much of Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is drained of color and gritty looking. That look worked great in movies like Saving Private Ryan but it seems out of place in a futuristic movie. However anyone feels about the cinematography, the recently released Blu-ray does a fantastic job of preserving it. All the grit and grain is there to see. The movie uses 47.2 GB of a 50GB dual layer Blu-ray and has an average video bit rate of over 37Mb/s. That's quite a bit higher than most movies on Blu-ray.

The DTS-HD Master Audio track is pretty good. It's not bombastic like Saving Private Ryan but it's not bad either. The movie has some interesting sound effects.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 02-09-2011, 01:15 AM:

Come on Bobby?

Did you notice that his eyeballs still gave him security clearance even after he was deemed WANTED?

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-09-2011, 09:44 AM:

Tom, re-read what I wrote. I said the movie had numerous plot holes. I have no obligation of listing all of those plot holes. Nevertheless, I liked the movie and I'm not changing my mostly positive opinion of it. You gave the show a positive sounding "three star" rating so it's really pretty silly for you to get argumentative about it.

Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle
Yes, I was bothered by Tom Anderton being able to use his detached eyeball to pass through security and get into "the temple" despite him being a fugitive on the run. This was a glaring plot hole I noticed the first time I saw the movie. The one involving how Anne Lively was murdered annoyed me even more.

Even if Tom Anderton's security clearance was still good, detached eyes aren't going to be useful at all unless they're kept in cold storage. Even then they're only going to be viable for a limited amount of time. Without continuing blood/oxygen supply a detached human organ will quickly die and then start decomposing. The unique blood vein pattern in the retinas used as a security fingerprint of sorts will change in that process of decomposition. Dead eyes often cloud over to where the security beam wouldn't be able to see the retina in the back of the eye ball.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 02-09-2011, 12:58 PM:

Just noticed that Minority Report was one of the rare movies that was directed and not produced by Spielberg