The “No-Spoiler” Summary:
In 2054 Washington D.C., murder rates have been an astoundingly
low 0% for 6 years straight, thanks to the experimentation of the
Precrime Division. The Precrime system works by extracting visions
of murder from three precognitive thinkers called the Precogs. These
visions are more like predictions, dreams that always come true;
they are recorded and then reviewed for clues to stop the murders
before they happen. The precogs are also known as detectives.
The would-be murderers are imprisoned in the Department of Containment,
where prison cells are coffin-sized, and the prisoners wear a headset
called a “Halo” which completely disables muscular movements
of the entire body but yet keeps the brain active.
The movie begins with fuzzy images and visions depicting a businessman
who kills his wife and her secret lover with a sharp scissor. These
visions are generated by the Precogs. Then, an alarm siren goes
off with the code “Red Ball”.
Code “Red Ball” means the murder is predicted late,
giving the enforcers a small time frame (as little as 20 minutes)
to stop the murder. Code “Brown Ball” means the murder
will happen a few days from when it is predicted.
John Anderton believes the system is perfect because there hasn’t
been a murder for 6 years, and strives to work as a Precrime enforcer
because he wants to stop such criminal acts, especially after the
losing his son to murder 6 months before Precrime. Anderton is also
the main reviewer of the recorded visions.
Burgess, the Director of Precrime, plans to make the system go
national, but is slowed by an unwelcomed visitor, a federal agent
with a warrant to find flaws in the system.
A day after this agent’s visit, the Precogs delivers a Brown
Ball, and Anderton finds himself a suspect, for a future murder
of a man he’s never met. His faith in the perfect system becomes
questionable. Is he really going to kill this man? No murders in
6 years, is the system really perfect? This is a “who did
it?” mystery.
It takes three same visions and agreement of the three precogs
to comfirm the predictions. If one or two of the precogs disagree,
the discrepancy becomes a minority report. Anderton runs from being
captured by the Precrime authorities, and kidnaps one of the three
precogs to look for his minority report in order to save him from
being put away. But it gets ugly as more mystery arouse.
Critique:
Despite a two and a half hour running time, this movie is filled
with thrilling suspense sequences in the story. The visual special
effects and action sequences are mild since there are no explosions
used anywhere. But that’s not the point of the movie. If you
like the “who did it?” mystery movies, this one is for
you and it certainly makes you think. Storyboard is well written
to provoke thinking and at the same time delivers just the right
amount of punch in the action scenes. One downside is that story
lags in a few scenes, thus making the run time a bit long.
Nevertheless, this film is meticulously crafted. The setting of
50 years into the future is also very believable, with loss of privacy
for the benefit of security and safety, the use of the “Maglev”
system which is a driver-less means of transportation on magnetic
levitation, and the hi-tech computer systems they use.
Cinematography is awesome, especially in the Maglev escape scene.
And the photography is unique as Spielberg removes the orange hue
out of people’s skins, and converts the picture towards the
cold gritty, bluish hues. And sound is carefully directed, fully
utilizing the 5.1 surround format to its limits, both in Dolby Digital
and DTS.
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