Techtite's DVD Reviews!

"While based on a brilliant short story by Philip K. Dick, it has been enhanced and embellished into a fascinating whodunit for the new millennium, filled with tons of plot twists and any number of surprises."

---from the review

-----------------

Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted!

------------------

-------------

Sidebar ::

-------------

By 2054...? Could all this happen by then? You bet. Think of what the world was like 52 years ago, circa 1950. Automobiles were still in their infancy, plane travel was a rare luxury, and TV was a barely-recognized "fad" (and black and white, at that). Meanwhile, computers (particularly "personal computers") was a sci-fi pipe dream, as was walking on the moon, in addition to any number of medical breakthroughs since then. Now, who can say what will happen 52 years from now? It is bound to be major, though this film is at least optimistic about it. It is no doubt advancements like this are possible. Let's just hope whatever the world looks like in 2054, it looks as cool as this film!

"A Film that makes you THINK..." As with the best sci-fi, this is a film which leaves you with some questions upon leaving the threater. It's no fault of your own when such questions were answered while you were at the concesson stand (or even your own fridge!), though some people ended up hating this film because of one or two plot elements they misunderstood, thereby making them think it was a bad film. Love or hate the film, feel free to Send a Letter to Techtite and talk about it. I'm more than happy to talk on and on about the ingenious plot nuances of this brilliant film.

Minority Report

Widescreen

Full Screen

Click pictures to order either DVD version

A Techtite Review

As always, a review of The Film and The DVD (extras!)

The Film: How fun is it to enjoy an Oscar-caliber movie, that can compete with the popcorn-friendly summer fare at the same time? This is the question you'll likely ask when seeing Minority Report, a film with no less than three pluses going for it, right off the bat (unlike the 3 strikes most movies start off with, right off the bat!). For one, Spielberg is the director. Second, Tom Cruise is in the lead. Third, the story is based on yet another gripping sci-fi tale by Philip K. Dick, whose exceptional work has inspired classic sci-fi hits like Blade Runner, and cult hits like Total Recall. With pluses like this, could this be anything other than a totally cool sci-fi flick?

The story is set in the year 2054, when Washington D.C. is trying out a new murder prevention police unit called the "Pre-Crime Division." In this department, a trio of unique young adults are submerged in tanks, whose gifted minds can see into the near future and foretell murders before they happen. Computers tap into the minds of these "pre-cogs," and it is up to Detective John Anderton (Cruise) to sift clues within these cryptic visions, to discern the locations of these crimes-to-be, and prevent them from ever happening.  The efforts of his pre-crime task force have made Washington free of murder for six years. It matters very little if, along the way, all suspects have been automatically sentenced to suspension capsules in a modern "jail," regardless of never committing an actual crime. After all, isn't the future the pre-cogs foresee the "real" future, with no possibility of error? Isn't it "proven" beyond all reasonable doubt, that each person would have been a murderer?

Anderton thinks the system is perfect, as he insists to an inquisitive government investigator sent in to inspect the division (Colin Ferrell), as well as his mentor who helped create the unit, Director Burgess (Max von Sydow). He's soon to feel otherwise, however, when the latest "vision" shows himself killing someone he has never even met yet! Was he set up, is he a killer, or is the system flawed? These are the questions he must answer in less than 36 hours, before the alleged "crime-to-be" will occur. This will not be an easy task, when all of Anderton's prior colleagues are hot on his trail, intent on his capture, and with the finest of high-tech gadgetry at their disposal to bring him in.

The true impact of this film is its overall moral; how strong is any so-called "view" of the future? If you were told your "destiny," and disapproved of it, would you not still have a choice? After all, if the pre-cog visions were true, irrefutable views of the future, how could they be stopped by the police? Can Anderton, similarly, alter his own presumed "destiny," even if all predictions appear to be not-so-rosy? These lessons in "fate" vs. the human spirit are very effective, and make the film a thrill to watch and enjoy.

Along the way, both the viewer and Anderton come across the intrigue of this latest view of a futuristic world. Energy efficient magnetic cars whiz on automatic roads. Retinal scanners allow people to automatically enter subways and the like, without any need for cash payments. Such retinal scans are also used by spider-like units sent out by the police, to search a whole apartment building with ease, freeing the police from having to search it room by room themselves. This all leads to a very unique, high-tech version of The Fugitive, with the viewer watching Anderton's every move to avoid high-tech traces of his location. He gets "new eyes" from a seedy ex-doctor, to avoid the retinal scanners. He jumps into a bathtub filled with ice water, to avoid thermal heat sensors. This is far more intriguing than your typical fugitive-chase movie.

This film's best trait, however, is the screenplay. While based on a brilliant short story by Philip K. Dick, it has been enhanced and embellished into a fascinating whodunit for the new millennium, filled with tons of plot twists and any number of surprises. There is also some very nicely interwoven humor, which proves that Spielberg has the humility to laugh along with the audience at the less-believable aspects of the film, as opposed to trying to explain them (I particularly liked when Cruise falls through a window after a particularly narrow escape, only to find his oddly contortioned body in the middle of a yoga class!).

This story is further enhanced by the effects and cinematography. It is no small accomplishment to say that Spider-Man and Star Wars E2:Attack of the Clones will have some hard competition to win that special effects Oscar. My favorite effects invole the spider-scanners mentioned earlier, which seem uncannily life-like regardless of your mind telling you they're just CGI trickery (the spider-robot which searches for a way to "sneak" into a blocked-off room was particularly amusing). In addition, there is the scene that further develops Anderton's character, as he watches ghost-like, barely-3D holographic videos of his estranged wife and abducted son (the latter of which prompted him to join the pre-cog unit in the first place). This is one of many superior FX moments that do not have a story wrapped around them, though are conversely an enhancement to a superior story.

Flaws? Barely none. True, any movie about timelines, predictions, and so forth, is bound to fall for the same paradox fun that makes such "altering the timeline" stories so enthralling. There's also the controversy of a world which would not use retina scans to their advantage, in order to track a criminal more closely. Is this future society so liberal, that one's own retinas are considered "inadmissible" to track them down? In a current society that throws out hardcore evidence against confirmed criminals due to "invasion of privacy," I would not be surprised. I would be no more surprised, however, if someone found it hard to like this film, due to such debatable leaps of faith in the storyline. That's their problem. This is irrefutably the best film I've seen so far this year. If it has fun with the premises within its high-tech world, that's what makes it so enjoyable.

---Techtite

The DVD: This two-disc set will not be released until December 17th, 2002, so a review of the extras will have to wait until we receive our own DVD. Here is a short summary of what to expect, until then:

• "Minority Report: From Story to Screen": Steven Spielberg recounts his approach to the film's characters and storyline
  
• "Deconstructing Minority Report": learn how Spielberg brought together a think tank of some of the world's most renowned minds and how this elite group conceived the near-future world of the film
  
• "The Stunts of Minority Report": how the thrilling action sequences and stunts were created
  
• "The Digital World of Minority Report": ILM explains the visual effects
  
• "Final Report": a discussion with Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise
  
• Minority Report Archives: production concepts, storyboard sequences, production photographs, production notes, and bios

...see you on that Friday's new edition of Techtite.com (December 20th), for the full review of the DVD!

Widescreen

Full Screen

Click pictures to order either DVD version

Got a review you'd like to share? Techtite will post 2 of the best "guest" reviews received for any product, online, for all the world to see!