Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Minority Report'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

At some point or another, we’ve all played a hearty game of ‘What if?’ when it comes to particular moments in our lives. We’ve often wondered where we would be if we hadn’t turned down a particular job, or if we bothered to ask that one particular person out that we were afraid would shoot us down. The list simply goes on and on and it’s a game that we will forever play since one cannot go back and change the past, or predict the future, and also because, our brains and in turn our imagination, thoroughly enjoy feasting upon the unknown and all the possibilities that come with it.
 
After all, how amazing would our lives be if we could see what’s coming our way, and know exactly how to avoid a particular decision that would cause us harm and our curiosity surrounding that has led to many a great story in our time that explores that particular notion and the wonder, or horrors that can come with it and recently, I took the time to revisit a film that dug into the possibility of what life would be like if we could predict the future, and the consequences that could come about from that kind of power, in Minority Report.
 
Now in this particular film, we are transported to Washington D.C. in the year 2054, wherein a miracle has been achieved. The D.C. Police Department has worked out a way to stop murders before they can happen by way of a trio of special human beings known as ‘PreCogs’ who can in essence, see the future, and their powers have helped bring the murder rate in our nation’s capital to zero. In fact, the program works so well, that PreCrime is about to go national and as the Federal Government digs into the program one more time before launching it, PreCrime’s Captain, John Anderton uncovers some oddities from an early case for the division and unfortunately for John, digging deep into the past will uncover dangers untold for his future…

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​I distinctly recall that when this film came out in 2002, everyone marveled at the technological advancements present in the story and fawned over them since good science fiction makes us wonder about the possibilities of our own world and it did raise some questions about privacy that we are dealing with today. But, while all of that is fascinating in its own right, the film’s examination of power and how it can corrupt is downright incredible since the power to predict the future does indeed cause more harm than good here and I love that this particular matter is presented in the film as a grey area since Burgess more or less justifies his actions as a necessary sacrifice for the greater good.
 
But what truly amazed me about this motion picture, is the story’s in depth look at how the past can haunt us and control us since John Anderton is a man trying desperately to escape it and he works to heal his own pain by helping others, and while that makes the character incredibly noble, it also exposes all of his flaws since he goes home to sheer misery since any particular moment he’s not focusing on work, he’s torturing himself with drugs and memories of his lost son and well, you just don’t see that kind of character development in big budget science fiction films in this day and age and I love that this movie took a chance on adding something that important into the mix.
 
If anything, this is one of those motion pictures that I always take the time to watch when it’s on, simply because it offers the audience plenty to chew upon and it always seems as though I discover a new nuance when it comes to the characters and the story when I find it on cable, because this really is a thinking man’s film when all is said done, but I appreciate the fact that it offers something for everyone. Because if you’re not in the mood to ponder upon the ideas the film has to offer, there are some breathtaking and fun action sequences to be found as well and kudos to Steven Spielberg for bringing to life a movie that can entertain and fascinate and this is a movie that I personally feel time will be kind to as the years go on since it is such an intelligent and powerfully captivating story. 

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