Join the majority — go see “Minority Report”

A movie critic will usually hesitate before he calls a movie “great.” It’s a generally heavy-handed word when it comes to films, reserved only for the most worthy of titles. Walking out of the theater, however, my mind was made up: “Minority Report” is a great movie.

Washington, DC, the year 2054. The new “Department of Pre-Crime” has nearly eliminated homicide in the capital by effectively stopping murder before it happens. How do they do it? The “Pre-Cogs,” a trio of psychics who unconsciously float in a water tank and receive mental images of future slayings, which are read via computer. Then, Detective John Anderton (Tom Cruise) and his men rush into the crime scene to arrest the would-be killer. The system is perfect. In one week, the public will vote to nationalize the Pre-Crime Division, much to the delight of the department’s director, Lamar Burgess (Max Von Sydow). But the Pre-Cogs have received an image: Anderton murdering someone in approximately 36 hours. Who is the man he will kill? John doesn’t know. He has to go out on the run and try and clear his name, before he is captured by his own men.

To reveal any more details would be an abomination. “Minority Report,” though taking place in the future with lots of advanced technology, does not use the sci-fi elements lightly. The menacing robot spiders and retinal identification machines are ingratiated into the plot—they’re not just there to look pretty. Yet there’s so much more to the movie than its special effects. The script is so compelling, the characters so intriguing, that to classify it as mere “science fiction” would do it injustice.

Many times before, director Steven Spielberg has exemplified how much he loves to make movies, and “Minority Report” is no exception. The care it took to mold a film of this caliber is always evident. Tom Cruise also carries the weight of the film on his shoulders and he’s perfectly capable. Cruise certainly has name recognition on his own, but he slips into his role so well, that you don’t see Tom Cruise. You see John Anderton.

“Minority Report” should already garner the title of best film of the year and it would take a Herculean effort to surpass it. If you’re not planning on seeing “Minority Report,” that’s a pre-crime in itself.