Sunday, February 16, 2014

Year 3 Day 62

movie: Minority Report
starring: Tom Cruise, Samantha Morton,
genre: Sci-fi, Film Noir
year: 2002
format: TV edit

plot: A police officer who works for a team of pre-crime, is set up and has less then 48hours to prove he's innocent. He ends up resorting to kidnapping one of the oracles who had the premonition, in order to learn who's behind it all.

This is based on the 1956 short story of the same name.

I really liked this film, and it reminded me of the tv show "Person of Interest" (which I'm wondering if Person of Interest is based on this movie?)  (the other thing I was thinking was that both Tom Cruise- Interview with the Vampire-  and Collin Farrell- Fright Night remake-  played vampires in two of the coolest vampire films)

The story is one of those cyber-punk themed stories that manages to blend just the right amount of gritty impossibility with serious cop drama.  We see a theme of premonitions being pulled out of the typical 'magical' element it's normally used for, and used with science, giving it some serious weight.
The themes of dream interpretation, water as a gateway (the scenes of the two main characters' recurring nightmares happen in pools) are usually, only used in the genre of horror-fantasy (like Charmed, Constantine, Nightmare on Elm Street)
The use of eyes being the windows to the soul, are used metaphorically and literally, as everyone is identified by DNA scans on the eyes. In order to change your identity all you have to do is have an eye transplant.  In fact, the whole story centers around the human eye and how we view the moments around us. From the oracles seeing the future, to how in one scene, the critical moment is revealed to have been an illusion on many levels.

I felt the ending was a bit too happy ending-ish for the rest of the film. I liked that it did have a tie up for all the loose ends, but I would have liked to have seen something a bit grittier then how it ended.

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