Seen 2002-07-02 21:35 - Empire Theatres Studio 12, St. John's NF
Summary
Having heard good things about this movie, I was expecting a lot. The movie is fairly compelling and met my expectations. The story is mostly believable if you accept the whole premise of precognition, which is the least plausible part of the film. Most of the technology is cool and the plot is easy enough to follow without the viewer being bashed on the head with it.
The movie is fairly timely with all of the recent changes in law and enforcement in the US due to Sept 11. I was reminded of the importance of some basic freedoms like the principle of innocence until proven guilty. The movie also illustrated the danger of giving law enforcement too much power. I would guess the movie was already being made before last September so the timing probably wasn't intentional, but it's still a good thing.
Nit-picks
There were plenty of things to nit-pick, however (minor spoiler alert - if you haven't seen the movie you might want to stop reading here):
- The fist-fight scene in the factory was too predictable. When the protagonist and antagonist both climb onto the hanging platform I groaned in anticipation of the stereotypical duel. I suspect Spielberg wanted to pad the chase and fight sequences to promote this as an action flick instead of a sci-fi. Overall this section was formulaic and just seemed too "Hollywood".
- The concept of directed ads and personalized billboards is cool, but the way they were shown in this film was unrealistic. Maybe Speilberg thought it was too hard to show more realistic advertising and not futuristic enough if it was left out.
- There were eye-scanners to unlock various obscure doors. I can't think of any reason why these scanners would not be connected to central tracking computers like those in the subway. It was hard to believe that there would be such obvious weaknesses in the movie technology, but it was essential to the plot.
- Of course, the technology for scanning the brain and retrieving images seems pretty far-fetched. My girlfriend is a neuroscience major and she says so, so there.
- Some things like the clothes fashions and architecture weren't very different from today. Sure it's hard to come up with costumes and sets that don't look stupid, but glowing store windows make a shopping mall look more like a dream sequence than futuristic.
- Oh yeah, and what about all of the photographs in Leo Crow's apartment? Won't photos be a relic in 50 years?
Still, this was an enjoyable movie and I didn't feel like I completely wasted my $6.75.
