The Spielberg movie Minority Report is relatively well known for its visual style, especially the gesture-control computers that John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, uses at the start of the story.

The film does indeed look very good, and I believe that its style and effects hold up decently well even today, over 20 years after its release.

The plot departs relatively far from Dick’s short story in order to make more room for moments of character drama and interpersonal conflict – which makes sense, given that the short story is short enough for the concepts and ideas alone to keep the story afloat.

The added layer makes the story more relatable (if at times also somewhat convoluted). I will not say that the movie’s emotional moments are particularly strong, but for a sci-fi action movie, they work well enough.

The chase- and action scenes could have been a bit shorter for me, and I would have liked the movie to play up the weird cyberpunk elements just a bit more. Overall, though, I think there is enough interesting sci-fi and enough of Dick in there to keep less action-inclined viewers engaged too.

There are a number of interesting thematic departures between the story and the movie, though. I might need to do a post on Dick adaptations in the near future for more of an in depth-discussion on those…

I’ve never been a fan of Tom Cruise’s acting – I always feel like he is just being Tom Cruise, running around different sci-fi or thriller environments. Minority Report is no different, and I would not say that the acting of the other characters is particularly outstanding. It works, however, and the story, pace and visuals pull you in enough for the acting not to matter too much.

In conclusion, not a masterpiece, but well worth a watch.