Spoilers A' Plenty
My problems with the plot holes are:
- Anderton is set-up how exactly? His boss, Burgess, extracted a prisoner and put him up in an apartment where he would wait for Anderton to arrive and murder him (premeditated, as the brown ball says). There was a throw-away line about someone tampering with the Precogs, but as Agatha confirms, there was no tampering, and there was no Minority Report (beware films that use the title as dialogue) for him, so how did he arrive at Crow's door? The only events that could have led him there was seeing his own murder. So he wouldn't have gotten there without the Precogs (nice paradox) but Burgess's setting up Crow in a room didn't really do anything, as far as Anderton and the Precogs were concerned. How the heck did he get there?
- Poor security in Precrime HQ. After Anderton is on the lam, he still has access to restricted areas in Precrime Headquarters. Really? In Windows NT it's really easy to disable an account. Is security really that bad in fifty years? His wife is even able to use his eye to gain access to the Room of Rising and Falling Criminals™, and this is after he's convicted. Something's rotten in Reportville, and methinks it's the screenplay.
- Anderton put the eye doctor away in prison, where he had... how shall we put this... not a great time. This creates suspense, yes, as we wonder what he's going to do to Anderton to get revenge. Then he performs the operation. Still waiting. Then he sets him up with milk, a sandwich, instructions on how not to go blind (see below) and then... and then... oh, I guess the doctor's a really nice guy after all. Puh-leaze.
- You'll shoot your eye out. Anderton is clearly told to wait at least 12 hours before taking off the bandages or he'll go blind. As the Spyders are crawling around through the apartment, a close-up of the clock reveals that there's still six hours left. The Spyder stings him until he lifts the bandages, and scans his eyes (rather painfully, it seems) with a very bright light. Does Anderton go blind? No. Was this the doctor's revenge? "Ha ha! I made you wait six hours before taking off the bandages!"
- The murder weapon. Upon leaving the Crow crime scene, the genius from the Justice Department (Colin Farrell) takes Anderton's gun with him, so that he can hand it to the bad guy later and be shot with it. Don't they have evidence rooms in 2054?
- The Tongue-Tied Killer. Burgess gives himself away with a slip of the tongue? Was Scott Frank (the screenwriter) just out of ideas that day? Sure, he can mastermind a plot to put away his best agent, but to speak for five minutes without revealing he's the killer, that's beyond him.
Having said all of that, this film is still ingenious and worthy of at least a rental. The future technology will probably look fairly primative in fifty years, but it's very very cool right now (even though I doubt the MagLev is really a viable transportation system). The effects and the acting are top-notch. The cinematography, from frequent Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kaminski, is gorgeous (it may be his best work) and despite the plot holes, the film is ingeniously engaging, particularly the scene in which Anderton and Agatha escape using Ag's Pre-Cog SuperPowers.
The DVD
The picture and sound are great. They're fine. They're what you'd expect for a new film on DVD.
Maybe it's just me, but the "extras" on disc two seemed light and promotional in nature.
When you compare them to really good docs, such as "The Beginning" on the Phantom Menace DVD, or the new touchstone The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Edition (the more colons the better, if you ask me) 2-disc 6-hour documentary, well, the Minority Report extras seem a bit anemic.
The ILM bits were interesting but not in-depth (compare with the extras even on Jurassic Park, for instance), the interviews were short and self-congratulatory (or Cruise complimenting Spielberg, and vice versa), and overall the entire second disc felt like a long commercial.
I wish they went a little deeper into the aspects of the story and characters. I would've liked to have seen the "brain trust" they interviewed to discuss the future technology, and it would have been really nice to have spent more time with the underrated Kaminski.
It's a shame, because this film is an instant-classic, and deserves better, IMHBAO.
I've already bought the disc. I don't need to be sold on it. You had me at "hello."
The film's tagline is "Everybody Runs." I was hoping for tv commercials for the DVD that said "Everybody runs... to the video store to buy Minority Report on DVD!" That would be right up there with the "Who da man? Yoda man!" advert for the Star Wars: Episode 2: Attack of the Clones (more colons) DVD.