MINORITY REPORT (2002, Blu-ray released April 20, 2010 – MSRP $29.99)
Steven Spielberg‘s Minority Report is one of those rare films that has managed to grow on me over the years, despite my initial misgivings of its star and of its execution. Like a fine wine, it just seems to be getting better with age. And Paramount‘s incredible release of the film on Blu just accentuates that fact.
Adapted freely from the Philip K. Dick short story of the same name, Minority Report is a murder mystery with a sci-fi twist. In this slick, plastic future John Anderton (Tom Cruise) works for the police department in the pre-crime unit – a specialized squad of officers who arrest citizens accused of committing murder in the future, crimes foretold by a triumvirate of telepathic teens called “pre-cogs”. Just as Federal officer Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) turns up to prove that pre-crime can be inaccurate, the pre-cogs accuse Anderton of murder, setting Witwer and the entire department after him, destroying what remains of his fractured life.
I recall enjoying the world of Minority Report well enough upon my initial viewing. But something was missing. It was the murder mystery that kind of got my goat. It felt far too thin for my liking. But as years have passed and I’ve had the chance to sit with the film several more times, I have to admit that the plot holes and the reveal of the all-too-obvious villain just don’t bother me as they used to. It’s such a great yarn, filled to the brim with futurism the likes of which we hadn’t seen since Blade Runner and haven’t seen since. Minority Report might ultimately be remembered for it’s forward thinking use of gesture based user interfaces (who will ever forget the first time they saw Cruise standing before that glass screen manipulating the computer projections by swiping his hands around upon it?) but there’s a lot more to love here, if you’re willing to overlook a couple of story stumbles.
And the thing I love most about Minority Report, now and from the moment I first laid eyes on it, is the brilliant photography by Janusz Kaminski. It’s a thing of wonder that Paramount was able to render it so perfectly on this new Blu-ray edition of the film, what with the challenging colour pallets and complex grain structure employed in bringing this futuristic world to life. The Minority Report transfer is demo material to be sure, sporting astonishing amounts of detail and deep, dark blacks. It’s the kind of Blu-ray image that sells the format, and will convince those on the fence about the film to give it another shot. Likewise, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is a stunner — perfectly balanced, dynamic across the board with deep lows and crisp highs. This is the disc you’ll want to use to show off your sound system!
I find the organization of the special features on the Minority Report Blu-ray disc to be far too confusing for the average consumer to navigate and feel as if everything on offer has been experienced. There are far too many featurettes within featurettes – opportunities to pop-out into additional content while watching a 5-minute documentary piece – that it’s easy to get lost. And the re-use of said content across different features can give one a distinct feeling of deja vu, as you’ll end up seeing the same interview pieces and slices of footage over and over again. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a cornucopia of goodies to dive into here – the supplemental package is extremely impressive and more than generous, boasting hours of documentaries, storyboards and what have you – but I would much rather experience it all in a single, well organized documentary or through the use of a “Play-All” button that will lead me from one piece to the next, assuring me that I haven’t missed a single moment and not forcing me to ride the remote, as this interface does.
Special Features:
- The Future According to Steven Spielberg (in HD)
- Inside The World of Precrime (in HD)
- Phillip K. Dick, Steven Spielberg and Minority Report (in HD)
- Minority Report: Future Realized (in HD)
- Minority Report: Props of the Future (in HD)
- Highlights from Minority Report: From the Set
- Minority Report: Commercials of the Future (in HD)
- Previz Sequences
- From Story to Screen
- Deconstructing Minority Report
- The Stunts of Minority Report
- ILM and Minority Report
- Final Report
- Production Concepts
- Storyboard Sequences
- Trailers
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