Minority Report (2002)

It’s difficult to make a summer blockbuster film capable of making audiences think. The summer months are typically reserved for big-budget franchises, goofy comedies, cheeky action films and sappy chick flicks. Minority Report is one of those rare summer releases that has the ability to give its core audience exactly what it wants while daring to add a dash of maturity and philosophical intrigue.

Set in 2054, the film focuses on the Department of Precrime, a highly specialized task force that has eliminated virtually all murders in Washington D.C. and its suburbs. Using three mutated humans with precognitive abilities, the Department of Precrime is able to see when and where murders will occur and stop them before they happen. In a matter of weeks, the US Department of Justice is planning to take the Precrime method and expand it to a national level.

Tom Cruise plays John Anderton, chief of Precrime. Despite the success of the program, he is a troubled man. Years before, his son was abducted right out from under his nose, never to be found. Since then, his obsession with Precrime killed his marriage and he is secretly addicted to psychoactive drugs. As if it isn’t bad enough that Anderton has skeptical DOJ officers poking around the department on a daily basis, the trio of precogs throw him for a loop when they predict that he will murder someone in a few days.

Anderton doesn’t know the man he is supposed to murder but, in the world of Precrime, that doesn’t matter one bit. Anderton attempts to hide the precogs’ vision long enough for him to escape Precrime headquarters. Once the prediction is discovered, the film becomes a wild cat-and-mouse game as Anderton uses his knowledge of Precrime tactics and technology to evade capture, all the while trying to figure out why he is going to murder someone he doesn’t even know.

The filmmakers could have simply stopped with the manhunt storyline and still ended with a similar conclusion. Thankfully, they did not. Instead of a generic, sci-fi chase flick, the writers and director Steven Spielberg expand upon the philosophical musings and paranoia of Phillip K. Dick’s original short story.

Instead of characters simply questioning the merits of Precrime, we get to see the process breakdown before our eyes. The audience isn’t treated like a bunch of children. We don’t get ‘Sunday School’ answers here. Rather, characters discuss the pros and cons of using precognition to prevent crime like thinking adults. This allows the audience to consider the heady concepts of free will versus determinism after the on-screen conversations stop and the action picks up.

One of the unique aspects of the film is how restrained Spielberg is with his depiction of the near-future. Instead of teleporters and outlandish clothing, most of 2054 looks like it does now. Sure, there are futuristic-looking cars that flow along magnetic roads and the police use non-lethal, charged-air blasters instead of guns with bullets but Minority Report gives us a future built on the present instead of one that has completely overtaken it.

Anderton finds ways to work around the technology of the future, which goes to show that all the gadgetry in the world is no match for human determination. The most dangerous challenge comes in the form of iris scanners set up across the entire city. These scanners help police track down the movements of suspects as well as advertisers pitch products specifically to individuals. The scanners are impossible to avoid, leading Anderton to take drastic steps to avoid detection (this also leads up to an intense scene where he is cornered by iris scanning robot spiders). This technology is especially creepy now that it is actually going to be used for these very purposes in real life.

Less than ten years later, some of the effects already look dated but that is almost to be expected with the rapid improvement of CGI and motion capture. The overuse of digital grading to sap some of the saturation and vibrancy from the color palette seems silly to me but it does help match the bleakness of Anderton’s dilemma, which Cruise puts all of his effort into. In fact, most of the cast do a terrific job of making their characters, and this future world, seem believable.

I won’t deny that this film runs a little long. As much as I enjoy the philosophical arguments, the intricate murder mystery and the fantastically choreographed action sequences, the nearly two and a half hour run time wears on you come the third reel. Some will feel just as exhausted as Anderton does by the time the film begins wrapping things up. This will turn some viewers off, especially if they aren’t as interested in sci-fi thrillers as the intended audience but those who have the patience, nerves and determination to see Minority Report through to the end will be rewarded.

The big question asked by this film is ‘Can the future be changed?’ You’ll have to watch this one to find out.

RATING: 3.75 out of 5

The Mummy Returns (2001)

Despite a satisfying conclusion to The Mummy, the film made a ton of money and, these days, that means a sequel. How exactly does one create a follow-up to a film that saw the titular antagonist destroyed in the end? Psh! Nothing a little ret-conning and distraction can’t fix.

Main characters Rick and Evelyn O’Connell (Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz) are now married and have a son. While exploring a pyramid, they find the Bracelet of Anubis, which contains both the location of the oasis of Ahm Shere and the power to unleash the Scorpion King and his legion of monstrous warriors upon the earth. Naturally, Rick and Evelyn’s son puts the bracelet on out of curiosity, setting in motion a week-long countdown to potential doomsday.

Little Alex O’Connell is abducted by an Egyptian cult who have also somehow managed to resurrect Imhotep, the evil mummy from the first film. The cult wants to use Imhotep’s restored powers to defeat the Scorpion King so they can control the Army of Anubis. This leaves Rick and Evelyn one week to find the oasis of Ahm Shere, rescue their son from imminent death and defeat the Scorpion King and Imhotep before either can conquer the world.

If this sounds like an awful lot of action for two-hour movie, you’re right. The Mummy Returns is quite relentless in bombarding you with fight scenes and special effects pieces while also yanking you from scene to scene with a pace that, once it picks up, never drops back a gear. Despite all the seeming complexities and rapid flow, the film is still pretty easy to follow. It’s a journey from Point A to Point B in the hopes of stopping Bad Guy #1 and Bad Guy #2 from succeeding. Despite this fairly easy setup, there are some elements of the film that don’t make a lot of sense.

For instance, was it really necessary to bring Imhotep back for the sequel? From a marketing standpoint, it makes perfect sense to bring back the cold, evil villain, especially since they chose The Mummy Returns as the title. Without the reemergence of Imhotep, one could argue that the film would have no reason to exist as titled. The problem is that, at the end of The Mummy, he was made mortal and stripped of his powers. How exactly does the Egyptian cult restore all of these things for Imhotep? This is never explained. We’re just told that he’s back and bad as ever. It seems to be the filmmakers’ hopes that we will be too distracted by all the action to ponder such things.

The Mummy Returns also relies on significantly more CGI and special effects than its predecessor. Universal Pictures only sank an extra $18 million into the sequel’s budget and, considering they had to up their stars’ salaries, it's clear they didn’t pull enough out of the piggy bank. As ambitious as some of the scenes try to be, their ambition is undone by weak looking effects. Sometimes it’s only a matter of a monster warrior looking flat or just a tad too fake. Other times, like in the case of the emergence of the Scorpion King from his chamber, it is impossible to suspend disbelief because the visuals are terrible.

It was the zombie pygmy mummies that killed it for me though. Dozens, if not hundreds of these odd and horribly fake looking things dwell in the lush oasis of Ahm Shere and protect the temple of the Scorpion King. The filmmakers try to use them as fearsome adversaries and a comedic device at the same time. Due to this, they come across as too goofy to be taken as real threat, no matter how many people they end up killing. The Mummy had its goofy moments and so does this film but the zombie pygmy mummies cross a line that's better left uncrossed.

Fans of the first film will easily enjoy this sequel and there are plenty of references to events and artifacts from the predecessor to draw a knowing smile from Mummy devotees. For the rest of us, this will still entertain but the continuing adventures of Rick O’Connell don’t satisfy quite like the first time. While it’s still harmless popcorn adventure fun, The Mummy Returns starts to descend into ‘dumb’ territory, which is never good.

RATING: 2.25 out of 5