Minority Report - Page 5

€uroMeinke · 06-21-2008, 12:38 AM

the secret...

mousepod · 06-22-2008, 10:15 PM

I just finished watching Minority Report. What a great flick.

innerSpaceman · 06-23-2008, 08:05 AM

Hehehe, this thread inspired a screening over the weekend for me, too. It's not the perfect film. It's got a few cringe moments, a few tonal oddities. But I don't know what the naysayers are on about. Great Movie.

Stranger Lewis is right though. Tom Cruise has no sex appeal. OMG, is that ever highlighted when, as in MR, he's in a film with Colin Farrel - who oozes sex from every pore. But Cruise can be a great actor ... he's quite good in Minority Report.

Even better in the Spielberg/Cruise follow up - War of the Worlds - which I also watched over the weekend. Fantastic Movie that. Plenty of naysayers there, too. And, likewise, I just don't know what they're on about.

Ghoulish Delight · 06-23-2008, 08:34 AM

WotW was mediocre. Didn't hate it, but it didn't particularly wow me.

Alex · 06-23-2008, 10:13 AM

Just as Minority Report was ruined by the illogic of the reason for existing revealed at the end, War of the Worlds was enjoyable until it was ruined by the schmaltz of having the son alive at the end.

Gn2Dlnd · 06-23-2008, 11:07 AM

War of the Worlds? Oh yeah, what was it I said...(cue swirly back in time memory music)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gn2Dlnd

War of the Worlds is a vomitous dog turd of a movie. I haven't been this livid about spending money on a movie since the last crazy with a religious agenda, Mel what's-his-name. Literally acres of blood and guts. Imagery that deliberately evoked 9/11. Plot holes beyond belief. WTF is wrong with Spielberg? I was really looking forward to this movie.

I need to review H.G. Wells book to see if ANY of this crap is actually from the original. I read it years ago, and I don't think it is.

Please don't spend your money on this piece of sht.

This week, I invite you to not spend your money on "The Happening."

'Cause it ain't.

innerSpaceman · 06-23-2008, 11:20 AM

I don't think it's schmaltz to have a happy ending. Why have the daughter live? Was it schmaltz to not have her pulled into the liquifier and then sprayed all over the landscape? Was it only not Schmaltz because Tom Cruise saved her onscreen, but schmaltz if the son survived off?

Perhaps you're not aware how closely Spielberg's War of the Worlds echoed the George Pal version, but if both had a happy ending with all characters "miraculously" surviving, it's simply item 83 that the stories have in common. The fact that the stars of the George Pal version appear (as the grandparents) a moment before the happy ending is revealed simply serves to underscore this fact.

Of course, everyone's free to want a sad ending if they choose. It frankly would have made more sense for the Martians to have worked out some artificial immunity or defense to Earth microbes, but then the story wouldn't have been War of the Worlds either.

mousepod · 06-23-2008, 11:29 AM

Back to Minority Report. I'm interested to know what Alex thinks is wrong with the logic of the ending. Clearly any time-travel story (and predestination is close to time travel) is going to have weird logical twists, but I'm not convinced that something that particularly happening at the resolution of the film made it go flat. What am I missing?

innerSpaceman · 06-23-2008, 11:48 AM

Stop interrupting my screed on War of the Worlds in a thread about Minority Report

.

I haven't had a chance to take on Gn2Dlnd yet. He's the second person I know (after Gemini Cricket) to have a problem with War of Worlds, a disaster film taking place across the River from Manhattan, evoking remotely connected imagery of 9/11.

First of all, I think it's all in their heads that the imagery is of 9/11. Disintegration Ray Guns were in the 1953 version of War of the Worlds and are, of course, stereotypical staples of Martian invasion movies. The fact that they were presented more realistically, with humans having "residue" instead of disappearing altogether, does not make it a 9/11 reference when Tom Cruise and other characters have human residue on them.

That was not human residue on 9/11. But ok, yeah, that's where we (Americans) became visually aware that people in a disaster zone end up with residue all over them (people in other parts of the world have known this for a much longer time).

Let's say, just for argument's sake, it was a 9/11 visual cue. What's the problem with that? Cloverfield used dozens of such visual cues, specifically because, since 9/11, they've become part of our visual dictionary for large-scale disaster.

Where is the problem?

* * * *

As for plot holes, in either of the Spielberg/Cruise match-ups, what are some? I've seen each movie a dozen times or so ... and yeah, maybe I'm an idiot, but I don't know what they are. Please fill me in, and fill in some of those gaping holes.

Oh, I'll grant there are some major implausabilities in the two SCIENCE FICTION movies, but I don't know of any plot holes, per se.

Alex · 06-23-2008, 11:53 AM

He went to great lengths to be able to murder someone without getting caught by the psychic things. The movie establishes that they only operate within a certain relatively small geographic range.

I would have to watch it again to state with certainty my case against the ending so there may have been more detail than this but if Max Von Sydow had simply driven the psychic's mom 50 miles out of town and then killed her it could have been done with simple old-fashioned impunity.

That may not be quite right but I remember that my complaint was that the entire movie ending up being a Rube Goldberg device when a very simple alternative was available. In certain types of movies I go along with that but this one was trying hard to be smart in so many other ways and it bothered me.

On War of the Worlds, yes, for me it crossed some line of schmaltz and, to me, betrayed the tone of what had come before. But yes, there were other big logic flaws and they will always exist in something remotely true to the book, but I'd still love to see one set in Victorian England so I could ignore them more easily.

But that was something that bothered me (and it certainly is subjective) from a story perspective. The son should have died or been left missing.

06-21-2008, 12:38 AM	#41
€uroMeinke L'Hédoniste Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: A.S.C.O.T. Posts: 8,671	the secret... __________________ I would believe only in a God that knows how to Dance. Friedrich Nietzsche
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06-22-2008, 10:15 PM	#42
mousepod You broke your Ramadar! Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 4,635	I just finished watching Minority Report. What a great flick. __________________ "Give the public everything you can give them, keep the place as clean as you can keep it, keep it friendly" - Walt Disney
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06-23-2008, 08:05 AM	#43
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	Hehehe, this thread inspired a screening over the weekend for me, too. It's not the perfect film. It's got a few cringe moments, a few tonal oddities. But I don't know what the naysayers are on about. Great Movie. Stranger Lewis is right though. Tom Cruise has no sex appeal. OMG, is that ever highlighted when, as in MR, he's in a film with Colin Farrel - who oozes sex from every pore. But Cruise can be a great actor ... he's quite good in Minority Report. Even better in the Spielberg/Cruise follow up - War of the Worlds - which I also watched over the weekend. Fantastic Movie that. Plenty of naysayers there, too. And, likewise, I just don't know what they're on about.
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06-23-2008, 08:34 AM	#44
Ghoulish Delight I Floop the Pig Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alternative Swankstyle Posts: 19,348	WotW was mediocre. Didn't hate it, but it didn't particularly wow me. __________________ 'He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.' -TJ
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06-23-2008, 10:13 AM	#45
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	Just as Minority Report was ruined by the illogic of the reason for existing revealed at the end, War of the Worlds was enjoyable until it was ruined by the schmaltz of having the son alive at the end.
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06-23-2008, 11:20 AM	#47
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	I don't think it's schmaltz to have a happy ending. Why have the daughter live? Was it schmaltz to not have her pulled into the liquifier and then sprayed all over the landscape? Was it only not Schmaltz because Tom Cruise saved her onscreen, but schmaltz if the son survived off? Perhaps you're not aware how closely Spielberg's War of the Worlds echoed the George Pal version, but if both had a happy ending with all characters "miraculously" surviving, it's simply item 83 that the stories have in common. The fact that the stars of the George Pal version appear (as the grandparents) a moment before the happy ending is revealed simply serves to underscore this fact. Of course, everyone's free to want a sad ending if they choose. It frankly would have made more sense for the Martians to have worked out some artificial immunity or defense to Earth microbes, but then the story wouldn't have been War of the Worlds either.
	Submit to Quotes

06-23-2008, 11:29 AM	#48
mousepod You broke your Ramadar! Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 4,635	Back to Minority Report. I'm interested to know what Alex thinks is wrong with the logic of the ending. Clearly any time-travel story (and predestination is close to time travel) is going to have weird logical twists, but I'm not convinced that something that particularly happening at the resolution of the film made it go flat. What am I missing? __________________ "Give the public everything you can give them, keep the place as clean as you can keep it, keep it friendly" - Walt Disney
	Submit to Quotes

06-23-2008, 11:48 AM	#49
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	Stop interrupting my screed on War of the Worlds in a thread about Minority Report . I haven't had a chance to take on Gn2Dlnd yet. He's the second person I know (after Gemini Cricket) to have a problem with War of Worlds, a disaster film taking place across the River from Manhattan, evoking remotely connected imagery of 9/11. First of all, I think it's all in their heads that the imagery is of 9/11. Disintegration Ray Guns were in the 1953 version of War of the Worlds and are, of course, stereotypical staples of Martian invasion movies. The fact that they were presented more realistically, with humans having "residue" instead of disappearing altogether, does not make it a 9/11 reference when Tom Cruise and other characters have human residue on them. That was not human residue on 9/11. But ok, yeah, that's where we (Americans) became visually aware that people in a disaster zone end up with residue all over them (people in other parts of the world have known this for a much longer time). Let's say, just for argument's sake, it was a 9/11 visual cue. What's the problem with that? Cloverfield used dozens of such visual cues, specifically because, since 9/11, they've become part of our visual dictionary for large-scale disaster. Where is the problem? * * * * As for plot holes, in either of the Spielberg/Cruise match-ups, what are some? I've seen each movie a dozen times or so ... and yeah, maybe I'm an idiot, but I don't know what they are. Please fill me in, and fill in some of those gaping holes. Oh, I'll grant there are some major implausabilities in the two SCIENCE FICTION movies, but I don't know of any plot holes, per se.
	Submit to Quotes

06-23-2008, 11:53 AM	#50
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	He went to great lengths to be able to murder someone without getting caught by the psychic things. The movie establishes that they only operate within a certain relatively small geographic range. I would have to watch it again to state with certainty my case against the ending so there may have been more detail than this but if Max Von Sydow had simply driven the psychic's mom 50 miles out of town and then killed her it could have been done with simple old-fashioned impunity. That may not be quite right but I remember that my complaint was that the entire movie ending up being a Rube Goldberg device when a very simple alternative was available. In certain types of movies I go along with that but this one was trying hard to be smart in so many other ways and it bothered me. On War of the Worlds, yes, for me it crossed some line of schmaltz and, to me, betrayed the tone of what had come before. But yes, there were other big logic flaws and they will always exist in something remotely true to the book, but I'd still love to see one set in Victorian England so I could ignore them more easily. But that was something that bothered me (and it certainly is subjective) from a story perspective. The son should have died or been left missing.
	Submit to Quotes