The next day, on arrival at the Pre Crime offices, John is greeted by the Director Leman Burgess who is worried that the impending vote on the national roll out of the policing system could be hampered by Detective Danny Witwer who has been sent by the traditional police department to ensure that everything is running as it should. Burgess wants John to keep a close eye on Danny and they become enemies on the first meeting, however as John is screening the next images sent to the division by the pre-cogs he finds some startling information that is set to turn not only his life, but the future of Pre Crime on a strikingly different path…..

Eagerly awaited at the time, this film is where Steven Speilberg and Tom Cruise got together to create a sci fi action thriller set in the future about a fascination process of crime prevention. Set in the year 2054, it is a fascination insight from the makers in how we will have evolved and how we will have started to deal with various problems in our current existence.

The acting in the film is really rather good. Cruise takes on the lead role (naturally) with great purpose. We are introduced to him as a strong and purposeful detective in the agency so to then find that he is actually quite messed up in his home life, bitter and vulnerable, did give him a challenge he has not had in past films such as Mission Impossible. I felt that he did manage to pull this off and as the secure world of his work life crumbles around him, he is very effective in conveying how the character re-asses’s his relationships with certain key characters. The portrayal of the polar opposite character of Witwer by Farrell is very effective and the interaction of the two is very effective, especially as it really isn’t a good verses evil situation. The only reason we have to dislike him a slight arrogant streak however Farrell makes it difficult not to at least appreciate why his character is doing what he is doing. The star of the show however was without a doubt Samantha Morton’s fantastic performance as the lead pre cog Agatha. As the story unfolds, we can see that she has had to deal with many hardships through her ‘gift’ and the way Morton shows her dealing with a world she has little experience in dealing with to find the truth, is truly magnificent and the innocence of the character shines through in a tough and mixed up world.

One thing I was not a fan of in this has to be the MASSIVE amount of product placement used. The number of today’s well known brands that got a mention on the futuristic machinery was simply too much and while the products were realistic, I for one felt it unrealistic. Implying that today’s brand logo’s and slogans would still be the same nearly 60 years down the line when it changes on a weekly basis at the moment, took some of the realism and credibility away for me.

In conclusion, I fully recommend the film as I found the storyline with its twists and turns utterly intriguing and I did find myself lost in the futuristic world that was presented to us. It is a film that can be enjoyed by a wide range of ages and even though it does have quite a complicated plot, it is not that difficult to follow thanks to the direction from Speilberg. I was very tempted to give the film five stars however the over use of advertising has knocked one off and while the DVD does have a lot of features, the fact that I got a bit bored of it keeps the four star status. The best price online for this at the moment, is £7.99 from play.com, and compared to how much I paid for it at the time (£13) I do think that it is worth every penny.