How effective is the opening of ‘Minority Report’?
The genre of this film is a modern Sci-Fi movie that deals with the issue of fate and free will.
It is in the future because it says the date at the start of the film. The film deals with the issue of free will and fate because the police have a department of ‘pre crime’ and they can see into the future with there new machine. Next they find the person who might commit the crime and do a test, but sometimes the machine goes wrong. If the test is positive then an arrest is made which could change the course of the world. This makes the audience think if the police are doing the right thing because they may save lives but what would of happened if the police didn’t make the arrest?The lighting of the film is very effective. At the police station there are lots of dark colours such as black, blue and silver this giving a sense of fear and robots.
I fear when I see blacks and blues because they give a sense of fear because they are usually associated with bad and not especially nice people. Also I feel that it gives a sense of greater power, higher than humans and we can’t control it. Aswell it gives across darkness and many people are scared of that. What I mean when I write a sense of robots I mean the way the story is lead for us because the film shows what is going to happen but can we humans avoid this by making our own decisions and choices. If life is really like this then we would not be able to make any choices because they are all lead for us and we just have to follow something that has to happen.
Life as a robot would not be good for there is no free will, or maybe we are controlled by something or someone?Like most modern films this has lots of quick snappy editing from one moment to the next. At the very start is some good editing where there are pictures on top of pictures with a kissing scene and scissors all intertwined as one. There is also a lot of cutting between facial expressions and moving bodies all lapping over each other making the audience confused and inquisitive to know what is happening. I feel that it is good because you get an insight of what is happening, but the audience has no real idea what is going on. It is only until you see this screen that Tom Cruise is working on that you can see what is happening.
There is also a lot of cutting in this film from what Tom Cruise is seeing and what is happening in ‘real’ time. In the opening clip for example you have you have the man murdering on screen then you have the quiet family scene where everything is happening normally.I feel that this quick editing gives the audience a chance to play along and see if they can work out how the quiet family scene at breakfast goes from normal to completely insane like doing a jigsaw with no picture. I feel as a viewer it is very sneaky how the producer managed to keep us guessing and thinking on how this might occur. In the film there is also very quick editing when we are getting to the climax of the murder because we go back and forth from hero to soon to be villain then just as the villain lifts his murderous weapon then Tom Cruise bursts in to save the day and make the arrest with only seconds to go. The glass splattering really sounds realistic when the police break through for the arrest.
The sounds in this film opening are good because it gets across the mood very well is sometimes very quiet and left in the background or it is loud and in your face. The film starts with some loud music and the faint sound of many men marching, all this happening when a murder is shown on the screen this gives us an atmosphere to be scared of which really worked for me. In the opening of the film where it shows the screen of the next murder with Tom Cruise the main character standing there working in bliss with some fancy classical music I think this says human and man are working together in perfect harmony but are we really? This is also chosen to make you believe this is really the real deal; it has saved countless numbers of murders in 6 make believe years. This is a real deal working harmonic bliss.This film must have had a great camera crew and director because watching the opening was really pleasurable because they were so effective in their filming I especially liked the extreme close up shots on objects rather than people which doesn’t give to much away keeping everyone watching intrigued a great technique to keep everyone wanting to know what is next. The main objects when doing this are the scissors the weapon of fate and the red wooden balls with the killers name on and the other are the victims.
There is another interesting shot when the hero runs towards the house of murder we have some quick editing between him and the murder then there is a zooming shot us going towards the inside of the door that the hero Tom Cruise breaks through we get closer and closer then bam!! He would seem to be slamming the door in our face giving us the sense of urgency him kicking the door down he is a man with a mission. We have focuses on many new objects such as the tester machine, which shines in the murderer’s eyes to see if he is the guilty party. There is another shot of a head piece which is really weird completely white and has an astounded shock on its face when it sees the murderer on the sieling above it.On the whole I feel that this film opening is really effective not just because of all the gadgets and the other amazing things it is because of the feelings it gets across it makes us think of a world of no free choice it is a daunting thought of knowing your going to do something and you could do the exact opposite or could we? The film opening is also good at keeping us in the dark because we don’t know what happens until the very end this is extremely good use of suspense because you have to watch the rest or be forever left in the dark.
