On finally watching Minority Report:

Ya know what? Spielberg, and Cruise, and god knows how many other people involved with the making of this film, are just waaaaay too humanistic (and really, this applies to most Hollywood actors, writers and directors) to make a good, believable science fiction movie. The whole thing feels as though they came up with the plot twists and the ending first, and then with the rest of the story, and only then did they add just enough of a veneer of science and technology to make the effects look really cool...I mean -- cops with jetpacks? What's up with that???

Okay, I understand that nearly all directors, and nearly all writers, and every single actor has a worldview that is basically hostile to scientific thinking. Or, I suppose, legalistic thinking. I mean, this movie completely ignores the idea that there are lawyers in America, and millions of Americans who really do worry about innocent until proven guilty. Or all those personally targeted billboards -- whatever happened to opt out? Or, why hasn't the Defense Department taken control of the precogs? One might suggest that they'd be better put to use guarding the entire country against attack, than just guarding DC against random murders. (And, if after six murder-free years, anyone in DC still considered killing as a possible course of action...)

Or (to be heretical) one might suggest that it is worth it to commit one single murder in order to prevent hundreds.