Went to see Minority Report last night with various TotL folk, and was pleasantly surprised. Without giving any plot details away, the art direction is excellent (although the future product placements are a little heavy-handed in places), and Spielberg manages to restrain his sentimental urges for the most part (compared to the horror that was AI, that is).

On the other hand, the PKD short story didn’t have any sentimental sequences, so they aren’t really a necessary part of the narrative. As a PKD adaptation, I’d rank it on a par with Blade Runner (possibly slightly higher, given that Blade Runner ended up being stuck with the title of a completely unrelated Alan Nourse story), and considerably higher than Total Recall (mistitled, bolt-on action plot and a lead actor with the acting ability of a pound of lukewarm mince). Haven’t seen Screamers, so can’t comment on that.

However, in my mind, Spielberg’s success with Minority Report still doesn’t make up for his hatchet job on AI (change the title, change the plot and add an extraneous hour and a half of outtakes from Mad Max 3, Pinocchio and Close Encounters).

At least it wasn’t Verhoeven again.