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In the end, though, Williams managed to produce a well-rounded score for Minority Report, with consistent elements that weave in and out of the score in its entirety. It is a very cohesive score in the sense that it reuses motifs and builds upon instrumentation throughout its length until it finally releases all of its energy at the end. Whether the score will be listenable beyond the confines of the movie for most listeners, however, is another matter. Spielberg has mentioned that Minority Report is a film noir throwback to the kind of suspenseful mysteries for which Bernard Herrmann scored late in the Golden Age of Hollywood. With the disharmony and tumultuous rhythms of Williams' score for this film, you can hear that the composer was attempting to emulate the same kind of unnerving suspense in grand fashion, as Herrmann succeeding in accomplishing time and time again. In fact, the "Spyders" cue is obviously saturated with Herrmann's mannerisms. Functionally speaking, Williams does succeed in producing a solid suspense piece, but Minority Report proves as well that Williams still isn't the master of noir thrill that Herrmann was. Williams' successful suspense scores follow a formula that boils and churns rather than outwardly frighten a listener with layers of dissonance. This is a rather surprising observation to make about Williams, because it's so rare that he fails to accomplish any goal he sets his mind to in the Bronze or Digital Ages. The composer's dominating talents at melody always manage to influence even his darkest of his suspense scores. In A.I., in fact, the operatic moments of thematic expression of love will far outweigh the action cues in most listeners' memories. The same will be so with Minority Report, though the moments of harmony in the later portion of the score are so few that there will be many listeners who will reject it simply for its mostly abrasive nature. The suspense and chase cues may be functional, but compared to Williams' body of work, they're quite unremarkable. Lengthy cues of uneasy string meanderings paint a relatively unhappy picture of America in 2054. A soft, but discomforting tapestry shapes the somewhat more conventional action material from Williams that follows.

The theme that Williams creates for the primary family of characters is touching, though highly restrained. First heard on solo horn at about the three-minute mark in "Minority Report," this idea is expanded upon by piano in short suite format in "Sean's Theme" before understandably providing an eerie ambience in the middle sequence of "Leo Crow... The Confrontation." The intended noir elegance of the theme's rising progressions of hope and redemption hints at the appeal of Williams' other highly personal dramatic themes, and it is allowed to flourish in the final, resolution cue of Minority Report. "That surprises a lot of people," explains Williams about the ending. "We've been in a dark, futuristic mode and then, unexpectedly, there's this lyricism reflecting a sense of innocence and hope." By the time the listener has reached the final cue, he or she has already been introduced to several highly engaging cues that shatter the quiet intensity of the first half of the score. After the suite performance of the theme, the album shifts into its enjoyable action material, exploding with the beginning of "Anderton's Great Escape." Once the chase begins to heat up, so does the rhythmic cohesiveness and volume of Williams' music. Throughout the score, he uses the ethnically awkward vocals of a single female soloist to perform an exotic, two-phrase theme to represent the visions of the "precogs." Sharing characteristics with the composer's theme for Lord Voldemort in the first two Harry Potter scores, this vocalized theme is not as reassuring as related tones had been in A.I., but rather intentionally foreign, adding to the discomforting transformation of America in the latter half of this century. Just like the harmonica that is electronically altered in the sixth track to add even more flavor to the futuristic setting, the vocals are electronically enhanced to create a disturbing, though intriguing sound. "The electronic piece is synched up with the orchestra," Williams states. "So it becomes a kind of loop that's orchestral but also synthesized. It wafts through the film." The "Visions of Anne Lively" cue offers the most explicit use of these vocals, and it is only a pity that Williams did not utilize these elements to an even greater effect.

Using the vocal and electronic effects as an accent to the orchestral elements is one thing, but building the entire score around them could have made Minority Report into a spectacular work. As it is, Minority Report is a score to appreciate in its parts but, ultimately, it's best placed in the context of the visuals. It lacks the emotional reach or thematic integrity to stand out as a great effort in Williams' remarkable career. No doubt distinguished accompaniment for the film, the score on album stops short of involving the listener until its latter stages, and an entire 45 minutes of technically proficient, but cold material can pass by without the complexity of emotion that we have come to expect from Williams. To the trained ear, the references to Herrmann's work are interesting, if not something of a cliche, though they still work in the film (which should serve as a compliment to Herrmann's style of writing). The fact that the score washes too pleasantly into a positive ending makes the first half all the more disappointing; chalk that one up to Spielberg's need for hopelessly optimistic Hollywood endings. Only a handful of the chase sequences are intriguing enough in their construction (with the incredible "Anderton's Great Escape" leading the way) to play with power outside of the picture. The unfolding "Psychic Truth" is perhaps a redeeming cue in terms of sheer weight and momentum. It is surprising that Williams didn't create more elaborate or, at least, risk-taking scores for these futuristic films. A.I. did make use of instrumentation that he had not employed the same way before, but Minority Report is a comparatively conservative effort that relies on Williams' existing stylistic skills rather than branching off into new territory. This is a shame, because with the talent that Williams displays on a regular basis, and the ruts that he seems to get stuck in when restrained by sequel scores, it's disappointing to hear him miss an opportunity to go off on a wild excursion into the musical unknown. If the film itself is compared to a pre-crime case, then Williams scored the present investigation rather than the time and place at which that crime will eventually take occur.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.8 (in 75 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.66 (in 348,500 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 73:55