Had me up to the cliche ending ...

Rating: Null/10 (25 June 2002)

Can some brave director somewhere PLEASE make a film where the hero doesn't get the girl and everyone lives happily ever after? Things like this do not happen in the dystopian future worlds conjured up by a film like Minority Report.
Had Spielberg dropped the lame, tacky, redundant, happy, sappy, Hollywood ending, I would have given this film a 9. With the final 20 minutes, my approval gradually ebbed, and on the whole I'd have to give the film a 5 or a 6 - which is a shame. The effects are spectacular, the story is well-told and tightly written, the acting is excellent (even if I hate Tom Cruise for being everybody's favourite all-American) ... it's just the LAME LAME LAME LAME ending that puts the fix in on this film.
A good sci-fi film (like Blade Runner) should leave the viewer pondering what happens next - you don't need to be drawn directly to the happy ending - because it's just one of the possibilities. Spielberg gets caught up trying to keep the audience happy instead of keeping them intrigued - a more seasoned sci-fi hand like Ridley Scott would have handled the ending of Minority Report with more savvy.
Not bad, but the ending made an excellent film into something merely average.