If you've a brain, ignore this one (SPOILERS AHEAD)

Rating: Null/10 (22 June 2002)

I'm astonished no one has mentioned the numerous flaws in logic in this film. I haven't read the Philip Dick novel, so cannot say whether he is to be blamed for them; however, that isn't really necessary. I'll take a second again to warn the dear reader that SPOILERS ARE AHEAD.
First of all, the foundation of the movie lies on the issue of the Pre-Crime department operating solely within the District of Columbia - the project is only a test and not nationwide, and certainly not worldwide. Well, riddle me this, Batman - how is it the Pre-Cogs ONLY have information about future murders only in DC? That seems, even in a movie that begs the intellect and imagination, rather fanciful and absurd - even childishly obtuse. You, the viewer, are expected to utterly disregard such a fundamental question.
Going a step beyond, it has been expected as part of the project that it would be expanded to a national project - yet the selection of the Pre-Cogs was shown to be a singular, non-recurrent event. Wouldn't the recruitment of more Pre-Cogs be needed? But the movie makes it clear that would be impossible. Spielberg is asking the viewer yet again to put his or her intellect and logic aside in order to make a simple plot point.
Another key scene in the movie is Anderton returning to the Pre-Crime Laboratory in order to extract Agatha's hidden Minority Report - this after having been revealed as the perpetrator of a future murder and on the run from the Pre-Crime unit. Admission to the Pre-Crime unit is secured by, among other things, a retinal scan of the person's eyes, so Cruise remembers to bring his previously extracted eyeballs with him (fortunately there is no such thing as decomposition in the future). Well now...beside giving Spielberg the chance to include a cheap stunt scene (Cruise chasing his escaped eyeballs as they roll down a ramp), this allows Cruise entry into the facility. Let's see...Cruise is on the run from the Pre-Crime Police, they are chasing him from a future murder....and DON'T TAKE HIM OFF THE ACCESS LIST FOR THE FACILITY??? HUH??????????? Why hasn't anyone mentioned such a childishly obvious problem in the logic and plausibility of this essential part of the plot?
I'll address one more gaping flaw in the film's logical structure. The movie rests on the idea that Cruise is an essentially good man framed in a future murder of someone who he does not know. Cruise is intelligent, and savvy, and the plot draws inexorably toward him chasing the person to prove his innocence. Didn't it occur to him to just STAY THE HELL AWAY from Les Crow??? He is even told to do so several times in the movie yet for reasons unexplained continues to pursue this person - HUH??????? Does Spielberg expect all of us to have been born on the same planet of mindlessness on which he was apparently born? Well, I for one wasn't. I'm surprised not to have read anyone offer these ridiculous holes in the movie's structure and premise. I guess people just refuse to watch movies that Spielberg directs critically any more.
And yes, the trademark sappy, over the top and absurd Spielberg happy ending is in full bloom in Minority Report.