Once again, Tom, you hit it dead on. This movie needed an unhappy ending, and where you said it should've ended would have been the perfect place.
AI had the 20-minute extra happy ending, Minority Report had the 20-minute extra happy ending, and Catch Me If You Can had the slightly more drawn out than necessary but not quite 20-minute ending... but at least AI and Catch Me were good movies, which is more than I can say for Minority Report. Methinks Spielberg is losing it.
You liked A.I.? I didn't like it that much. I liked the first 30 minutes, but after that it got so depressing. I made it all the way to the end of that movie and felt drained.