Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

I never played the computer game, and knew nothing about it. I was drawn to this film because of the bold animations, but didn't expect the film to do anything for me beyond simple entertainment. I was pleasantly surprised. The excellent voice talent and stunning animation allow Final Fantasy to drawn you in just as well as a live-action version would have. It is very easy to forget that the characters you are watching are animations, and the action is CGI.

A meteor has struck the earth, carrying with it phantoms who strip away the life energy of whomever they contact. Dr. Aki Ross and her mentor Dr. Ced are locked in a stand-off against the earth's military forces, whose solution to this invasion may be worse than the invasion itself, and the mysterious phantoms who seem to have no specific purpose and can not be fought using conventional means. Following up on a quasi-mystical theory of Dr. Ced, they set out to collect 8 living spirits which must be used to harness the life force of earth itself in defense of the planet.

This film is dark and beautiful, with each scene a masterpiece of animated art. It feels less like a computer game than an immersive experience in an alternative universe.

A fast-paced action film, Final Fantasy blends elements of folklore, science and animated battle sequences into a satisfying, well balanced and well paced film. It is probably the most thoughtful computer game -inspired film I have seen.

Just to clear up a couple of points:-

a) This is a FILM, not a computer game. b) CGI people don't look or move exactly like real people. That stated, Aki Ross is still a more convincing character than ANYONE played by Keanu Reeves.

Final Fantasy is misnamed; there's little about the story that is "final", nor is it especially fantastic, but what it IS is a pretty decent mystical-science fiction (no, NOT "sci-fi" space opera) yarn. Possibly owing to the real inability to successfully portray facial expressions in the CGI characters, the mood throughout is sombre and hard... so rather more like real life than your average Hollywood space-opera swashbuckler. Frankly, because this story actually tries to make a POINT, it probably disappoints the type of viewer who would like a film like "Aliens". The overriding message is simply that brute force is no use without understanding, and that's a timeless message that many cultures would do well to think about.

And, of course, this film is just BEAUTIFUL. Probably best watched while tripping on acid, if the truth be told.

7/10 and a future classic, as far as I'm concerned. This film will be remembered long after things like "Starship Troopers" have been forgotten.

For a movie based on a video game, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was very good. Next to such atrocities as Tomb Raider and Street Fighter, it positively shines, and when compared to the complete gibberish known as the Super Mario Bros. Movie...

Having said that, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within could have been A Lot Better.

If you paid attention to the Final Fantasy games, to any of the hype surrounding the movie, or to the CGI industry in general, you already know the computer animation for this movie is far-and-away the best ever done. Back when Square first started producing the movie in 1998, they were progressing at a rate of about one second of film PER DAY, because of the immense quality of the graphics, and none of that quality was lost as technology caught up and time passed. The backdops are jaw-dropping and the CGI actors look more real than some actual actors. Really simply, Square declared itself the current king of CGI animation. Pixar, Dreamworks, move over--the studio that cut its teeth on PlayStation games is in the house.

Unfortunately, having been a fan of the Final Fantasy games since it first sprouted on the original Nintendo, I'm a little jaded towards visual grandeur. And when you take that away, there isn't much left.

The plot is pretty standard--Earth is a wasteland; most of Terra's population has been wiped out by the unexpected invasion of mostly-invisible aliens called Phantoms. The remaining Earthlings struggle to survive. Aki Ross (the main character) and Dr. Cid (there's been a character named Cid in EVERY Final Fantasy production since 1991) have isolated eight Earthborn Spirits--not ghosts, but tangible lifeforms; one of them is a plant, and don't ask me how the plant has a spirit--that, if combined, can wipe the Phantoms off the planet entirely. With the help of Captain Grey Edwards and his crack band of soldiers, the Deep Eyes (Final Fantasy also has a knack for weird names--I mean, who came up with 'Premium Heart'?), Aki sets off to find, capture and use those eight Spirits. And then finally there's General Hein, a megalomaniac fellow who's just trying to blow everything up using a a very large gun.

No problem there. Anyone who plays Final Fantasy is used to Fetch Quests (in which the main characters perform a service to a ruler, generally retrieving a stolen object of enormous power, in return for help from that ruler). What I want to complain about are the characters themselves.

They are FLAT.

A lot of them die, and we don't miss them except that they don't speak any more lines. Grey and Aki (male and female lead) don't really evolve over the course of the story--and Cid is just there to provide technobabble. Oh, and by the way, there's almost no 'fantasy' elements in this movie, with the sole exception of the Spirits.

My two favorite games in the Final Fantasy series are numbers Eight and Ten. They are my favorites because they have unique, interesting, convincing characters. True, most Final Fantasy games take 40 hours or more to play, giving the writers a lot of time to flesh the characters out, but generally within the first five minutes of being introduced to a character (sometimes within the first few SECONDS, as with Zell and Kimahri) you know most or all there is to know about them--they are already convincing, already realized in the player's mind. Square's GOOD at doing that sort of thing.

If Square had bothered to invent real characters for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the movie would have SOARED. As it is, it just barely limps along under the power of a few snappy lines of dialogue and a lot of pretty vistas.

It's worth seeing once, for the same reason any museum is worth visiting once--you'll get to see things you've never seen before and may not see again. But if you're like me and prefer your movies to have interesting characters and plotlines, be prepared for a disappointment.

It's a pity this movie failed at the box office, because in my opinion, it's really good. It combines combines the classic dystopic sci-fi future with a scorched Earth, a few heroes struggling against enigmatic aliens and a corrupt military force, action style sequences that are at times quite intense, and the typical slow-paced Asian movie storytelling. Add to this a rich amount of influences from the FF games, including eight mysterious spirits that must be found in time or the heroine will succumb, as well as a lot of mythological references that must be taken for granted rather than analysed to bits if the viewer is to find any pleasure in this film.

The trouble is that the FF video game fans wanted a story based on the games, or on their particular favourite in the series, and were disappointed with both the story, the setting and the characters. The average sci-fi movie fan, though, who ought to have loved the wicked general (excellently voice-cast by James Woods) and his huge space cannon, as well as the 'Aliens' styled surroundings and technology, was put off by all the talk about spirits and world souls. Leaving for a few of us who went to see the film with no real expectations, to enjoy it.

Because it is a good film. The animation is, for the most part, excellent, even if some scenes have a too blatant 'look what we can do' boast to them. Particularly all the scenes of Aki's hair waving in the wind. Personally, I didn't think the story was either too slow-paced, nor too weird. It works well, especially if you like Asian movies. For the European and American market, though, there's probably not enough action and too much talking.

If this movie had been released this year, it would probably have been given a better reception. The thought of fully computer animated films isn't as new and strange anymore, and with films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ring and Hero, the west is opening up for the Asian way of telling stories. I hope to see more films like this, at least if they are this well made. 9/10

Wow, I guess there is SOME hope for video game adaptations. While not a direct translation of the Final Fantasy video game franchise, it is written by the series creator, whose name I cannot remember. On top of that, his video game company branched off into a film company (Square Pictures) just to go and make this movie. At least one can't complain about the handling of the material.

But the big question here is: Do these guys know anything about film-making? Maybe. Maybe not. Truth be told, they don't need to. The beauty of this movie is that it does something new. It blends the world of video game technology and storytelling with the art of film-making. It cuts corners on film-making, but its uniqueness makes up for it. I will admit that I'm a gamer, so I appreciate what was attempted here. What we get out of this movie is an impressive display of what animators and video game technology can do together. I know there are other CGI movies out there, but, unless I am mistaken, they have all followed the over-the-top cartoony path. This is where Final Fantasy stands out. The animation is swelling with reality. From a technical standpoint, this is a gem, and a reason at the least to give it a rent.

The storyline is subject to much scrutiny though. It's not for everybody. This IS a film of Japanese origin, so anime fans will be right at home with it. For the mainstream audience, however, that remains to be decided. Although the script was revised to suit North American localization (and done very well might I add), it still is very Japanese in style, albeit with a bit less surrealism. It's fast-paced and a bit abstract at times, but it is coherent.

In the end, I would say that one should rent this just to see the technological achievement at the least. It's safe to say that all would agree with that point. Depending on the person, you may get into the storyline as well. Either way, you'll walk away with at least part of you satisfied.