Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within (Single Disc Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Let me explain!
Review: All right, I bet a lot of you people wonder why so many people hate this movie. Well, obviously you're not a Final Fantasy video game fan. Now here's something you should know: EVERY SINGLE FF GAME, WITH THE EXCEPTION IF X AND X-2, HAS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STORYLINES AND CHARACTERS THAN THE OTHERS. There are a lot of certain kiddies who would have you believe that every FF game has Cloud(from Final Fantasy VII, considered by many to be the best, so if you wanna try a FF game you might wanna try FF7, but if you can't stand old-school graphics go for FFX(10)). Anyway, if you thought the real problem with this movie was the fact that it had completely new characters, you thought wrong. So what is the problem with this movie? Well, let me ask you a question. What kind of game do you think Spirits Within is based on? If I didn't know better, I would say "First Person Shooter(FPS)",as in DOOM, Halo, Counter Strike. And that's where the problem lies: by watching this movie, you would never know that it is in fact, based on a Japanese style (also known as Console Style) Role Playing Game(RPG)! Where are all the spells? The summons? The potions and items? Many will say the problem is the sci-fi theme, but look at Final Fantasy VII! It was sci-fi, and yet all the low-tech aspects of any FF game such as swords and potions were not lost! The signature elements of every FF game were not to be found in this movie! Not even the Chocobos(bird like creature) or Moogles which are in every FF game were to be found in this movie! In the movie you see people gunning down hordes of alien creatures quick as lightning! Not so in the games! Fighting battles are a long and drawn out affair in the games, and are often tedious! Finally, let me mention the next attempt at movies(direct to DVD this time) by Square: it is basically a sequel to FF7 and is called Advent Children. And quite frankly, looking at the trailers for it, makes me think that this movie as well will not EXACTLY have the typical FF things that I have mentioned in it. However, you should realize the difference: FF: Spirits Within was a completely original story having nothing to do with the games' stories. This means that by slapping the FF name on it, that this movie is supposed to represent Final Fantasy in another aspect besides story, in other words: GAMEPLAY. Advent Children however, is merely a spin-off of FF7, in other words, it carries on the same story, so regardless of whether the movie feels like the game, it matters not. This being said, I THOUGHT FF:SPIRITS WITHIN WAS A FINE MOVIE, AND THAT'S COMING FROM A HARDCORE(played the old as well as the new)FF FAN! Also, I'm sure Advent Children will be great! So now you know why all the REAL FF fans didn't like this movie. But hey, scratch out the first two words of the title and it's all good. :) By the way this took me like an hour to write :)

Rating:
Summary: An excellent movie without the "Final Fantasy"
Review: I am a huge final fantasy fan, have been since I could get my hands on the games. When I heard a final fantasy movie was being made I was really excited. However this movie is not what you would expect from a final fantasy movie. That being said on to my review:

"The spirits within" is an incredible movie that is amongst my top favirite movies of all times. It has one of the coolest stories about finding hope and survival in a world where all hope has been lost.

The best part of the movie is the animation instead of putting real people into a world the would be nearly all CGI they made it all CGI thus making the movie feel like the movie is more realistic.

If you can look beyond the fact the the name has final fantasy in it you will find a really great and well made movie. If you can't, well I feel bad that you need a title to make the movie what it is.

Rating:
Summary: still entertaining
Review: The movie story fall flats, and I mean flat flat, at the near end 40 minutes, true; the characters are super real, but yet not real enough to fool your eyes, especailly on the motion part, also true; it isnt exactly up to FF fans expectation, like myslef for one, in general speaking, also true, its sort of lacking imagination like the other games does. But I personally think the main flaw of the movie are the enemy that the characters are fighting in the whole movie that really turn me down, the slimy monster at the end envey no real threat at all to the audience, I guess that the expectation level of monsters people looking for on big screen and video games are just different. I mean when you think about those monsters in the movie, if they are simply spirit energy from the monsters were dead in the past, they have no real physical body so why shoot at it?? compare that to the other blockbusters in the same summer like jurassic park 3 and tomb raider 1, those dinosaur actually eat people's gut out those are real monsters, not some slimy balls that touch you and you die, people like physical contact. I hope they ll learn a lesson from this one

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Loved this movie. The plot was great at the beginning but towards the end it gets a little spoiled by the excessive melodrama. Animation is absolutely fantastic but I feel the producers and director should have focused a bit more on the storyline and characters. Animation is not what makes a movie great. Why the five stars then? Because the flaws aren't significant enough for me to stop me from considering this movie a cornerstone in cinematography. Everything you see, hear and experience is done from scratch using technology.

Rating:
Summary: Best super-real of its time
Review: Final Fantasy is a landmark achievement in comptuer graphics. When it appeared it was unique as a feature-length movie. It demonstrated natural motion, not just walking and standing, hair, fabric, explosions, rich backgrounds, and naturalistic physics in an incredible tour de force.

If I must pick few nits, the animators didn't quite capture skin's subtlety. Skin interacts with light in layers, not just at the surface, and these characters tended towards a waxy look. Also, despite the characters' rich ranges of motion, a few things are conspicuous by their absence. Running, jumping more than a foot or two, fighting or embracing, and all extremes are just missing. They're too hard. Body masses change shape under muscle tension, when bouncing, and when in forceful contact - if the animators could not do these complex jobs properly, they chose not to do them at all. I respect that decision, and look forward to more complex body models in the future. Cloth, too, was a weak point. Dr. Sid's tunic, General Hein's trenchcoat, and (in the extras) Aki's skirt all have the same drape, and not a very interesting one at that. Well, cloth is hard to model, and I look forward to better cloth models, too.

That's about it, though. The plot is worn, and the 'scientific' premise never quite hangs together for me. The characters tend to be one-dimensional. It's an interesting comparison to "Tokyo Godfathers." That presents realistic characters, but revels in its nonrealistic imagery.

This movie is all about its imagery and technical achievement. Those are wonderful. They define the industry's state of the art as of the movie's debut, and even now, a few years later. Technology moves forward, though. A movie needs more to have lasting value, but this doesn't offer a lot more.

//wiredweird