Rating: 
Summary: AESTHETICALLY PLEASING JUNK
Review: This movie has beautiful animation, but I'm afraid the characters still don't look human. If this film has proven anything, it's proven that computer graphics still fall short of representing human beings faithfully.This film is a two-hour FMV (full motion video) from a role playing game, and no better. Also, clearly the designers/writers/whoever borrowed heavily from western design, despite the films "Eastern" origins. The marines are clearly borrowed from Cameron's "Aliens," with Proudfoot being a poor substitue for Vasquez. The banter between her and Steve Buschemi's character clearly harkens back to Hudson and Vasquez's bickering. Also, the craft they land on Earth is essentially a Drop Ship, even going so far as to steal the subway-like standing around in the cabin while the ship is in transit -- also stolen from Aliens. "We're on an elevator ride to hell. Goin' Down!" Anyway, I appreciate the movie, and even find the spiritual plot refreshing, but it's incomprehensible nonetheless. There are a lot of philosophies, Eastern and Otherwise, that are more coherent than this gobbledygook. I laughed out loud when somewhere in Act 3, Dr. Sid says "Ah yes. Now I understand." Yeah, he's the only one! I'd bet money Donald Sutherland didn't understand when he stood in the ADR booth and read that desperate attempt to convince the viewer that this film makes any sense at all. (...)And there seems to be some sort of "love conquers all" element at the end, but let's face it, "The Fifth Element" did a far better job. "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" borrows a lot of Western production design, and borrows Western characterization, but makes the mistake of NOT borrowing from Western narrative storytelling. The movie fails purely because the story is awful. I wonder, how may drafts of this script were penned before they "shot" this thing?
Rating: 
Summary: Superb Visuals, but for the Rest.....
Review: Without a doubt this movie has pushed CGI to it's fullest potential...so far. I'm especially impressed with how well they rendered Aki's hair, it seems that it is the hardest element artists have to work on, because you almost always see a female with either short cropped hair or have it pulled back into a bun or ponytail. But here we got to see very naturally flowing locks. And just for that, I think it's worth viewing once.
However, the story itself didn't seem to offer much as far as character development, action scenes, or just something to break up the stagnant pace of the film. They tried to stick in a few lighthearted moments, but they fell way flat.
In fact, I found the bonus footage on the DVD which included fabricated technical goofs and the Thriller spoof, much more entertaining than the movie itself.
A better story might have made all the difference with me, but I also tend to think, that rendering lifelike characters and having them behave (or at least trying to) like real people may not be the best way to use the technology. If you want them to be so true to life why not just cast real people. Animation in any form is supposed to allow you to express ideas in ways that you couldn't normally do with real humans, and we got to see none of that in this film.
They have the power, I just hope next time out, they find a better way to use it.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible screenplay brought to life with beauty
Review: Hopefully this will be SquareSofts last movie, they should provide special effects for other movie houses, but should not produce any more stand alone movies, they are no Pixar. What's wrong? Well, the movie is boring and rather dark, it's CGI is amazing and the only saving grace here. It would have also been really nice if Square would have tied into the popular video game series instead of just using it's brand name with no plot tie-ins or relation to the game, it just plan disapoints FF fans Two whole stars because the DVD is featured.
Rating: 
Summary: 3 reasons to Buy This Movie!
Review: 1. The flick was awsome! Action/adventure/comedy in one!
2. You'll like the movie weather you play the games or not!
3. Square pictures is selling their studio because they didn't make enough money on this movie to make another! But we, the people, might be able to change all that! If they make enough money on dvd realease, maybe they'll keep the studio live and functioniong so we can expect more Final Fantasy movies in the future!
Rating:
Summary: Most revered and excellent annimation as of yet
Review: Final Fantasy is one of the most impressive animations that I've ever seen so far. The story line is very strong and most impressive. It is a good idea that the creator of Final Fantasy stayed away from the story line of the games. This movie is not just for anime fans but also for movie fans of all age (except for those under the parental warning) because it is able to reach that other age group in its story line.
One of the reviewer commented on the line that the creators of Final Fantasy used to market the movie. This is the line: "Fantasy becomes reality", which I find to be a perfect pick up line. Because to us ghosts are just fantasies but in the movie the fantasy of ghosts becomes a reality for the remaining survivors of the world. I would advise anyone who watch this movie to understand the story behind the mission and to understand what it means when they say the "the spirits within". I've bought this DVD and to be honest its one of the best investments I've made. There's no big robot smashing another robot or destroying cities, (which I might say I do enjoy), but it's an intriguing story about the human race as a whole trying to survive a catastrophic event.
I urge you to buy this DVD even if you're not an anime fan, trust me you wouldn't regret the investment.
Rating:
Summary: Great DVD... Unless you have a reigon free player.
Review: Its a great movie with amazing CGI but if you have a reigon free player it wont play. I was very disapointed to find this out.
Rating:
Summary: You call it a movie?
Review: O.K. pally, it's definately stunning CGs.....really awesome, worth of all the bucks you paid for it.
But what else?
Is there any buyable storyline?
Characters look like dolls, but are they really acting?
Oh, come on, it is supposed to be a movie, and a movie is something more than a bunch of wonderful CGs and special effects.
It is really excellent work of tecnology and computer art, but that's all. It is far behind to be a real moive.
You may still enjoy the magnificient CG arts and not regret what you paid for it, but yet it can hardly be a movie. It's one good lot of mind-boggling CGs, but nothing more than that.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb animation. Very good although not perfect..why?
Review: Although there're alot of "not good" reviews about this movie, I love it. The computer graphic is THE BEST. I can say, THE BEST in the world. It looks so real and I always thought that they're real humans not animation while watching it. About story, it's good..not REALLY good but good enough for entertaining. It might not be suitable to people who have impression that "Cartoon is only for kids". The story also reflects alot of Eastern culture thought.. (and that might be the reason why people in the western world don't get it!!). Don't expect to see action, bloody fighting scene because it almost has none. But the producer put some believe about nature spirit and tried to communicate to audiences that All living organisms on Earth have spirits and don't destroy them. (good for Earth day campaign though) Really good story. My only disturbance is..our hero looks like Ben Affleck..and sorry buddy, you're not my favorite actor... Entertaining of the whole family. Recommend!!
Rating:
Summary: One of the grates Sci-Fi action flicks... um... ever!
Review: FF the movie, a cinematic masterpeice. And possibly more entertaining than the games. I was amazed that the movie is acctually set in a closer to us time period than some of the games, and it was surpirsingly american. Not only that but the animation... oh was it amazing. Every single imperfection on every face showed. Most of the people thought it was two "strange" I thought it was a little of game 4, ste in game 8, with the plot of 7.
Rating:
Summary: Not a bad DVD
Review: I am a big Final Fantasy fan, and I was very excited when I went to see the movie. The excitement didnt last to long however. This movie does have the best CGI graphics that I have seen. However I found the whole movie pretty darn boring, and even fell asleep a few times. The DVD does capture these images very well, and it has some nice extra's. I would not recommend this as a purchase, maybe a rental. The CGI is well worth seeing however.
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