Rating: 
Summary: What a waste of film!
Review: Why I actually wanted to see this is beyond me. My friend called me one night & said "Yo Brian, I'm seein Final Fantasy tonight u wanna come?" Being a huge fan of all the Final Fantasy games, I decided why the hell not. What a stupid mistake that was! The only scene that really caught my attention was when the things were shooting at each other. Other than that, it was dumb, probably the worst movie of 2001 so far.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific, thought-provoking film
Review: This movie incorporates elements of mystery-solving, presents a theory of the cycle of life and death, and shows the admirable traits (self-sacrifice, teamwork) and not-so-admirable traits (hasty solutions, hatred, betrayal) of human beings struggling for survival. Your presumption of black & white, good vs. evil in the beginning is transformed over the course of the film as well. Too many people have been conditioned to expect nice, happy, "Disney-fied" clean endings in movies. Sorry to say this, but in real life, major events end in messy ambiguity more often than not. But what you have left is hope for the future, influenced by the memories of the people in your life. So it is with the ending of this movie, where the cycle of nature (spirits) has been restored, the immediate danger has passed, and the nurturing of new life begins inside Aki Ross and in the world. I don't feel cheated by the way this film ends; on the contrary, it renews respect and appreciation for the noble sacrifices that people make for their loved ones--and for the future. This state-of-the-art *animation* has been unfairly compared to the best of live action. Of course, people will always want to see live actors giving the full range of human expression. This film just opens the way for a complementary genre, by presenting fantasy situations in near-realistic ways that may be impossible to do in live action. So what if the characters appear not-quite-100%-realistic? That's not the point. It's the wonder of the imaginary world before you that counts. Sure, this film could be improved in any number of ways. The filmmakers are to be applauded for giving us a movie experience that invites involvement on the part of the viewer. Too many movies are of the couch-potato variety that you throw away soon after you've seen it. Discovery is ultimately more rewarding than having everything handed to you on a platter, and the film makers give plenty of visual and spoken clues in this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Final Fantasy is a fantastic movie.
Review: Final Fantasy:The spirits within has a good story and plenty of action.The visuals are out of this world and the sound effects are amazing.The story is set in the future and the enemys are phantoms that I guess kill people by eating thier soul.My name is Mike I'm 12 years old and I recommand this movie if you like awsome graphics and non-stop action.
Rating:
Summary: Snooze Alarm...
Review: Well, with such a good cast of voice characters, I decided to give this "cartoon" a go. Big mistake. Considering I like sci-fi, the story is the worst boring hokey pokey ever. It also reeks of religious overtones. Yuck! It's like a slow death. I found myself begging for it to end. Extremely painful. But if you want a quality cartoon, go see Toy Story and you'll have more fun.
Rating: 
Summary: way to ambitious
Review: they should have kept it a "space special forces fights aliens theme" not a "space soldiers fight alien ghosts". And how did those guns with the regular bullets with shell casings and all effect ghosts? Plus you'd think that far in the future we would have more advanced weaponry. They were carrying knives for god sake, lets cut the ghosts throat i guess!! I was let down a little.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Videogame Movie
Review: We all know that Final Fantasy: TSW, along with Tomb Raider where hyped because they could actually be the first 2 good videogame movies. The truth is, Tomb Raider was Average and no big deal. Now FF, it was pretty good. The story was interesting but at times it got a little bit boring. On the good side, the 3D Graphics are 2nd to none and the animation is incredible. The ending was kind of lame. This IS the best videogame movie to date, it isn't a masterpiece but its good and worth you money. The DVD edition will rock because all of its Special Features. Which will be a must have if you liked the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Biggest waste of money since Godzilla 1998
Review: ...I stopped liking the Final Fantasy series after Square added super-futuristic storylines and angsty characters, and this movie WOULD be more of the same...if it had a storyline or characters. The characters...who cares? You've got your "strong" female lead (who's still femme fatale and needs rescuing or the big strong male lead to hold her hand), her militaristic boyfriend who mutinies to join her, a band of annoying soldiers (token black guy (I predicted that he'd be the first to get hit and guess what...?), token psychotic bitter female, token annoying gearhead who makes wisecracks that aren't funny), and a truckload of "villains" who are painted sympathetically so there's really no one to hate. It's a crying shame what Hollywood's done to the movie villain lately. They're stock characters you've seen a million times before. The story is a sad abortion of a tale that tries to lump too much into one movie so that "it's got it all." It's like they tried to make ALIEN with a (freeze dried) love story, a mystic sense of spirituality (although the "spirits" are all numbered and the emotionless CG doesn't have much magic to it...cutting and pasting buzzwords like "Gaia, earth, nature, spirit, blah blah" from equally bad anime doesn't make it deep and enlightening), and some anemic humor. The title made me think that spirituality was going to play a bigger role, but nope. The spirituality seems way too much like technology for comfort. I hate the CG. Sure, it's the best looking CG done to date, but IT'S STILL CG and it still looks like CG. The visuals were all murky (darkness doesn't equal subtext...didn't Godzilla '98 teach us ANYTHING?) My friend claims this is "the future of movies." I hope he's wrong because these slick computers have no emotion and it leaves you feeling cold. Shrek was good because it was a CG cartoon...this movie was trying to be serious and you can't be serious with emotionless CG characters! It doesn't matter how detailed they are: THEY'RE COMPUTERS. I strongly recommend you avoid this movie... I can't think of anything redeeming in the entire thing. Even the friend I went with who wanted to see it so bad didn't like it...
Rating:
Summary: Our Generation (GenY)'s Blade Runner
Review: In 1982, Blade Runner was introduced to the world. It was a film that was ahead of its time, with amazing visual effects as well as an up-and-coming Harrison Ford and with a solid supporting cast consisting of Darryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos, Sean Young, and the late Brion James. Although the film tanked at the box-office and was lambasted by countless critics, the film gained a strong following and eventually recouped its losses through VHS rentals. Ten years after Blade Runner flopped at the box office, its director, Ridley Scott, decided to revisit the film. In the film's 10th anniversary, Scott recut the film to fit his vision and had the film briefly rereleased in theatres. By this time, Blade Runner had made its mark in popular culture from being continiously referenced in the visual and written media whenever anything containing a dark, gritty, futuristic setting, being spoofed in a episode of the hit cartoon show "Tiny Toon Adventures", and becoming a cult classic among colleges kids, who were the same generation who saw the movie in theatres, VHS, and on television. When the Director's Cut of Blade Runner was released to theatres, critics that originally dismissed the film gave it strong, highly positive reviews that, in a sense, certified the movie's significance in popular culture. In addition, Blade Runner: The Director's Cut was inducted into the American Film Institute's top 100 Thrillers with the such films as Rosemary's Baby and Psycho to name a few. Moreover, the National Film Preservation Board inducted Blade Runner to its National Film Registry. Now in the year 2001, with a movie that also has the state-of-the-art visual FX and voiced by an all star cast of Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, James Woods, and Donald Sutherland. Like Blade Runner, this movie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, was a box-office disaster and received polarised reviews from countless film critics. Nonetheless, Final Fantasy, like Blade Runner, will receive a new lease on life when it arrives in a Special Edition DVD. This DVD will redeem Final Fantasy with its intricate documentaries detailing the countless manhours required to create the life-like chracters and the world around them. Moreover, the DVD will contain a feature that will allow its owner to recut the film as he or she sees fit. Therefore, it is unjust that one places or even compares this movie among the likes of Tomb Raider, Demolition Man, and Super Mario Bros. The movie had a straightforward storyline, and highly realistic characters to the point one would forget that it was a Computer Generated movie. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within receives my vote of being the vote for being one the the most innovative and influential films of alltime
Rating:
Summary: "Visually stunning, emotionally cold"
Review: This title above was one of the critics' comments towards this movie and it fits perfectly with how I view this film. The graphics are extremely impressive - textures, colours - perfection. Especially the beginning scene in Aki's dream, it was similar to the kinds of landscapes found in The Cell or What Dreams May Come True. It left me speechless. However, as the movie moved on, while the graphics are asthetic, as one reviewer noted, "why am I watching this?" The plot, which was relatively organized and clear, becomes convoluted and out of control. While death and loss are important issues to discuss, the plot become overly depressing - practically everyone starts dying - and then at the last straw more people die. In the end, you are left feeling empty and wondering whether this is entertainment or a lecture on death and survival. This movie was too pessimistically, and too narrow-minded. Had the plot and script been a bit clearer and developed, it may have gained four stars. And a fifth star, if it gains the same sort of professional qualities found in Steven Spielberg's A.I.
Rating:
Summary: Like Star Wars...kinda
Review: ...I found it a fairly enjoyable movie, though not the greatest in the world. There were parts in the movie I could have sworn were filmed in reality and not computer constructed, as the movie techies managed to show some expression on the faces of the characters - real expression, where you can see it in their eyes... [there were all] kinds of mystique surrounding the central theme and plenty of unexplained little details (like when Gaia gets shot, why doesn't the earth die? And how is it possible to shoot phantoms?). Still, I'd recommend the movie to anyone who enjoys watching movies made from computer games. 3 stars.
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