Rating: 
Summary: Best Film of Summer 2001
Review: First off, let me clear some stuff up here. For those of you who have heard that Final Fantasy is also a game, YOU DO NOT NEED TO PLAY THE GAME TO WATCH THE FILM! Final Fantasy is an ever-changing saga different every time. Now on the film:Earth is, ofcourse, a dump. The story takes place in New York's barrier system to defend against "Phantoms". Phantoms are ghosts of an extinct alien race that haunt the hurt. But these ghosts don't scream boo and make you scream. They suck your soul out. The story revolves around the Gaia theory that every humans spirit is connected to Gaia. There are only two options for the survivors on Earth: Find all eight spirits of wonder to use against the Phantoms or fire at the alien crater with the space Zeus cannon. It pretty much ends up with both options used. The film also has a type of suspense to it as many of the main characters get their soul's sucked out of them. However, the film ends kind of like "AKIRA" so this isn't your usual blockbuster afair. The dubbing has a great cast, but tends to slip away into common hollywood style scripts. Fortunetly, that dissapears in the second act because you aren't bothered with the ragtag ground unit's yapping. And the music from the London Symphany Orchestra is fantastic. Much better than the music you'll find in other films. One thing that might tick off fans is that Final Fantasy lacks two main things that are common in the game: Magic and Chocobos. Still, it's nice to have a film with so much more potential. It makes "Shrek" look like nothing. Overall, propably the best film you'll see this year next to the September release of Spriggan.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and spiritual
Review: One of the best things about this film, aside from the unbelieveable animation, is the spirituality of the film. It's wonderful to see a film where the spirit of the Earth is considered important. I won't say anything else about that, so as not to give anything away. Aki Ross, beautifully voiced by Ming Na of ER (who also voiced Disney's Mulan), is on a misson to save the world. Along the way she finds out more about teammates, her mentor, and ultimately, herself. All characters were beautifully voiced and appropriately cast. The films animators did a fantastic job of creating a nearly destroyed earth and a world that exists in Aki's dreams. The main thing you need to know is that this film really has little to do with the game, aside from the fact that the technology and the animators were probably the same. You do not need to know anything about the game to see the film, although it may help you appreciate how far the animators have come with the technology. Finaly Fantasy: The Spirits Within takes animation to a new level and now everyone else is going to have to catch up.
Rating: 
Summary: Wasn't a fantasy fan, still not
Review: I walked into the movie theater with high hopes, it had been years since I could say I was truly entertained by a fantasy film. With all of the buzz about Lord of the Rings, I looked to this film to get me back on track. I was dissappointed in the story but impressed with the animation. The animation was a good as it gets and I was amazed at how lifelike everything was, though at no time was I fooled into thinking it was a real person. You know that virtual reality cartoon your kids watch on Saturday morning? Same feeling. The movie starts off real strong but gets real weak real fast. Save your money and wait for Lord of the Rings, even if you only see fanatasy flicks.
Rating: 
Summary: Can't shake that "Made In Japan" feeling.
Review:
First off, I must say that I am a major sci-fi fan - Blade Runner Rules! Second, let me just say that the CGI in this movie is everything it's been cracked-up to be. Monumentally standard-setting, and the standard against which all subsequent CGI's will be measured for a long time to come. But aside from that, the thing still can't shake that "Made in Japan" feeling. One is left expecting the characters to look up at any moment, astonished, and say "Aghh! Godzilla!" Add to this the same, tired, Japaneese "Earth Gaia" and "Earth Spirit within all the rocks and trees" tome, and what you have is a rather tired plot line with a really unique facade. Case in point. The preeminent Dr. Sid, who has spent his ENTIRE life studying the "Earth Gaia" is suddenly presented with an important piece of the puzzle and reacts with one casual comment (and a nod of the head) "Hmmmmn. Yes. I understand now." C'Mon - an entire life's worth of study and you "get it" in one glance? Technically, again, the graphics are stunning - but I have to mention the voices. First, the voice sync falls apart in places where the lip movements do not come close to matching the words - again bolstering that "Made in Japan" mood. Second, I think that the whole thing would have been better without ANY well-known voices. The voices of Ross and Gray, being done by relative unknowns work pretty well. But Donald Sutherland's voice is just too well-known to apply to some other face, and Steve Buscemi as a tough marine? Nope. Not gonna work. Don't get me wrong - Steve and Donald are both great actors in their own right, but that doesn't make them great in someone else's right. By the time the movie was 3/4ths through, I was ready to roll the credits.
Rating:
Summary: Visually impressive, but falls more than a little flat.
Review: I went into the theater expecting great visual effects, and I got them. The CG here is, of course, stunning. It looks real. It's gorgeous. But you're heard all this before, haven't you? I knew it looked good, and by now the entire public knows it looks good. So, after a few minutes of letting myself pleasantly wallow in pretty CG images, I started looking at the story and characters and seeing how they held up. The answer is, maybe unsurprisingly, not very well (at least in my opinion). The story had a lot of potential at first. Aki's dreams were strange and fascinating, and Dr. Sid's theories were thought-provoking. Then, halfway through the movie, they had told us every secret and revealed exactly what the conflict was, without really giving the characters depth. There was a bit of effort to, of course, but I just couldn't FEEL for any of them. Hein had lost his family, boo hoo. Aki and Gray were in love, yay. It was all stock, generic emotion. Also, Neil, the token "funny" character, WAS NOT FUNNY. I could just see the writers sitting around saying, "Quick! He's the funny one! He has to say something funny NOW!" The only scene in the whole film that moved me to feel anything (beyond "ooh, pretty") was (and this may be a mild spoiler) the part where Hein had the gun to his head. That one scene had beautiful emotional subtlety, which the rest of the movie lacked. Predictability was another problem. That's not to say Final Fantasy isn't worth watching; it isn't TERRIBLE, of course, and the visuals really are worth the price of admission. However, what could have been an intriguing story enhanced by the lovely visuals is just poorly plotted all around.
Rating: 
Summary: Good eye candy, horrible movie
Review: Great animation, some parts would make you think twice if it is real or not. Other than the pretty eye candy this was a bad movie. I'm just so sick and tired of the cookie cutter outlines that it makes me sick. Unlike the videogames ( this is pretty much ff9 ) the characters had to depth at all, and the villan(s) were just plain funny.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic movie experience
Review: FF is no doubt a great movie. This is another 3D animation masterpiece. However Toy Story and Shrek were light hearted comedies for the young kids. This is a serious movie with a dark plot of world as a waistland destroyed by aliens. (correction ghosts of aliens) Also this animation looks far more real than the previous 3D money makers. Just to say i have not played the video game so this is all new to me. There are some unusual elements to this movie. (I'll never understand the theory of destroying the earth's spirit.) The main character is Aki, along with an old doctor (sorry but i'm not good with names) and Aki's male friend. These three will watch all their friends and colleagues be kiled by the phantoms. Aki alone holds the secret to save the human race. However they must face the phantoms and a malicious, vengeful, general bent on destroying the phantoms at all costs. Instead he causes the masacre of all the people in the new city How does it end? Thats confusing. You are unsure what happens to the humans or the phantoms and the movie is sometimes boring. However it is a fine movie for the summer. Though don't bring anyone under 10. There is little gore. though you won't see another movie where beings rip the spirits out of humans, eat them up and leave the body. (a chilling site to see.) However I would recommend the other recent release of the summer, Jurassic Park III , over this one.
Rating:
Summary: You can already hear the gripes from the Actors Guild
Review: Yes, i can see it already, the CG figures and models taking over acting. I've also heard that they can make a John Wayne movie, with the original quality of the TV at the time, and you would not be able to tell the difference. Ok, so everything wasn't perfect with the movie as far as being 100% convincing that it was real, but it was still stunning enough to keep you reaching down to pick up your jaw. The CG was completely breathtaking and the story was definitely the quality that Square is used to putting out with the FF games, though less involved of course. You have to figure that Square is used to making storylines that will take a player though a 50+ hour game, and not a movie-goer through a 1.5hour movie, though it worked great for me. It even had Cid in it, for those who know Final Fantasy. The movies Flaws as far as the perfectionist goes: The movement was as real as CG and anime has been but still it wasn't the real thing, and since it looked close enough to the real thing the movement was a little off par. The motions were done very well but it was still too obvious that the CG artists were trying too hard to duplicate real life. The speaking was... well... ok they have something to work on there. It didn't look natural, that's all. In anime, it's easier to make a character talk, in live action, the director simple says "action" but in CG, the artist has to perfectly fit the words with the mouth. On top of that, these characters were completely imaginary in appearance and so, unlike taking a CG model of a real person, they couldn't get a good, natural flow of lip action. This also put a strain on the actor's ability to deviate from the script and add in their own abilities as actors. Their words and voices had to be perfectly on que and fit the emotion and expression. Emotion and Expression: it's apparent that these also need to be worked on before the next CGfilm. They were still unsure about how to make the characters smile or show excitement purely and naturally. Some of the characters managed to show their emotions but it was still hard for the main character to do so. For example, the cying sequence really needed some help, either that or the voice actor and the CG artists needed to be doing the same 'kind' of crying. MingNa was crying with more tears while the CG was kinda more of a whimper. And Hein was too much like a sane Kefka that looked too much like Seifer, so he really didn't seem real to me at all. The CG backgrounds and some other side screen animations did not make a believer out of me, probably becuase i'd already discerned all the non-real qualities about the movie. But there is still a lot of work. Despite all that, it was still too stunning to just say, "Nah, it's not real." It is but it was more like, "Wow..." Go see it. If you're not a SciFi fan, then i guess you can wait until a non-scifi CGfilm comes out. This is the first step towards getting rid of actors. After a few years i'm sure this technology will develop into something so real, we won't know what to think about things. It'll be "Is that real? It looks real and it's on the News, but it could be fake..." A realm of doubt where CGanimation looks just as real or even more real that the 35mm film. It started with the "Last Starfighter" but "Final Fantasy" is the first to fully eliminate actual footage for CG, in a hyper-real situation. Watch the movie and check out the bird and the final view of the mountains... that looked too real to be CG... or not?
Rating:
Summary: Well...
Review: Ahh, look what happens when you let Hollywood get a hold of a good thing. They mess it up. Final Fantasy has never been a vehicle to advertise new-age religion. It has never been a vehicle to advertise for AT&T or Pepsi. But now, after this movie - that's exactly what it is. An advertising vehicle. You can say it's "a Sci-Fi version of the games" all that you want, but it had nothing to do with the series..at all. Earth? New York? Have real locations ever been included in the series before? Nope. "Gaia" & "Inner Spirit" ??? What is this? Captain Planet & the Planeteers? PUH-LEEZE! This movie was a waste. There wasn't even a distinctive enemy! The ghosts are the enemies..oh wait, no their not, they're just ghosts...ghosts that mysteriously explode when "killed" by regular "earth guns" - BORING! To quote Randall from the Clerks Animated Series, "I want my eight bucks back!" I've heard that there are 2 more movies in the works...I really hope they don't mess this up even more than they already have. If I wanted to be preached at - I'd goto church. Resident Evil will blow this movie to shreds in the 'Game to Movie' department.
Rating:
Summary: Animation good, story bad
Review: The animation in this film is state of the art and quite impressive (if one would refer to it as animation). The story line is far from impressive. It is more than highly predictible in its base story and the details are simply silly. The little one liners thoughout the film are completely irritating as well. If one wishes to see the "animation" and "special effects" this is the movie for you. If one desires to use one's mind or be entertained beyond the graphics....find another film. In other words, this film is probably exactly what you think it will be.
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