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Summary: The movie looks great, but it doesn't save the film (film?)
Review: When the 'Square Productions' logo (a rectangle) opened on the screen, I knew I shouldn't be expected much (Truthfully, I went to see the Black Hawk Down teaser). What I got was an action movie like and unlike no other. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is like eating two boxes of captain crunch cereal, when you first start eating...tasty...yummy....beautiful...But when you get to the third quarter of the second box, your stomach feels ill. Given, this movie looks fantastic, but the plot is oblique, the dialogue is campy, and the script is stereotypical and predictable.Taken, the graphics are great. Sure...the lips were purposely drawn out of alignment with English to make it easier for the Japanese. That's not what bothered me. What bothered me were the voices. If I were to, God forbid, watch an Anime, I wouldn't be expecting absolute realism in terms of voice acting. Cartoons, no matter how serious or 'adult' doesn't have realistic voices. Final Fantasy did, and for half the movie I was left with a rather unsettling experience. Granted.... the graphics are fantastic. But they are not visionary, they are not revolutionary, anyone with $140 million dollars could design those graphics. You can almost always tell it isn't real. But I was even stumped in the few space scenes. Video game crossovers haven't been successful. Mortal Kombat was probably the 'best'. And that's not saying much. Final Fantasy follows the obligatory line of bad dialogue and lousy plot-development. The movie has the token 'tough-girl' the token 'star-crossed lovers', the token 'smart-alecky weasel' (who's not funny, I might add), the token 'tough black dude', the token 'bad guy who they try to make you feel sorry for'.... his family died, so that gives him an excuse to kill the spirits. The token 'Nooooooooo!' scene(s)? And the token rip-off from "Aliens", as Gray makes a last stand as the drop ship (that looks right out of "Aliens") disappears.... only for it to make a last second comeback. In fact, the only slightly interesting character was General Hein, and the only decent dialogue was when he explained exactly why he hated the Spirits. The action is clumsy and poor. Instead of fast-paced blaster fights, we have men in clumsy suits waddling around wreckage spraying insecticide (or particle beams, whatever kills invisible ghost bugs) down ruined streets. The plot isn't better. An alien planet destroyed by a civil war has hurtled a chunk at Earth. The asteroid has practically wiped out Earth except for last bastions of humanity residing in large shielded cities. The 'Spirits' have come with it.... residual psychic energy or something.... it doesn't matter.... no one else was paying attention either. 'Spirits' are alien ghosts (I know! Original name!) that painfully rip human 'Spirits' from their bodies, and then get repeatedly shot to pieces by laser guns (think: "Ghostbusters"). It's up to a human scientist, a computer animated babe that puts Lara Croft to shame, Aki, to save the world. The Spirits are dumb aliens. They have no intelligence.... they have no culture, nor language. They are pop-up bad guys, think 'Bugs' in "Starship Troopers". They wipe their planet out and, not surprisingly, come here looking for a home (the only common trait with humans). What is their lifestyle like? How do they live? What do they breathe? Eat? Reproduce? Why'd they pick Earth? The film is short.... there is plenty of room for an inside look on the Alien Spirit civilization. Final Fantasy is not exhilarating, innovating, or even exciting. Granted, all my Final Fantasy friends loved the movie. I thought it was a boring action .... no, anime...movie, one without any excitement with 'literally' breathtaking special effects. Did that save the movie? No. web.mitsi.com/tuna
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting similar movie to...
Review: Just a short comment -- I found this movie very similar in theme to Princess Mononoke. This may act as a partial spoiler, but both movies had a theme of one group trying to protect a spirit from the assault of a second group. I love the effects and it's the first time I've been happy with zero G "shots" as it's modelled in a computer.
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Summary: BEST ANIMATION FILM EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: THE MOVIE HAS GOOD STORY,ANIMATION,CHARACTERS and voice ACTING.
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Summary: Final Fintasy
Review: One of the best animated movies I've ever seen but still one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I thought this movie was going to be a 3 star but it dropped to be a one, very very disapointing.
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Summary: Phirst Phinal Phantasy Philm"s Phabulous Paradoxes
Review: This is a landmark work in the history of filmmaking. The animation art is so realistic- the nuances of light as the figures move, the tiny wrinkles in the facial expressions- it looks like they painted over real actors frame by frame. So why not just use the actors who did such an excellent job with the voices? Because the animation technology makes it practical to do any effect imaginable. Now no work of literature is beyond REALISTIC reproduction in film. Think about that. The problems arise from two paradoxes. The first is that despite the presence in the plot of a futuristic setting replete with demon/alien monsters of every description, military hardware, wonderful weapons, vehicles to die for, slug-it-out back street gun battles and sattelite warfare, this is not a guy movie but a chick-flick instead. It is a love story whose central figure is a woman who never so much as pulls a gun but is saving the world by nuturing plants and animals back to life. They have pulled in perhaps the most testosterone-drenched demographic possible to see the film: all the laser-thumbed gamers of the world, and dragged them to a chick-flick. But a pretty decent one. The second paradox is that despite all the sophistication of the computer animation technology, the underlying cosmology (read "religion") of the film is a step back to primitive pagan pantheism. "Life" and "Spirit" are a ubiquitous, semi-intelligent nature-force that dwells in all beings that are collectively the "Gaia" goddess of each planet. Everything would work out fine if only mankind could eliminate the evil, anti-ecological force of businessmen and free enterprise. So nothing happens in the film that isn't already on display in any episode of "Captain Planet" (albeit the ... isn't so transparent). Nevertheless, the film is well worth viewing. The technology (and the philosophy) are precursors of much to come.
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Summary: Only for gamers
Review: This movie seemed interesting from the outstanding animation that was shown on the trailer. I knew it was based on the game and I hadn't really played any of the whole series, but I had heard that they were good. So I decided to see what all this animation hype was all about. What I realized was that this movie is strictly for gamers. I would advise anyone who hasn't played the games NOT to see it because the movie uses a lot of gamer vocabulary that normal moviegoers would not understand and would be confused right off the bat.
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Summary: Final Fantasy Review
Review: This movie is a major breakthrough in computer animation technology. Although better than Lara Croft, the story is no Gone With the Wind.
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Summary: is good
Review: Before I saw Final fantasy all I heard was the story was bad but the animation was good. The story is not all that bad simple but not bad. I think it was well worth the money I spent.
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Summary: A feast for the eyes, a nibble for the rest.
Review: First thing I have to say is that this movie rocks. The characters are incredible, the scenes are mind blowing and the minutae is to die for. Little things like the way the way Aki's hair moves is just brilliant. When was the last time you saw that level of "realism" in a totally "un-real" movie? But all of that can't save a weak plot. Aliens crash on Earth and force the remaining humans to hide behind barricades. The only hope is two scientists that are trying to find a way to destroy the aliens. Well, a little science, some spiritual new-age stuff and they come up with a viable plan. But cue the requisite bad guy who does everything in his power to stop them, even if it means sacrificing innocent lives in order to do so. Tack on to this a romantic sub-plot, a group of bickering but loyal comrades and your classic "time is running out" scenario and you have the makings of what could be the biggest movie this summer. It's gorgeous, it's amazing but ultimately just leaves you feeling empty.
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Summary: Very Different--A Little Creepy--But Pretty Good
Review: This movie represents a breakthrough in computer graphics. For the first time computer artists have created images that are nearly photo real for an entire motion picture. The question is, of course, whether what is essentially a cartoon can hold the interests and provoke the emotions of an adult audience, the answer (proved indesputably by Final Fantasy) is that it can. Final Fantasy is essentially a science fiction/horror/spiritual journey of a film that, surprisingly, doesn't get bogged down by all the themes it attempts to engage. Its closest relative would be something like Aliens, although Final Fantasy is not nearly as terrifying. Still, there are some scenes that would disturb young children. The film takes place during a war for supremacy of the Earth that has presumably been going on for quite some time. Most of the major cities are in ruins and what is left of humanity can be found collected in the hearts of once proud urban areas under glowing orange "safety shields." These shields are designed to protect the humans from invisible "phantoms" that need only to touch a person to rip away his/her lifeforce (this is done numerous times with spectacular visual effects that never get old). The hope of humanity rests upon the shoulders of one woman and her mentor (a wise old scientist who looks like Obi-Wan Kenobi--the old one--and is voiced to perfection by Donald Sutherland). In opposition to the military leaders of the planet, our two heroes seek to understand the "phantoms" in terms of their mythical link to the legendary planetary and universial lifeforce called the gaya. It is always fun to see a movie so concerend with, what is essentially, a derivative of Hindu philosophy. It is a very unobtrusive idea and it is presented as pure fantasy rather than dogma. In a way, this film serves as an introduction to this type of thinking, just as "Star Wars" and "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" do. Final Fantasy definately keeps your attention. The action scenes are extremely compelling, and, for the most part, the computer generated human faces do a good job with displaying real human emotion (saddness isn't quite nailed to perfection, but what the heck?). It seemed sort of odd to me that this film would be so loaded with recogniziable voices. Recognizable are those of Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, Ving Rhaymes, Steve Buscemi and James Woods. I don't understand why shuch a star-studded cast was assembled because it must have been a tremendous expense and, judging from the spectacular graphics, this film already had a huge budget. Maybe this was intended simply as a symbol that no expense would be spared, and, indeed, the vocal performances are all superb. I couldn't help but wonder if this movie might have been more effective as a live action feature. Certainly the plot was strong enough to carry it and it didn't seem as though the filmakers engaged in a lot of scenes that couldn't have been constructed with live performers. In many ways it looked like a standard movie, I was hoping they would do something radical like have the whole film be one continuous shot, something that couldn't feasibly be done in a standard movie. Although it is a little creepy to see actual human beings be replaced by computer generated images, all in all this movie is very entertaining and definately worth the time.
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