Rating: 
Summary: Amazing!
Review: Wow! I just watched the movie and I loved it! It is certainly in line with the Final Fantasy genre. The characters were believable, the atmosphere was haunting and the storyline was very intricate but not too complicated to be confused. Of course the graphics were simply astounding. You know they are not real people but that's the point. The designs of the characters are not imitations of real life but they are not simply animation characters either and I found that this is amazing. So go watch the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: The Horror. The Horror.
Review: Don't get me wrong: I was more worked up than *anyone* about this movie. The fact is that I'm a media arts major, and the technology used in this movie bodes amazing new things: imagine being able to ressurect Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn using the same technology used to create Aki Ross. The possibilities are mindboggling; as soon as this technology becomes more widespread, it spells a new age for movie making. While not perfect, Final Fantasy hints at an amazing future.The only problem is that the creators of this movie forgot the *point* of a movie: to tell a coherent story in a way that it hasn't been told before. Rather, this movie awkwardly tackles the exact same themes that were tackled in movies like "Godzilla" and "Princess Mononoke". These themes are also the exact same ones that have been used in a variety of the Final Fantasy games, most prominently FFVII. The themes I speak of basically boil down to this(massively simplified): "Don't mess with mother nature, or you'll get burned". "Princess Mononoke" managed to handle this overdone theme with quite a bit of panache; it was the kind of movie that makes you forget you're seeing a plot you've seen a dozen times before. Final Fantasy, on the other hand, manages to rank more in the area of "Godzilla": a lot of flash and pretty lights, but nothing more. Then we hit the dialogue. The fact is, I couldn't help but wince constantly every time Aki Ross and Grey Edwards exchanged romantic conversation, because I'd never heard such stilted romantic dialogue. The fact is, pure action movies have pulled off *well-done* romantic undertones before. It's not impossible. Just look at "Aliens", with the relationship between Hicks and Ripley. While there are obvious parallels between the relationship in "Aliens" and the one in Final Fantasy, that relationship(which goes almost completely off of feeling and gesture) surpasses the one in Final Fantasy by leaps and bounds. But Final Fantasy just doesn't put any effort into it. Dialogue by General Hein and Dr. Sid when arguing about ways to get rid of the Phantoms is similiarly stilted: you feel like they're a couple of two year olds who are *this* close to calling each other "poopy heads". It doesn't exactly convey the sense of awe you're supposed to get from a charismatic authority figure, the kind of figure that Hein is supposed to be. In fact, I hate to say this, but the cliched Marine dialogue was the *best* part of the film, as far as dialogue went! They were lines you've heard before in a hundred other movies in a hundred different ways, but they actually packed at least a small bit of feeling, and were moderately enjoyable to listen to and experience. Of course, that probably just affected me, as I'm a sucker for cliched soldier back and forth. Still, I swear to you that I could simply dub in lines from the movie "Aliens", and you'd never know the difference. Jane and Neal are obviously Vasquez and Hudson; the Sergeant is obviously Apone. Captain Grey Edwards is an awkward combination of Hicks and a variety of other square jawed heroes. Hein is a slightly, slightly more authoritative version of Paul Reiser's character in "Aliens". A lot of people are saying that we should ignore the plot, ignore the fact that the dialogue is horrible, and just pat Square on the back for taking this giant leap in animation. I disagree, because animation is just a *tool* for telling a *story*. The story is ALWAYS more important than the tools you use to tell it. Square does not realize this, and the movie suffers accordingly. Then we move to the music. I've come to expect a lot from Square in regards to music; I actually enjoy listening to the soundtracks from most of their games. Here we got a bunch of music that sounded like it had been remixed from every action movie ever made. The only word that could describe it is "generic". None of it stirs you in any way, shape or form; it's just *there*. Easily ignorable. Music can often compensate for a movie where the action is boring and the dialogue is cliche; in other movies, music can even bring the experience to new heights. For the first time in a very long while, I have witnessed a movie where the music actually *detracts* from the experience. Final Fantasy is that movie. As far as graphics go, I'll say again that they were amazing. The mouths were obviously a long way off from being perfected, however; that might take a long time to work on. The movie makers compensated for this by trying to avoid direct shots when people were talking. If you watch the movie closely, you'll notice that only a slight percentage of the dialogue actually takes place while the camera is viewing people's mouths. I don't have a problem with this, however: it's natural that you're going to have some kinks in the system to work out, and the avoidance is masterful. Cinematography, or whatever you might call it, as no real cameras are involved, is very competent. I like the way that the camera work in the first scene in Old New York City simulates the famed "hand-cam" approach. It's a good way to follow a combat sequence, and adds to suspense. I have to admit that I enjoyed that sequence immensely, probably the only part of the movie I didn't shudder my way through. The entrance of the Marines was interesting, the movement through the streets was bumpy and frantic; it was well set up. That's about all in the way of good things I can say for the movie. Don't go to see this movie; wait till it comes out on video. Prove to Square that they can't just tempt us with really nice eye candy. Show them that we care about the story, not the tools(however advanced) that they use to tell it. When a well done dramatic movie is produced using these new tools, I will applaud it wholeheartedly. However, I will not blindly rain kudos upon on Square just because they are the first to do something(namely, film and release a dramatic CG movie; all the others have been comedies, so far). Whether you are the first does not matter: whether you are the first to do it WELL does matter. I'm only telling it the way I see it: Why defend a movie that doesn't deserve defending? I love Square, and love their games, but they failed miserably here. This is NOT because they have forsaken Fantasy for a more sci-fi approach; it is because they forsaken story for eye candy. I don't care whether they made this Final Fantasy movie a film noir, a thriller, an action movie, or a western; all I cared about was whether or not it was well done. This was not well done: this was a slapdash job of a script and plot thrown onto some pretty pictures. I can only hope that this dismal failure does not discourage others from journeying down this path. I read a lot of reviews here which say that the reviewer didn't quite understand the plot, or got lost a couple times. This is not because this is a good movie, or because the plot is excessively deep. It is not because the themes interwoven in the plot are from Japanese folklore, as one reviewer suggested(though some of the themes *are* from Japanese folklore, this is not why it is confusing). The plot has lost you because it doesn't make any sense! The people giving this movie good reviews are the reasons why movies have gotten so c--ptacular in recent years. People are willing to be taken in by flashy lights and pretty pictures, instead of interesting plots and compelling characters. Just TEN MINUTES of a Humphrey Bogart film such as "Casablanca" contains more pure power than a *billion* "Final Fantasy"'s. As for the reviewer who said that Star Wars wasn't Shakespeare either: Star Wars was pure camp, and reveled in it. It was FUN. It didn't get weighed down by it's own importance. It never *once* became as self-important as Final Fantasy *always* is throughout the course of the movie. Yeah, Star Wars was cliched, and used bits and pieces of every other movie ever made: but it managed to appeal to a huge amount of people because of the pure enjoyment that it embodied. Final Fantasy always takes itself too seriously, even when the Marines are trading cliched jokes. This is also why Phantom Menace was a bad movie: it took itself too seriously. I have a wide range of tastes, from Army of Darkness to The Big Sleep, from Star Wars to The Way of the Gun, from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to the English Patient, from Top Gun to North by Northwest. These movies all have some kind of redeeming trait that does not lie solely in flashy lights and pretty pictures. They are *fun to watch*. Final Fantasy was not fun to watch, and has no redeeming traits beyond the graphics.
Rating: 
Summary: almost horrible
Review: What I expected of Final Fantasy was to see some great storytelling backed by some great action scenes. Instead what I got was a mediocre movie with a bunch of uninteresting characters and a generic plot. To me the movie was about as exciting as watching a video game FMV sequence with extra textures. JUST BECAUSE AKI'S HAIR LOOKS REAL DOESN'T MAKE THIS A GREAT MOVIE. References to Aliens is extremely obvious. Don't waste your time on this movie unless your really rich. Instead go see A.I. Another outstanding movie from Spielberg.
Rating:
Summary: At the summit of the blend between technology and art
Review: Why is that when a fantasy movie tries to examine the essence of life itself it is disregarded as boring or "been there done that" cliche? Contrary to the elitists of cinematic critique, this film's dialogue and character development was done with taste. There were subtle pauses and personal flourishes in conversation by believable characters who weren't one-sided (the general being a great example). Additionally, also contrary to expert opinions, the story was well constructed and executed. Yes, the theme of a planet having a life of its own and displaying a species that is destroying it through its continual praise of the military-industrial complex, is a bit worn in the genre. But, it's remarkable method and consistent style of presentation does a concept that broad, well, justice. And, of course, the computer graphics raises the bar on every movie ever produced. If you don't appreciate it, either the sci-fi genre doesn't appeal to you in general, or there is little that can entertain you...
Rating:
Summary: Visually Stunning ... Poorly Executed
Review: Any review of this movie must have the standard description of the CGI People. Sometimes they seemed plastic and wooden and other times the CGI humans were dead on. At times I fell for the fantasy and saw Gray as Ben Affleck giving a really bad performance. The non-human elements were awesome. It carried the unique "mecha" style of Japanese Anime and the vehicles looked particularly cool. The enemy "phantoms" were pretty neat and could only have been realised through computer animation. The story was indeed a retread of past SCI-FI works with a generous sprinkling of Final Fantasy physco-babble. There were places were I felt I was playing the game and wishing to have an controller button to push to skip over a hackneyed disertation on the nature of Gaia. This movie moved along at a very straight forward pace. This is the good guy...this is the bad guy....this is the love interest...these are the enemies...this is how we stop them...now we go to stop them. We were never given the opportunity to see into the onscreen world and visit the characters. The "acting" was bad. The jokes were dumb but could've worked if delivered by live actors. The only character that seemed to work was Dr. Cid. The CGI characters were not expressive enough to make you laugh. The limited nature of the facial expressions also made it difficult to buy into the heavy emotial scenes. The movie was amusing in places. Particularly some phantoms were an overt copy of themes in Japanese tenticle-porn. We were even treated to seeing a ghost-tentacle pierce into (or out of?) the main characters crotch. Other fun was to be when the main character stuck her head in her loves laps which smacked of...well something naughty. People looking to see a live Final Fantasy game may be dissapointed. Apart from the bizarre nonsensical plot and the addition of a character named Cid there was little relation to the RPG series. I looked close and saw no six-feet tall Chickens. The soundtrack was adequate. One weird piece lifted the distinctive opening note from "The Phantom of The Opera" during ... of course... a phantom attack. Bizzarre. Don't look for the less-than-stellar ending song at next years Academy Awards. I went into the film wanting to see what computer animation was looking like outside the Disney-deritive works like Shrek and Toy Story. Mission accomplished. Anybody going for an interesting story or good action should probably look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: oh my god...
Review: Some friends and I went to see this movie last night, and I can quite truthfully say I've never seen an animated feature quite like this - ever. Never in the history of computer animation has there been a movie created with so much detail, so much subtlety that it at times becomes so completely indiscernible from "real world" acting. The skins, the textures, the interaction among the characters and their environment, the way their clothing bends and wrinkles when they move, the way the main character's hair sways when she moves her head, it's all so real. I've never played the Final Fantasy games, so I didn't go into this movie with any plot expectations. I went to see the incredible animation which had fooled me into believing it was live acting - not animation - when I first saw the previews of it so many months ago. I wasn't disappointed. This movie is must-see.
Rating:
Summary: Awsome
Review: I saw this movie yesterday and I loved it. It has a great storyline and excellent animation. To you guys who are bad mouthing this movie and haven't even seen it yet, go see it. Then you can realize how WRONG you are. btw-I saw the preview for Spider-Man and it looks sweet.
Rating:
Summary: Final Fantasy ( I hope not)
Review: I saw the movie last night. I was totally blown away. I was so impressed by the little things like: the way Aki's hair moved, the veins in their eyes. the muscles in Grays arms, the small strands of hair that moved. I sat thru the whole movie in awe of the great computer animaters. Good job guys and gals. It was so refreshing to see such a different movie. I must admit I got kind of lost at the end. Alot was happening and this was my first experience with anything about Final Fantasy. But, even though I was new to the whole series, I finally understood what was happening. I mainly went to the movie for the computer animation which I love. Really worth seeing and experiencing.
Rating:
Summary: JUST SAW IT
Review: Well, I just saw Final Fantasy and I must say, THAT WAS THE MOST INCREDIBLE MOVIE!!! It was awesome!!! From the storyline to the visual effects, it just flat rocked. And it is nothing like the "Aliens" saga (people should knoe by now that previews are often misleading to what the movie is REALLY about). I am not a big fan of the FF game, but this movie is just absolutely incredible! Best sci-fi film in a long time. Great job Columbia and Square Pictures!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Just saw it
Review: I don't know quite what to say. It didn't blow my mind but it didn't ... by any means. I don't beleive that it lived up to what I have come to expect from the Final Fantasy name. Where was the magic? Where was the fantasy? The music wasn't as good as the music in the games. I didn't especially care for any of the characters. The voice acting was very good except for Alec Baldwin and Mr. Pink (Can't remember his real name) whose voices didn't quite jive with the look of the characters they played. I guess I can't think of a reason not to see this movie but I'm not itching to see it again. In short: It's not a waste but it isn't as good as the games by a long shot.
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