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Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within (Special Edition)

Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within (Special Edition)

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $26.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: If you like Japanese story lines...
Review: I'm not going to ramble like some of the other reviewers here so let me just say this: "Mind-blowing animation" but the story failed to hold my attention. I found myself watching just to see the imagery. I've always found that the Japanese have trouble editing their stories. They seem to want to put in everything but the kitchen sink whether it contributes to the telling of the story or not. In this film one can notice it's been edited for an American audience, but still, the story is very esoteric and not very believable, I don't care how spiritual you are. What a shame. Worth a rental not a purchase.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Buy this movie
Review: This movie rocks socks. It's got a typical Final Fantasy storyline, amazing special effects, and alien invaders. Buy it, punk.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must have if you are a Computer Graphic Artist / Animator.
Review: 'A must have' here means that this DVD version isn't just a reference of Complete Animation / Images. Well, that's also really help, but, you can also look to a half-complete 'behind the scene' film (but still playing full almost 2 hours), which is only from storyboard and a half-preview look from 3D software package (in this film, Maya's realtime preview). You can look from there, although just few seconds, how the related scene was made.

In short, It's a great & complete 'study-case' CG film or any other animation that appear in most Squaresoft's Final Fantasy videogame or other title videogame.

Just try sharing, as I'm also one of CG fans and a person who try learning & experimenting many CG things.
Hope helpful, please apologize that my english isn't really good. :)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Beautiful Rendering, Advanced Animation, OVERPRICED CARTOON!
Review: While Final Fantasy is every bit the most advanced rendering and computer animation (Anime), the story and movie is little beyond that of a typical saturday morning cartoon. As a science fiction lover, I very much enjoy some good techobabble, however, as I find the problem with much Japenese Anime, I become bored easily: HOMOGENEOUS, without much variation. After a while the shooting, explosions, and wild imagery become monotonous, just like any cartoon seems to do after a while. This is a beautiful, latest and greatest technology Japanese ANIME. I enjoyed it but was slightly disappointed in the sense that the story was a little on the strange side and did not move me very much. To think it cost something like $120,000,000.00 to produce, or some rediculous figure! OUCH! The reason I'm excited about this DVD and movie is because of the trickle down technology and a glimpse of what computer games are going to be like within a year or two.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It is okay...
Review: Let me first say that this is a good movie. The animation is good, the voices are good, and the characters are great. You are probably wondering why I gave it 4 stars, right? Well, pretty much, this is my only reason, it is called Final Fantasy. I expected it to have magic or summons or chocobos or something. It is didn't have any of that so I was disappointed. It did have something to do with spirits and those have a part in final fantasy but that's the only thing. It didn't have anything else of final fantasy. Because of this, I thought it should be called something else instead of "Final Fantasy". It is made by Square, the creators of Final Fantasy, but they have made other games and could've called it something else. That is the only thing that made me disappointed about it. Don't get me wrong; it is a great movie, just not a FF. You should see it, it a very good movie, just don't really expect that much of any FF stuff in it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A tragically underappreciated masterpiece.
Review: Well... I don't have the DVD yet... But I do work in the entertainment industry. This DVD comes loaded down with Features for all you techno geeks at heart too play and fiddle around with. just check out the list and drool if that sorta thing is your bag. But for the rest of us that don't have a clue what a animorphic widescreen is.... Were more interested in what kind of film this is.

Well... It's a real good one. Better then Mummy returns in many respects. I'm sure you've read the poor reviews, and let me explain why.

Quick Question: You ever go too a film and sit behind a guy that talks and doesn't pay attention too a film? That's the kind of guy that won't enjoy this film. It's a sad fact that The majority of Western audiances wanna go too a movie and be able too get the plot whilst paying minimal attention. And most movies, (Gladiator, mummy returns) Cater too this mentality.

Final Fantasy's story movies quickly, not a scene is wasted, nor is one piece of dialouge. Blink, go too the bathroom, and you will not have the slightist idea whats going on, or why the ppl are doing what they are doing. I'm sad that the film got a bad rap by ppl that prefer simplicity. While simplicity has it's place, A film like this is a breathtaking break from the norm.

When I Rented the film for a friend, in the first scene they asked me "I thought this is supposed too be animated, how come they are using a real actress in that scene" Well, It is 100% completely animated. And that's the kicker. It's the most visually dazzeling film you ever saw. Lucas said that he wanted too put a life like CGI alien in Phantom menace, Well lucas I reccommend you take your Gungan Back too the old workshop cuz he looks like a hand puppet compared too the charachters in this film. Acting and dialouge all get A+ marks all around. The only exception is general Hein. When the heck did Snidely Whiplash sign up with Square anyway? I swear there is a distinct resemblance. Maybe Hanna Barbara should sue. General Hein Gets a B instead cuz he's just so over the top and dastardly that Dr. Evil would have too clone a thousand Mini Me's just too be competitive.

In short, final fantasy Is top notch, yet Complex entertainment that demands your complete attention, and perhaps multiple viewings too truly enjoy. And even if you have the attention span with the tinsel strength of cotton candy in a typhoon, If your a techno-geek, you'll just dig all those extras. The biggest sin is that fianl fantasy was so underappreciated at the box office that square recently announced they will make no more feature films due too the EXTREME lack of profit. Which is a shame. It may be years, or even never, Before an other studio reaches this kind of technical AND artistic porficency and gives us another CGI film this deep, moving, well written, and beautifully animated.

Crying shame indeed doncha think?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: excellent
Review: just as i expected.
the movie was excellent.
everything was just amazing..
and aki ross is a babe..

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: For fans of fantasy a welcome treat ,but not for everyone.
Review: In the summer of 2001 there was the delightful and warmhearted
Shrek , but Square Soft an expert in making powerful and popular
role playing game and the one that put them on the gaming front
no doubt about it Final Fantasy was to be a huge project for them
investing for Square was a big risk for this levithan of a C.G. ,
flick with a 75 million dollar price tag , and the best computer
generated effects ever.The ploit is complex and emotional and is
not for everyone.The earth is a wasteland and has been invaded by
powerful phantoms , citys on fire and people running for shelter
it is up to Aki Ross (Ming Na Wen) and the doctor who is played by Donald Sutherland , and a band of marines to find a signiture
of an 8th restless spirit to avoid a war and a dictating madman
(James Woods )from fireing a superweapon to destroy the spirit.

This movie is not for everyone for the person whom is not a fan to Final Fantasy they may have to watch it twice to figure
what the movie is about , playing mostly to empty theatres the only bad thing would be is that it is more for the fans then anything.If you are not ready for a serious movie to use this
technology then you might like Shrek more then this movie but
definately the computer animation is so good so realistic that
when you see it at first you'll think they used real actors,
the DVD is two disks and has many worthwhile options but most
of them are subtitled but there fun , for fans of sci fi this
is a worthwhile DVD and is a great sci fi movie , but for the
person who is not into it the film will to immersive but a
good film even though reveiwers trashed it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not Ben Hur, but a new category, well worth seeing.
Review: I saw this movie in the theatre, as a 44 year old man, geek, teacher, artist. It was much better than I expected. The plot was there, and the computer generated graphics were awesome, particularly for the lead character Dr. Aki. The minor characters were not so good, and you could tell they were computer generated of course, but hey this is a new genre, cutting edge technology. The computer graphics special effects are worth seeing this movie if just for that reasoning alone. It is said that in five years such characters will be mixed with real actors in movies, and you won't know the difference-- I believe it, having seen this movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A spiritual movie with wonderous animation!
Review: This movie comes with 2 discs. The first has the movie, the other contains all the really awesome extras. In most cases, animated movies are great. They usually have a strong story with breath-taking graphics. Toy Story 1 and 2 are both the best examples.

Final Fantasy's animation and graphics just blow everything that's been done away! The movements are fairly realistic, the character models are great and very deep, the action equals to that of any decent action flick. This is what computer animation is supposed to be like!

Is that enough reason to buy this movie? Maybe.

What about the story since that is what movies are about? The story is very Final Fantasy non-standard (as compared to the video games). There are no swords, no chocobos, no lead male character, no summoning of monsters or even magic. No, this is a sci-fi flick in the vain of such movies like Aliens, Pitch Black, Akira, and Bladerunner.
The story feels very Japanese. It is dealing heavily with the human spirit after death. Does it return to the Earth (or Gaia as it is called in the movie) to join the planet's spirit? Mixed in with this ideaology is that 'aliens' have crash landed on Earth and seem to like 'killing' off the human inhabitants. There are two stories running together; what to do with the aliens and how does the human spirit fit into all this? Oh, I forgot that they are hunting for the last of THE 8 spirits. What those are, I have no idea.
It does all tie together... Barely.

If you look deeper, you find the enemy is not the aliens, but ourselves. It is this deeper meaning that drives this movie and what the Final Fantasy games are really about.

So the story is neat in concept, but not well written. (This occurs in RPGs all the time...) How about characters? Afterall, it has an all star cast with Ming Na, Donald Sutherland, a Baldwin and Steve Buscemi!
I really felt that they weren't fleshed out well. Sutherland's character might be the best and he's just the doctor. The love between Aki and Gray's characters are decent, but because their personalities fall a bit flat, it's hard to to really care THAT much. Buscemi's character appears to be the comic relief, much like Jar Jar in Star Wars. While he's not very funny, at least he's human. And the rest of Gray's fire team, well, they can be easily compared to Corp. Hick's team in Aliens.

The real delight of this 2-disc set is the 2nd disc. I don't know of many DVDs that have extras that are really worth having.
The documentary is great and really helps the feel and the story of the movie. Once you watch that, you'll watch the movie with a bit more respect to the time, effort, and emotions that went into the film. There's goofy outtakes (not as refined as Toy Story's unfortunately), a music video O_o, and all sorts of other swell things. I haven't viewed an extras disc just as good since Mummy Returns or Star Wars1.

The movie alone, I don't think is worth buying. But coupled with the Extras disc, the mind-blowing animation, a funky music video, the sum of the parts make it worth purchasing.


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