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Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within (Single Disc Edition)

Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within (Single Disc Edition)

List Price: $19.94
Your Price: $17.95
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sweet "Fantasy"
Review: "Final Fantasy-The Spirits Within"is one of the best and most underrated movies of 2001.It sets a new standard for animation,its charaters and landscapes looking incredibly indistinguishable from real life.While a lot of people(the moviegoing public addicted to tripe like American Pie 2 and Planet Of The Apes,that is) thought the story was weak and overfamiliar,I guess they have to think harder,look deeper, and find a earnest,hearfelt eco-spiritual message of love and compassion bereft from many of today's so called "blockbusters".Hopefully this splendid 2-disc set(featuring a fine documentary,storyboards,charater profiles,a FF "Thriller" video,and much more) will give this future classic the second life it deserves.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This Movie Aboslutely F'ing RULES!!
Review: Somehow I want to argue with all the people who only wanted to give it 4-4.5 stars. I think that this movie has a great plot (and yeah, the Gaia thing might be a little cheesy, but what are all the Final Fantasy games about?) and simply amazing computer animation. The enemy was a refreshing change from the norm. I rented this movie for one night and watched it 3 times. That was 2 days ago and I would happily watch it again. At the very least, watch it for yourself and remember that I don't respect you if you dislike it :)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: dvd not complete
Review: The movie is great, but the cover said that it had widescreen and I have exhaustively searched both dvds and was unable to find this feature. It will only play full screen. I am very disappointed

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great movie, terrible DVD set
Review: Some may argue that the movie was less than average. The fact you are reading this, however, indicates that you liked the movie and are thinking about buying the DVD. Here's what I think about it:

Pros:
* Rather good quality of audio and video.
* Two in-movie commentaries, sadly not by the director.
* Certificate of authenticity (I know, it's a piece of paper, but I like it.)

Cons:
* Disc 2. The scenes here utilize Quicktime 5, is a degradation of the whole DVD idea. These scenes run in a tiny; 3x2 inches window.
* Finding mose of the special features is a pain. They are hidden under several layers of menus and sub-menus.
* Many of these special features require Internet access, a detail that is not mentioned on the package.
* Bonus trailers include trailers of 2-years old movies, such as Starship Troopres.

Overall, ignore this DVD and wait for the Extra-special edition or whatever it will be called.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: Amazing movie with the best CGI to date. Better plot than the run of the mill scifi. Stays true to it's RPG roots.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic Final Fantasy
Review: The graphic in this movie always amaze me. When watching this movie one has to remember that the people are not real but anamation. This movie has raised the expectations of many movie goer and is a must have for the Sci-Fi collection. Final Fantasy is the first of its kind and I can not wait until the next one. It is well worth the 4 year wait.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Fantastic CGI ....but..............Alien Ghosts? ...come on
Review: This film might have beeen better as a one hour straight to video feature. Without reapeating all the other reviewer's comments; avoid this one. The action and adventure is what I thought I was going to get. It's amazing to look at but there is no substance. I have to confess that I fell asleep watching this and I went to my local mall to puchase a 50's science fiction film by Roger Corman. At least it delivered what was promised. This one folks is an experiment for the sequel....which will probably be more action packed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A marvel of modern movie-making.
Review: In trying to think of how to put in words my thoughts on "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," I'm slightly at a loss. After one hour and forty six minutes of watching a continuous special effect, I've come to the conclusion that the film will go down in history as a golden nugget of the modern era, and a symbol of the ongoing creation of bigger and better (not to mention believable) visual effects.

And while the computer animation is eye-popping and awe-inspiring, the story behind it is passable enough to back it up, including some good character development and interaction, and a futuristic vision of Earth that has more ups than downs. This isn't sci-fi in the great tradition of the classics in the genre, but it provides a reason for the special effects, keeping them from seeming arbitrary and routine.

The movie takes us to the year 2065, and Earth is desolate and barren, and overrun by years of war which pits the remains of the human race against strange, ghost-like creatures referred to as "phantoms." Among these is Aki Ross (voiced by Ming-Na), a young female scientist in search of remaining life forms among barren sections of the planet. After an incident in the abandoned section of New York City, she meets up with former flame Captain Edwards (Alec Baldwin), who is assigned to guard her.

But his assignment comes from a less-than-honorable general (James Woods), who wishes to incarcerate Aki when it is revealed that she is infected with a contained strand of the phantom phenomena, which seems to be breaking free of its confines within her. His true intention is to have a new military weapon approved for use against the menace, hoping to disprove the theory held by Aki and her mentor, Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland), that retrieving spirits of nature will create a force strong enough to wipe out the powerful juggernaut.

This is where the story meets most of its ups and downs. When the story isn't trying to create a sense of awe and wonder through theological beliefs pertaining to the battle of good versus evil, it works well. The background history behind the phantoms will seem a bit contrived, even silly. Other plot lines, such as the sense of heroism instilled in the characters, and the battle between the scientists and the government officials, work much better.

The characters are also some of the better-developed characters of the year, and they're all digital, for crying out loud. The movie devotes much time to developing each one individually, from a scene involving Aki and Edwards being trapped in an overhead observatory, to Aki's conversations with Dr. Sid. The interaction between the characters provides some laughs as well as some believable moments of heroic actions. Each voice talent gets into the mindset of their character, and makes their emotions appear as real as the CGI actors themselves.

The movie's most memorable aspect, without a doubt, is the dazzling use of computer animation, which stands as a striking achievement in the history of movie-making. Composed entirely of CGI, the movie itself is one big special effect, one that is easily discernable from reality, but is nonetheless impressive in its audaciousness and its grand sense of scope and vision. The actors, I'm told, were created entirely from scratch, without the use of human digitization. Such facts as this create a heightened sense of appreciation for the effort and work that goes into a project such as this.

"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" becomes more than just a futuristic look at Earth: it also becomes a futuristic look at filmmaking. The story will be a bore to some looking for readily-believable theories and dialogue, and may even disappoint followers of the sci-fi genre, but it's not without its intentions, and it meets those intentions by bringing us filmmaking as we've never seen it before. We may be years away from seeing real actors completely replaced by digital ones, but after this film, the possibility has become frightening real.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Good animation, dull story.
Review: Although I liked the animation for the most part (some of the skin tones looked inconsistant throughout the film, yet still managed to be terrible every time, some of the non-organic motions were awkward, and other colors were just out of place), the rest of the movie was just plain dull.
The story looked like something a B-movie director turned down. Not only was it flat and boring, but it was also quite ridiculous.
And this is all ignoring the fact that the movie has nothing to do with the Final Fantasy series. The only thing FFish about the movie were some of the sets, and a few of the character's and their costumes were reminicent of bad guys and footsoldiers from FFVII and VIII.
I'm glad I rented this instead of paying money to see it in the theaters, or wasted way too much buying the DVD.
The only thing that saved the DVD was one hidden feature. If you have found it, you know what I mean, if you don't know what I mean, find it yourself.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: WARNING: RCE
Review: This motion picture will only play on a dedicated Region 1 machine. If you don't know what "RCE" or "Region 1" mean, then you probably have nothing to worry about.


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