Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

While it's a technical triumph, it's not a compelling story. It is head and shoulders literally beyond what Robert Zemeckis gave us in The Polar Express (2004). The faces and hair look very realistic. It'll be some time before it's surpassed by the likes of Avatar. It all boils down to the faces. My biggest compliment is that they look human.The story is that in the future, the Earth is invaded by a strange race of ghost like phantoms. The only way to survive is to live in cities surrounded by shielding. The phantoms are a mystery that is never quite explained satisfactorily. It's a mystery that nobody really cares about except maybe the people who play the video game. While the action is pretty good, the story always gets into the way. Sometimes it left me scratching my head.

I don't even know why the people who made this film bothered to call it "Final Fantasy", when it didn't have anything to do with that franchise of video-games: They could have name it only "The Spirits Within" and it still will be the same thing, since this is something completely different (But not in a good way) I just don't know why the director of this movie Hironobu Sakaguchi (Which is the creator of the games) decided to remove all the elements that make "Final Fantasy" so popular in first place (Such as the combination of magic and steam-punk technology, the mythological characters) turning what could have been a great epic film into a boring, dull and clichéd story about an alien invasion on earth.For me, that was the main reason why this movie flopped, rather than the Uncanny Valley effect that the hyper-realistic animation from this movie had: With a good story and interesting characters, this would have been a much more enjoyable experience.And while I don't hate this movie,the truth is that I found it to be terribly disappointing: Most of the time, this film feels flat and uninspiring. There are some good scenes and the voice acting is pretty good. And the animation...Despite the fact that most of the time the movements of the characters feel robotic and lifeless, with awkward expressions on their faces...It is still quite impressive to look at, even more considering that this was one of the first animated movies that could achieve that level of realism.Sadly, the most important thing, the story, was completely neglected in order to focus in the visual aspect from this movie. It is true that not all the movies need to have a very complex story in order to be good, but I think, that at least it could have been something more entertaining: This movie is way too boring, too predictable and too predictable to be enjoyable. While the incredible CGI made it a (somewhat) worth-watching experience, the story is a complete mess, filled with the most annoying stereotypes from Hollywood films, and the worst part of it is that is not even funny. All the "intense" and emotional scenes from this movie feel demotivated. The characters are one-dimensional, being most of them are just cardboard clichés from many other movies and television shows.It is true that there are some movies that could make a good use of clichés...Unfortunately, this isn't one of them. "The Spirits Within" is merely an exercise of style over substance, where the story only follows the same pattern that appears in every other story about alien invasions on earth, expecting it to work well only because the CGI used on it was good. At the end, this only serves to proof how the lack of a good (Or at least entertaining story) are enough to destroy what could have been great film.Anyway, I think that this movie was doomed to be a flop from the very first moment in which it decided to be anything like the video-games. that was guaranteed to disappoint the fans from the "Final Fantasy" franchise, but also, it failed to attract to all the people who never played the games.Even with the best CGI, if the story doesn't appeal to anyone, the failure is something unavoidable.

Final Fantasy, as many know, is a series of video games that has spanned over two decades and is arguably the most successful video game franchise of all time. Final Fantasy (the original) was released in 1987 and since then 13 games have been released, including one sequel as well as countless spin-offs and two in-development projects. Growing up with Final Fantasy I grew to love everything about the series. The stories, the game play, everything little thing. When Squaresoft (now Square Enix) released Final Fantasy VIII I was given a copy for Christmas '99. It was the first FF game that I played through entirely and since has been my favorite of the FF games. I've played em all, beat em all and loved em all.When I first saw the trailer for this film my first thought was (I was only ten) "OMG! MOM! WE HAVE TO GO AND SEE THIS!" On the day of its release, July 11th, 2001 I believe my mother took me to see this at the beautiful Cinemark in Moosic. Even at that age I wasn't deceived by Hollywood in that they merely took the name Final Fantasy in order to market a product that had no relation to its source whatsoever.The movie follows Aki Ross, a scientist in a future Earth inhabited by Phantoms. Phantoms are alien like creatures. Remaining survivors live in "barrier cities" as they struggle to save humanity and the planet. In certain Final Fantasy games, especially FF VII, saving a dying planet is the main problem you face. Oddly enough this is the only relation The Spirits Within has to the Final Fantasy gaming series. Also there is a power hungry military man named Hein who is dead set on using a space cannon to destroy the Phantoms. Problem with this is the cannon would cause extreme harm to the planet and probably kill it but he's from the military so we can excuse him for lacking intelligence or humanity.Like I said before, the creators of this film only took the name Final Fantasy to help sell this movie to fans of the series. As a stand alone film it is exceptional in its class of CGI/sci-fi blend. Unfortunately I have to give this film a low rating because of its failure to rely on source material or follow any story in the FF galaxy. Even the story to FFX (which IMO was the weakest of the games) would have served this film much better. I always think about Stephen King's novels when I watch this movie. King has written very, very great novels in his time but the majority that are made into films are just crap. Why, because they don't follow the story of the original and they try to make it "Hollywood-style" and it just doesn't work. If a book is a national bestseller, why change it for a movie? If a game is an international bestseller like FF, why make a movie called Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within if the film is devoid of any spirit that was within the games? A five for a film that is great on its own but with a name of something entirely different.

This movie was a good SciFi flick.It's set in a post apocalyptic world. Has the domed cities to protect the remaining human element. You have the pacifist heroine, and macho military hero. The evil alien invaders destroying the planet and able to kill anyone with a single swipe. You have the band of brothers who is under the command of said military hero, complete with the tough chick, the lovable bad ass and the smart mouthed scrawny guy and you have the douche bag high ranking officer. The premise is our heroine Dr. Aki Ross is trying to find lifeforms with a certain spirit, an aura if you will, that can bring balance back to Gaia, the earth spirit,which has been thrown out of balance thanks to these alien invaders. She is in the field when she finds one of these spirits but comes under attack by the aliens, called Phantoms (due to there ethereal forms), when she is rescued by our military hero and his squad. The rest of the movie follows protocol of a SciFi flick, they go looking for other spirits, douche bag thinks this is all a crock. City is invaded by the Phantoms, Douchebag tries to destroy the enemy by destroying the planet. and so on... Here is where I give it a 3 out of 10, this has nothing to do with Final Fantasy. It was written by the creator of Final Fantasy. But even key elements that are in all Final Fantasy's are missing from here. No Summons, No final confrontation with main villain. In all Final Fantasy Games, even those that have the heavy SciFi theme, aren't close to whatever this movie was. Don't get me wrong, I am not asking for something like Advent Children, but they could have done a stand alone story that had the Final Fantasy elements in it and it still would have worked. If the title of the movie was just "Spirits Within" It probably would get a higher rating from me. But if this is supposed to be a final fantasy, then it doesn't work.