After seeing the previews for Final Fantasy, this didn’t look like a movie I was interested in seeing. This was really strange to me, since I love science fiction, Japanese anime, and animated movies even more. I let myself be roped into seeing this flick with a few of my friends. Some of whom, had already seen it and were giving it rave reviews. So, off to the theatre we went. However, despite all the praises from my friends and all the media hype, I still had my reservations… and it turns out that my instincts were right. It really wasn’t that good.

The movie was very much like watching a big RPG video game. It’s like they put all the animated sequences from one of the Final Fantasy games and slapped it up on the screen. It had a very cliché plot that almost seemed to be a smattering of Aliens and Starship Troopers with a dash of cheese from the PC game, Starcraft. Well, let me give you a quick overview of the movie….

The year is 2065. A dark and desolate earth has been invaded by myriad of alien creatures that crashed landed via meteor 34 years ago. The surviving humans live in small barrier cities while desperately trying to find a way to regain control of their planet. The film’s protagonist, Dr. Aki Ross (voice by Ming-Na Wen), will do whatever it takes find that way. She works together with her mentor, Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland), to go out and collect 8 spirits from singled out life forms. In theory, they wish to use these to negate the forces of the invisable Phantoms or aliens. However, we of course have to have a dastardly villain, General Hein (James Wood), who will stop at nothing to destroy the aliens his way, which is with brute force, even if it means harming the earth. The cliché wouldn’t be complete without a love interest for Aki, Captain Grey Edwards (voice by Alec Baldwin) and his generic team of gung-ho comrades. Those comrades would be Ryan Whittaker (Ving Rhames), the big tough, African American guy with a soft spot, Jane Proudfoot (Peri Gilpin) masculine, female with an ever kick butt attitude and pilot, Neil Flemming (Steve Buscemi), the standard, short guy, comic relief.

Yes, it was nice that the film touched upon love, spiritual aspects (not in the Christian sense) and tried to have a little depth. It just didn’t seem to work, especially the love part. It also had some very large plot holes that really left you hanging. The roster of voice actors was impressive. Figuring out who played who (I hadn’t read any prior information on the cast) was one of the things that kept me entertained. However, maybe that was part of the problem. They were a little too recognizable and didn’t blend in with the characters on the screen., even if they did record the voices first and then animated based on the actors. Both the movies Shrek and Princess Mononoke had an all star cast of voice actors but they didn’t overpower their characters so that you pictured the actors just about each time they spoke. Also, the soundtrack of the movie wasn't very compelling. In fact, if you asked me what it was like, I couldn't tell you because I barely noticed it.

I do have to admit that the CGI was done very well. I mean, it boggles my mind to think about the amount of work the animators put into this film. So, I really do have to give it credit. However, all of that aside, I ended up rather disappointed. After listening to a fellow artist friend chatter on about how real it looked, I guess I was expecting something else. Yes, it looked realistic but hyper-realistic, not photo-realistic. It was almost as if they tried too hard and made everything too perfect. Yes, it was neat to see all the characters’ pores, birthmarks, freckles and each individual strand of Aki’s hair fluttering too smoothly in the breeze. The only time I felt that it was halfway real was when there was some kind of interesting back lighting and shadows played across the characters’ faces. Even so, there was a lack of facial expression, especially when it came to the eyes. There was also stiffness in the body movements that I couldn’t get passed. The soldiers, especially, looked like they could have come straight out of a Starcraft game. I was, however, impressed with the design of the Phantoms. With at least four different kinds careening and lumbering about the screen, it was interesting to watch how their glowing forms were made to interact with their surroundings.

Final Fantasy just didn’t grab me. I didn’t feel for the characters, even though they were going through some pretty bad situations. They just didn’t make me believe and that should be important in any film, CGI or not. I guess it wouldn’t have been so bad if they weren’t actually trying to make it so realistic, because then you just up the expectations.

So why do I recommend Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within? Well for someone like me, who’s planning on going into computer animation or who simply loves the marvels a computer can produce, it’s definitely worth seeing. Overall, it did at least keep me entertained. Maybe I’m just cranky because of the bad choice in movie theatres that barely had consistent sound, uncomfortable seats and a black line down the screen throughout the film (now I remember why I never go to that theatre anymore!)… Or maybe it’s because I’m not a die-hard Final Fantasy fan. Either way, if I change my mind after viewing it again when it comes out on video (and can hopefully watch it subtitled), I’ll let you know. For some reason, I feel like I should give it a second chance, probably because of the whole bad theatre thing!


Thanks for reading my second attempt at a movie review! : )





Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older