Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Waste of time

As Good As It Gets

An Exercise In Nonsense

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

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 have to be perfectly honest with you fellow IMDb reviewers. I went to the movies with a girl I was getting lucky with. We went to watch this movie because it had a long duration and because I had to warm things up with her. She ended up liking it very much and I almost fell asleep. But don't get me wrong, the movie isn't bad at all. It has a charming lead female character, an interesting plot, spectacular f/x, and it tries to follow perfect the best of the video game.The problem in my opinion with this movie is that it looks a lot like the video games. The animation is really great but it isn't something you haven't seen before. It feels like a video game, and it lacks of that special punch some movies of these kind need.I recommend it strictly for fans of the video game.

Just like the title hinted, Final Fantasy would have been better had it been a video game...Computer Graphics at its peak, sure. But the plot?A far-fetched blend of sci-fi and new-age clichés... a bit too dry for something that relies on visual polish only. Real-life acting can somewhat salvage a mediocre plot, but CGI surely can't, no matter how hard voice-actors try.Just imagine playing a visually impressive video game saddled with an average plot and with 90mins of unskippable intro... That's Final Fantasy for you.

To start off, I'd like to give a brief summary of the history of cgi. 2-D raster graphics in Westworld, wire frame graphics in Star Wars, the light cycle sequence in Tron, the stained glass knight in Young Sherlock Holmes, the first CG liquid effects in The Abyss and T2, Jurassic Park, Titanic, and now Final Fantasy. It is unfortunate for the movie that this form of animation has been vastly improved since, as can be seen in Robert Zemekis' latest films, The Polar Express and Beowulf. Final Fantasy remains competent in CG, but an equally accomplished plot is needed to make it a competent sci-fi, and although there are a couple of nifty ideas, the screenplay does not stretch things out enough. As a result, Final Fantasy feels too small in both scale and running length to shock and awe. Perhaps it is the kind of thing that would work better in theaters, but that doesn't feel like a good excuse for mediocrity. The best filmaking can engage a viewer even if watched on an iPod screen.Set in the distant future, man lives in space and Earth is an abandoned wasteland (thats new... ha ha). We follow a young ambitious doctor in her journey to find the answer to a crisis. Man is at war with a race of strange alien spirits, 'phantoms'. Who are they and what do they want? In her quest she is joined by others including an old lover (sort of).I think I may have simplified the plot a bit, but this gives you a general idea of what to expect. If done well, the story of Final Fantasy could be adventurous, intelligent and perhaps even emotional, and it is not. Though there is plenty of action, a lot of it feels dull and intertwining these scenes is a large amount of silly dialog, in which the subject matter is too much of science and not enough story. Last time I saw that happen was in Battlefield Earth with John Travolta's lines. The ending feels anti-climactic and with a somewhat silly plot twist. Final Fantasy is not a terrible film but to recommend it is a stretch. Whether or not the animation will be enough to captivate you or not is hard to say. Whether or not you'll find the story weak and unengaging, or adventurous and inventive is also hard to say. What I can say is that there are far better entries in both sci-fi and animation, If you really want a good film, try the Ghost in the Shell, not this.