Subject: Review: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

From: Steve Rhodes <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 23:01:08 -0000

FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****):  *** 1/2

Hironobu Sakaguchi's FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN is such a ground breaking
piece of cinema that it raises fundamental questions about the future of human
actors in motion pictures.  Its computer generated humans are astoundingly
lifelike in looks and motion.  The eyes and eyelids are especially astonishing.

But, like TOY STORY, the magic comes more from what an intelligent script is
able to accomplish with the animation.  Oscar nominated writer Al Reinert
(APOLLO 13), joined by Jeff Vintar and Hironobu Sakaguchi, fashion an
intelligent script of such depth that it's a challenge to keep up.  Certain
aspects of story are so intricate that they are almost incomprehensible, and I
mean that as a compliment.

It's hard to come close to doing justice to the plot, which is set in 2065, but
I'll give it a try.  The world, which looks like something out of BLADE RUNNER,
has been decimated by a group of ghostly aliens called phantoms.  Mankind has
been fighting and losing in battles with these aliens who arrived on a meteor
that struck the earth.  A scientist named Dr. Aki Ross, voiced touchingly and
strongly by Ming-Na (MULAN), is trying to find the 6th, 7th and 8th spirits. 
With these, and the others she already has, she will have a key to dealing with
the aliens.  Aki is a lot more likeable character than Ripley from ALIENS and
more compellingly attractive than Angelina Jolie in LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER.

Aki is mentored by Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland), whose opinions, he explains, are
as unpopular as Galileo's were.  Think of him as the Yoda figure who believes in
the power of the spirits, i.e., the force.  The rival to this scientific
approach to the problem comes from the nefarious General Hein (James Woods). 
Like General Turgidson (GEORGE C. SCOTT) from DR. STRANGELOVE, General Hein
places his belief firmly in the invincibility of maximum firepower as the
solution to catastrophic problems.  He wants to use something called the Zeus
Cannon to blast these varmints to smithereens.  Although there are some funny
moments, FINAL FANTASY is a deadly serious thriller that keeps you on the edge
of your seat.  Elliot Goldenthal's impressive and dramatic score adds to the
tension.

Among the many aspects of the story to decode are those of Aki's recurring
nightmares.  They clearly hold some clues to the mystery.  Her boyfriend,
Captain Grey (Alec Baldwin), finds himself drawn into one of them, but he has no
idea as to what they mean.  On a scale in which 10 means perfect understanding
and 0 represents complete incomprehensibility, most movies operate in the 8 or 9
level, especially towards the end.  To it's credit, FINAL FANTASY rarely gets
much higher than a 6 or 7.  The ending, rather than neatly wrapping up all the
loose ends, leaves you still perplexed.  I suspect that most younger kids who
mistakenly see this film will leave shaking their heads, asking their parents,
"What was that all about?"  Older kids and adults, however, will feel rewarded
and blessed to have seen something so intriguing.

FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN runs 1:41.  It is rated PG-13 for sci-fi
action violence and would be acceptable for kids around 11 and up.

My son Jeffrey, age 12, and his twin friends, John and Steven, age 13, all gave
the movie a solid ****.  They all commented on the impressive graphics,
especially the phantoms and the humans.  They liked the way the story was
developed and the way that it was light-years away from a cartoon.  

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Wednesday, July 11, 2001.  In
the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC and the Century theaters.

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X-RAMR-ID: 28784
X-RT-AuthorID: 1271
X-RT-TitleID: 1108683
X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/4