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

From: Robin Clifford <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 03:48:08 -0000

"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within"

Aliens beings have taken over the Earth. The great cities are deserted and
precious few humans remain to repel the invaders and reclaim the world for
mankind. Aki Ross (voice of Ming-Na) and her mentor Dr. Sid (voice of
Donald Sutherland) must develop their "wave theory," the only antidote to
counter the alien phantoms in this latest video game to become a feature
length movie in "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within."

It was inevitable. Ever since Pixar Animation brought "The Tin Toy" to life
in 1988 as the first all-computer generated (and Oscar-winning) short, the
animation industry has been striving to create a realistic world using CGI
ever since. A few years later "Toy Story" wowed us and, most recently,
"Shrek" bowled the world over. Now, video game master Hironobu Sakaguchi
takes his own, popular game series, Final Fantasy, and brings his animated
video world to the big screen.

Live action films from video games have been around for a while. Super
Mario Brothers, Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles and Might Morphin Power
Rangers were all fodder for the video-game-turned-movie market. The latest
of the live makeovers, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," is currently having a
successful run at theaters everywhere. But the video game to video film
niche has not, until "Final Fantasy," been tapped. Vid king Sakaguchi is
the first to make the leap from creating his own popular gaming software to
crafting a big-screen CGI version of his brainchild.

The brief description at the beginning of this review lays out the basic
story. Aliens, in this case amorphous monsters that live just on the edge
of human vision, are able to tear the spirit out of their victims, leaving
their bodies an empty shell. The military, led by General Hein (James
Woods), is gung ho against the invaders and, because they killed his
family, the general will stop at nothing to stop the alien invaders. Of
course, the misguided military mogul does not see the danger of this
stop-at-nothing-to-win ideology and it is up to the scientists, in the
"persona" of Aki and Dr. Sid (with the help of heroic Captain Gray Edwards
(Alec Baldwin) and his loyal Deep Eyes SWAT team) to save the world.

"Final Fantasy" is a traditional action/adventure flick with the
exceptional difference that there is, technically, little of tradition in
the filmmaking. Much like "Atlantis: The Lost Empire," we get a rousing
adventure that is made up with a series of high-tech battles that pit man
against monster. The CGI used here is outstanding, with the action
realistic and human movements and expressions genuine. The looks of the
younger characters still has a smooth artificiality to it that keeps it
just a step away from being "real" (though I think this is a move by the
filmmakers to keep from spooking the audience by being too realistic).

There are a couple of problems with this technical tour de force, though.
The main one I have is the same one that I have with many films. It is too
darn long to sustain the story line. The makers, here, are so taken with
the state-of-the-art technology that they feel they must sacrifice good
pacing with extra F/X - action scenes are carried too long and the story
meanders through its last 30 minutes with multiple logical endings,
preventing the film from being tight and to the point. 15 minutes of
judicious editing would have made this a terrific sci-fi adventure instead
of just a good one.

The other problem is the melding of CGI with the look and feel of reality.
We have entered the realm where the vid techies can create a
realistic-looking human being by manipulating the bits and bytes. Giving
voice to these new beings is going to create problems. It's one thing to
have Charlton Heston doing the voice of a dog. It's another thing entirely
giving that voice to a human, albeit a CGI one, that does not look like the
actor. I found it distracting to hear Donald Sutherland's voice coming out
of balding, bearded Dr. Sid. My mind kept visualizing the actor, instead.
Non-stars and unknown vocal talents would be less distracting when giving
voice to the characters in this reality-based animation world.

The real draw for "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" is to the many fans
of the video game series (over 33 million copies sold world-wide) and those
who are curious to see the first hyper-realistic, computer-generated action
feature. It is a formidable effort, despite the problems, and I give it a
B.

For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com

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X-RT-RatingText: B