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

From: Annette Cardwell <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 02:31:38 -0000

FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN
A film review by Annette Cardwell
Copyright 2001 filmcritic.com

With a team of 200 graphic artists and animators working on this first
film production from game developer Squaresoft's Square Pictures, Final
Fantasy, inspired by the top-selling game franchise, is visually
awe-inspiring and groundbreaking.  No doubt, you have never seen
anything like this film, and the hyperbolic fanfare surrounding its
release is absolutely deserved.  But why does such a tremendous feat of
eye candy have to be weighted down with a problematic story, wooden
dialogue and generally uncharismatic voice acting?

Obviously, the primary goal of the film is to stun and amaze audiences
with extremely sophisticated CGI.  Everything you see in the film is
rendered in great detail: individual threads in the fabric, individual
strands of hair swaying, wrinkles and pimples on skin, incredible water
effects.  Overall, the expressions and lip movements fairly accurately
match the emotions and dialogue; and the times when they don't sync
perfectly really stand out, since the animation is usually so dazzling. 
But you won't spend much time dwelling on those gaffes -- as soon as you
catch one, the next stellar monster or effect will have you muttering,
"Wow..."

Like the series of games, Final Fantasy's plot and characters have
little to do with its predecessors, outside of being born from the same
Japanese mastermind, Hironobu Sakaguchi.  It's the year 2065, and humans
are prisoners in caged cities of their own making that guard them from
an outside world now overrun with deadly alien "phantoms."  Whenever a
human comes in contact with the ghostly visitors, the often-invisible
beings pass through the body and wrench out its soul (for some
unexplainable reason).  While many humans agree with a plan by
monomaniacal General Hein (James Woods) to blast the aliens with a "Zeus
Cannon," Dr. Aki Ross (Ming-Na) and Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland) plan to
build a "wave" using eight collected "spirits" to counteract the
phantoms and kill them off.

While the images serve the sci-fi aspect of the film well, the
storytelling doesn't.  It's unfortunate, because the plot seems so
intricately thought out.  Perhaps it was far too complex and enormous to
be entirely incorporated into the script.  Some could blame this
weakness on the fact that it was a Japanese concept translated to
English, except two Americans wrote the screenplay.  Nevertheless, the
end result is an elaborate story complicated by confusing holes.  Why do
these aliens feed on souls?  If they can pass through bodies and ships,
how can humans hurt them with guns?  What is so special about the
"spirits" that they would create a force strong enough to destroy the
aliens?

Worse yet, the dialogue is scripted to be either like a science-heavy
Star Trek episode, an installment of Die Hard, or a sappy love story,
depending on who's doing the talking.  For the most part, it's bearable
considering the genre, but tedious speeches and cheesy lines don't do
anything to help the actors and can get annoying in the longer scenes. 
The only exception is Steve Buscemi as pilot Neil Fleming, who always
has great cracks during tense moments.

But, when the lights come up and the credits roll, you're more likely to
be remarking on how fantastic the film looked.  There's no question that
the roughly 33 million people who have bought at least one Final Fantasy
game will be eager to see this movie, and so should anyone who enjoys
being floored by the best CG animation ever put to film.  You'd be
living in a fantasy world of your own if you expected much more.

RATING:  ****

|------------------------------|
 \ ***** Perfection             \
  \ **** Good, memorable film    \
   \ *** Average, hits and misses \
    \ ** Sub-par on many levels    \
     \ * Unquestionably awful       \
      |------------------------------|

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Producer: Jun Aida
Writer: Al Reinert, Jeff Vintar
Starring: Ming Na, Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods, Ving
Rhames, Peri Gilpin, Steve Buscemi

http://www.finalfantasy.com/

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