As we all know, video games that are turned into movies tend not to be good. Actually, overall, they tend to suck big time. Most often, it seems like some Hollywood production studio trying to cash in on the success of a video game franchise without really trying to make a good movie.
Thank GOD Square was directly behind Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, because if that weren't the case then this would probably be one hell of a shitty movie instewad of a pretty decent and satisfying flick.
Now, let's get one thing straight: this isn't a perfect movie. Not at all. The animation is a bit stiff, their faces are lacking in quite a bit, and the story is somewhat predictable, and it's lacking exactly what FF8 lacked (a decent villain). But, still, it's a good movie. Unfortunately, it's impossible to look at the problems separately from the good parts, so let's begin with the story and setting.
It's set on an Earth of the future. That's right. Earth. Not Gaia, not some other planet resembling Earth, but Earth herself. And a futuristic Earth, no less. A bit of a bother, that. But the setting gives way for some fantasy elements in and of themselves, including aliens that can't normally be seen by the naked eye and are dangerous to the touch, and can even pass through solid walls.
Back story goes that some sort of an asteroid crashed on Earth, and these aliens began invading. Eventually, almost the entire planet was decimated. Now there's some small forces living within well-protected (via energy force-fields) settlements/cities. All they want to do is regain their planet.
Okay. Fine. But where's the fantasy?
Right here in the main part of the story. Enter the good doctor Aki Ross, who is working with Doctor Sid to somehow find a scientific way to rid the aliens. "Scientific" I should say. You see, their theory is that there exists within everything a "spirit". What the two doc's are trying to do is capture the eight spirits which will give them the wavelength they need to destroy the aliens once and for all.
Ah. Now THAT's Final Fantasy... more or less. Well, less than more, but that's beside the point.
The movie keeps a few finer points of the game series, which I'll delve into briefly right now. The first is the setting: a broken world. It seems that in every instalment of the video game series, the final leg of the story takes place either in a world that's been decimated but still shines with hope, or is on the verge of destruction. It would therefore be safe to say that the movie is set during the final stretch of the story. Anything else? The use of "gaia" as the spirit of the Earth, as well as using the term "spirits" at all. The final note is that there's a character named "Sid" (though in the games his name's spelt "Cid").
The voice actors didn't do too shabby a job, either. I mean, with Ming-Na (Aki), Donald Sutherland (Sid), Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, and James Woods (plus Alec Baldwin as the army captain/Aki love-interest Grey, I guess I should mention), you can't go too wrong. They all do at the least an adequate job, if not more so. Woods plays his general (the human villain) with so much malice and evil intent that you tend to believe him to be evil, which he really isn't (I'll get to that later). Buscemi is his usual, wise-cracking self, except without the trademark rat-like face (which I missed).
That brings me to the point of the downsides of the movie, and I'll begin with the animation. Okay, yes, it's amazing. Beautiful. Wow. But there's something wrong with it at the same time. It seems that, in their effort to make the animation lifelike, Square lost the humanity and emotion that they've been able to convey in the CG cinemas of all their games. The faces just can't exhibit emotion at all, even when the voices can and do. Also, there's the problem of the lip-synching, which is to say that it's something major. Sometimes it's right on target, and others it just isn't there at all. Quite distracting, I must say, and something that Square needs to work on.
One of my biggest beefs with it, though, is in the character design, or at least the design of the male soldiers. Y'see, all the men who are in the army have those God-damn square-jaws. Even Buscemi's character. Doctor Sid doesn't (thank God), nor do those who are civilians, but the character designers seemed to have gotten lazy when designing the soldiers, and this includes some of the main players. It's something small, but important.
Another thing that irked me was the setting. Yes, it's more or less post-apocalyptic, but with that comes a dreary landscape with nearly no colour. I like colour. It's nice, it's vibrant, and it's sort of imporant. This movie is full of greys, and that's annoying.
Speaking of grey, let's take a look at the villains, or complete lack thereof. Okay, so James Woods plays the human villain, but he's not quite evil. Yes, he does some stupid things and he's the antagonist to Aki and Sid and company, but he's not really evil. He's more misguided than anything else. And that's the problem. Every successful Final Fantasy game has had a villain you could put your finger on and hate. FF6 had Kefka, FF7 had Sephiroth (and, to a lesser extent, the Shinra Inc.), FF9 had... some... ah... guy whose name escapes me... but you see my point. They have villains who are clearly villains. That was one place where FF8 failed, and where this fails too: it doesn't have a villain you can hate with your entire gut. Just a small thing, but it was quite important to me.
This is not to say that it's a bad movie, it's not. Considering the company it's in, it's a pretty fuckin' fabulous movie. It's nowhere near perfect, and some of the dialogue could have been lifted from a video game (the cheesier bits; you'll notice them, trust me, especially if you're a fan of the games). The animation is too stiff and too lacking in emotion. The voice acting is top-notch, but the character design needs work. The story, though, shows that Square was at least trying when it made this. No, it's not a great story, but compared to just about everything else out there it bloody rocks (re: Tomb Raider, The Fast And The Furious, Swordfish, Kiss Of The Dragon...). Even just standing the story on its own, not comparing it to other movies (based on video games or otherwise), it's still a pretty solid story.
Why four stars, you ask, if you've got so many beefs? Simple: an extra half-star or so goes just for the fact that Square tried, and they came pretty damn close to succeeding (which is more than most can say for any movie that's released these days).
So while it's not a great movie, it's a good movie, and I'd say that it's worth seeing.