Starring the voices of: Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin, Ving Rhames
Directed by: Hironobu Sakaguchi

Even though I am a great video game enthusiast, I never really played Final Fantasy much. Sure, I know a lot about the games. I like to keep up with video game news and history (unlike kids nowadays? "What's a Genesis?" "What's Rampage?"? ugh! Don't get me started?). However, my experience with Final Fantasy is limited to one day, at MastaCSG's house, playing FF2 or 3. While fighting a giant octopus dude, I tried using a heal spell. Much to the disgust of everyone, I accidentally healed the almost-defeated octopus dude, instead of myself, which resulted in catastrophe. I never played any FF game again. But that didn't stop me from seeing the movie. But it should have.

The company behind the game, Square, pumped many $$ into this film, so many, in fact, that their future depends on its box office take. Judging by an absolutely packed matinee, I figure they will make a good amount of cash, but rather undeservedly.

The movie is set in the future, after some alien meteor crashed on the earth, unleashing these weird, invisible phantoms that steal the soul out of the body, thus killing the person. Yeah, I know, it's a major bummer. But Dr. Aki Ross and Dr. Sid (voiced by Ming-Na and Donald Sutherland, respectively) have a crazy theory about a life force that permeates everything in the universe, called Gaia. They are searching for 8 special spirits that could potentially cure Ross of a phantom living inside her. These spirits could also be the key to saving the earth and its own life force contained within. Not everyone takes to this theory. General Hein (voiced by James Woods) doesn't believe in this Gaia mumbo-jumbo and basically wants to nuke the phantoms' hub, which is the meteor crash site. He has this Death Star-wannabe laser called the Zeus cannon, and will not stop for anything or anyone. It's up to the good guys, headed by Ross and Grey (voiced by Alec Baldwin) to save the day.

This is a very special movie because it reaches a level of computer animated realness never before achieved. The people look incredibly lifelike. Every strand of hair on Ross's head moves individually, reacting to motion, wind and anything else you can think of. The faces are so detailed that you can even see pores and moles. The people who did all the computer animation are geniuses.

However, one thing a computer cannot generate is a coherent story, which this movie sorely lacks. The notion of Gaia is almost like that of the force. The Zeus cannon is almost like the Death Star. General Hein is almost like Grand Moff Tarkin. In fact, there is really a lot of Star Wars in this film. And the idea of the 8 spirits is never clear. How do they know there are 8 spirits to find? How exactly can they interact with Gaia? And they whole idea of a dream being the key to everything is so clich�, that you'd figure The Mummy Returns would have used it?wait a sec?it did! Some movies can be forgiven for lack of story because they have cool action as back up. Well, if you're expecting some nifty blow'em away scenes � la Starship Troopers, then save your cash. The first hour is utterly boring, then once things start to get really cool and they inject some action, it stops to further 'develop' the 'story'.

If you must see Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, do so as an experiment to see how far computer animation can be pushed. It appears we are now very near to absolute realism. If someone can attach these kinds of brilliant graphics to a great story, then live actors will be in trouble (who am I kidding? Live actors will always be preferred, but think of the possibilities). If someone can make a game with graphics like these, it will sell a million copies overnight. However, a movie requires story. This movie lacks story, which is ironic for a series of games that prides itself on its great narratives with deep backgrounds. The best thing about seeing FF:TSW? The Spider-man preview before it.

DroopyMcC
Crazy Eight

MastaCSG		Very original, very intriguing, and most impressive.
Queen

ASY		What a dumb plot. Period.
Nine