Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Reviewer: Nicklon
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Studio: Square Pictures
Year of Release: 2001
Genre: CG Animated Sci-Fi
Starring: Voices provided by Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods
Running Time: 1 hour, 48 minutes Rating: PG-13

I guess it's high time I write a non-humorous review of the Final Fantasy Movie. I saw it back on opening day, but now that I have let it "settle" into my mind, I know its true deep meaning, yada yada. I'm going to say right here, I have not played any Final Fantasy games. I have heard of them though, seen some clips, heard some stories. I don't even own a PlayStation. I grew up with Nintendo and Sega, so this isn't going to be one of those anal diehard fan reviews that either praises the movie even though in the back of their minds they thought it sucked, or said it sucked because "it left out this detail from EFF EFF FUH-IVE which RUINED the whole movie" and are secretly jealous because they wrote a similar fanfic back in '94. But I'm not Lewis Black. So on with the review.

I walked up to the fourth floor of the mall, and bought two tickets for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. One ticket for my little brother, I had promised I would take him out to a movie instead of my friends for a change. He doesn't talk during the movie, no distractions there. And since we went to the earliest showing on opening day, everyone had not seen it and was in complete silence because they wanted to catch every single detail they could. Many audience members were fans who had calendars counting down to the theatrical release for four years. I didn't know what to expect- I just like seeing movies.

It started off with a young female, fairly attractive in a virtual sort of way, wandering across a quiet barren wasteland, perfectly rendered with high grade computerized graphics and special effects galore. A comet then hurled down out of the sky, crashed, and burned. The scene quickly changed to a small steel room, on board a space ship, miles above the Earth. It was a dream. Nice way to start out a movie... giving the audience a complete surprise and all. If that didn't make one wonder enough, the next part in an abandoned city and weird ghosty monsters chasing the heroine for no aparant reason is as confusing as it could get. You know it made the audience think "where is she?" and "what is she doing?" Just what the filmmakers wanted. Get their curiosity level up and leave it hanging. Gets them excited.

The whole movie had a theme of zipping the movie plot along, don't explain much and let the audience figure it out for themselves as it progresses. First hand experience is at times the best way for one to learn. Even right up towards the end... it took me a while to figure some details out. Kinda left an "open ended" opinion factor- more than one possibilities can be right. That's why people see the movie over and over again... they want to get the details they might not have picked up on the first time 'round to explain some spots they won't admit to not understanding.

Character development? Let's see here... like in any sci-fi action movie, first you gotta get a strong-headed character with thoughts wandering who knows more than s/he thinks s/he does about the situation. Then you pair them up with a crewmate with higher rank and an apparent ego-trip of the opposite gender, and BAM! you got chemistry. This chemistry will inevitably lead to their admitting of falling head over heals for each other this whole time towards the end of the movie during a highly emotional life or death moment. Yeah, they stay alive for 99% or all of the movie. Aki, Gray... I'm looking in your direction. Next we are given disposable support characters who each have different skills to function as a team. Needed: a wit and comical relief, and a bithy non-conformist, and the ever-so-nice person of different ethinic background. Given: Neil, Jane, and the black guy. Yes, humorous at times... but everyone knows they're all gonna die. It is a dead-on apparent in your face kind of fact after they are all sent off on a mission together without any lead characters. It's sad though, often times (almost 90% of the time for me) these characters have my favorite personalities, and I hate to see them leave. Oh well. Finally, you have the bad guy and bunch of people who are under the impression that the bad guy is right in his/her actions. I forgot the bad guy's name. Referred to as "bad guy" he shall remain. There are a few more variations you can have on the antagonist. Either the antagonist is pure and utterly evil with all of his/her deeds benefitting only their ownself, or they have the intention of doing good but the audience can plainly see the effect will only worsen the situation. It is that last option I mentioned that is the bad guy's motive in this story. Dies or suffers from his/her own wrongdoing. Reeeal original.

Special effects and visuals: wow. Human actors: watch out. Well, maybe. The scenery, action scenes, and explosions were all you could ask for. Extravagant. Might even pay to see the movie again because they looked so damn pretty. On the other hand... there was just something about those computer generated actors that seemed out of place. Some say they were too fluid. Or maybe it was their expressions. Anytime I saw a frozen scene with them or clip in the newspaper- they looked like real people. I had to look real close to realize they weren't. I guess it was kinda eerie in a way. So maybe computers never will replace human actors fully, but who knows. I thought the voice acting was well done, even though I have had enough Alec Baldwin this summer.

Okay. Plot. What it was actually about. Obvious storyline: alien lifeforms have infested Earth, humans attempting to destroy them. It's getting the correct attempt that matters. That breaks the lake into two rivers. Finding the rest of the spirits in time to accomplish the goal of defeating the invaders, and foiling the antagonist's plans before the shit hits the fan. The whole finding the spirits concept was creative I think. Personally, the aspect of there might being more than one definite spirit that is possible to use I did not like. It just seemed to indefinite and such. "I was the first spirit. The fourth spirit was a bird. The sixth was a plant." I just saw no connection other then the explanation of "life striving where it is among death against all odds" or something along those lines. That could be a million things! It just wasn't up my alley, but I'll give 'em credit anyway. Yeah yeah it was creative. I woulnd't have ever thought of it. This is where the movie gets it's sublined title though. When I think of it, I realize although it is not uncommon in stories for the evil character to get destroyed by his/her own power, it is usually more common for the protagonists to go strait out and push the antagonist off of a cliff... metaphorically speaking of course unless this is a Disney movie.

Overall, not bad... not the greatest. Sure, it may be remembered and go down in theatrical history as the first movie with actors being replaced with computer generated characters. It might even be mentioned on a television "history of movies" special fifty years from now, but other than that I really doubt it will be remembered for a whole lot amoung the general public. With the fans, of course it probably had hidden details you had to play and follow the games to undetstand. It may be a gem, or just the movie of the summer... depends on the person. It wasn't bad, it was much better than the other "video game made into movie crap" aka Tomb Raider this summer. On a scale of four stars, I give it two and a half. It was a good attempt. I'll remember it for a while, but it may be amoung the first to leave my mind if and after I get Alzheimer's disease.

This is Nicklon at the movies saying good bye, nice try.