I was interested to see what I would think of this movie. I went into it with the oddly conflicting attitudes of regularly bemoaning Hollywood�s reliance on CG effects but also being a fan of the Square videogame series. The plot itself, while being as self-contained as any of the game storylines (i.e. there�s a character called Cid in it), is quite obviously from the same minds as it deals with quite New Age themes about spirit energy and Gaia theory, with all this forming a backdrop to burgeoning romance.
Of course the first thing you notice is the graphics. They are phenomenally good � most previous all-CGI films have been cartoony and therefore got away with being appropriately unrealistic. However Final Fantasy is exactly the benchmark the creators set out to make, with astonishing detail on the characters, especially the liver spotted old scientist (whose mouth even seems to move like Donald Sutherland�s, who provides the voice). So for the first 20 minutes or so I couldn�t take my eyes of the screen, fearing I might miss some new graphical trick or fascinatingly rendered facial expression.
Unfortunately after this, the story has to carry more of the weight of the film and it is not quite up to the task, instead being a quite routine sci-fi action which could be a feature length episode of the Starship Troopers TV series with a graphical overhaul. The characters, while nigh photorealistic and motion perfect, are very shallow and stereotyped, with Ving Rhames and Steve Buscemi having about 10 lines between them. The problem with the plot is too much similarity to the games, where you could take upwards of 40 hours to traverse a whole saga and so the scale and sweep of events (along with the interactivity) overshadow any slightly hokey or unoriginal developments.
It�ll be interesting to see how long it takes for another so carefully crafted CG film to come along after the financial failure of this movie and the subsequent closing of Square Pictures; important but by no means essential. |
