Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within [Blu-ray]
Starring: Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Peri GilpinDirector: Moto Sakakibara, Hironobu Sakaguchi
Studio: Sony Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Format: AC-3, Animated, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release: August 7th 2007
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DVD Review
Earth is a desolate wasteland in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Humanity has been decimated by an invasion of Phantoms, insubstantial aliens that extract and devour the spirits of living things. The few remaining humans have retreated to a handful of cities that are protected by massive bio-energy shields. The beautiful Dr. Aki Ross (voiced by Ming-Na) and her mentor Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland) have discovered that the energy signatures of eight key Earth spirits can cancel out and destroy the Phantoms. With the help of Captain Edwards (Alec Baldwin) and his band of marines, they must scour the globe for the last two remaining spirits before General Hein (James Woods) manipulates the refugee government into attacking the aliens with an orbital laser that may also destroy the Earth.
Hironobu Sakaguchi's film is taken from the popular Final Fantasy video game franchise, which is particularly well suited to film adaptation with its series of original stories, but the movie features entirely new characters and settings. And like Toy Story and Shrek, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is completely computer generated. Unlike those cartoon comedies, though, The Spirits Within is a serious science fiction drama with astonishingly human digital actors. Aki, the female lead, appeared in a full-page spread in Maxim magazine's Hot 100 list--and was indistinguishable from the real-life models. The setting and conflict make for incredible action, but it's the larger issues, character interaction, and human elements that really make the movie shine. The Spirits Within is not simply a science fiction movie, in the same way that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not simply a kung fu flick. The result is a fantastic summer movie with better action and more emotion than Pearl Harbor, and actors more lifelike than those in that other video game movie, Tomb Raider. --Mike Fehlauer
User Reviews
Highly Under-Appreciated - Rating: 5/5
The Story: A female scientist known as Aki Ross engages in a race against time to gather together spirit entities which would help her defeat invading Alien spirits threatening Human existence. Along the way she is joined by the prestigious Deep Eyes squadron who's Captain is an old friend of Dr. Ross. Dr. Cid is in a struggle to convince a critical government that these spirits or Phantoms can easily be defeated by collecting these entities rather than using firepower which Cid knows is making the spirit situation worse.
The Review: Since first seeing this film in 2001 I have always been a big supporter and defender of this film. The storytelling is simply superb as it introduces us one by one to each character and makes us feel sympathetic towards these characters and their fight to solve the problem that is plaguing the Earth.
The animation even when compared to todays standards is truly spectacular and was truly ahead of its time. The animation of this film is comparable to many of the cut scenes from this generation of video gaming, showing us that the level of realism achieved in this film is easily doable now and it makes me think the animators should make a new film to show us what they can achieve with todays technology.
The suspense and drama of some scenes is something that I don't feel can be matched by a lot of todays films. For example the scene when the spirits invade a human habitat which originally protected them, the chase scenes and the general emotion is placed within you through your belief in the characters.
The primary criticism that people have of this film is the slow pacing, which many American or UK movie goers wouldn't be used to as it's a very Japanese style of storytelling which is known for being slow paced but has a real purpose for its pace. Over the years many Asian movies have become cult favourites amongst American and UK audiences. Movies such as Lady Vengeance and Oldboy are prime examples of how the Western audiences have begun to embrace this style of storytelling, which I believe if Final Fantasy were to be released in the Cinemas today it would gain a much better reception than it did when it was first released.
The voice casting is spectacular with a truly stellar cast of names such as Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi to name but a few and they genuinely do not disappoint.
A very, very good movie and a must for all those Sci-Fi, Drama and animation fans.
Fantastic animation for the time, terrible story - Rating: 1/5
All the tricks in the world can't save a poorly conceived and told story. Dialogue is stilted, and the story truly stumbles all over itself. And of course, with time, even the animation is looking weak these days. It rightfully drove the division that created it out of business.
Under Rated movie - Rating: 4/5
This is a great movie... If you dont buy it alteast rent the product at a video or online rental
Eye Candy but bad story - Rating: 2/5
This review is a mix of the movie and its relationship (if any) to the game legacy of Squaresoft's Final Fantasy. Since the first playstation arrived in America it had been ruled by one title FINAL FANTASY! And thats all I ever did play, they were the best games that I ever played in my life with their deep characters, amazing stories, and even the ability to teach gamers to cry. They were the best games and sales of that title will represnt that. When I heard about the Movie Final Fantasy I was soo excited and was so amazed by the small clips and previews they were feeding us Final Fantasy junkies. When I saw the movie on the big screen all those dreams of a final fantasy legacy on screen were crushed. this movie does have the best CG graphics by far I will give credit to that but the story and any relation to the games must have had a leave of abscense. It just wasnt there, I am not saying it is a bad movie for those who really never played the games or are used to the awesome story lines that sqauresoft usually dished out, but for those of us who were, this movie just fell short. It tried having a story similar to FFVII (7) with the thought of a crater and the Gaia and the planet having a spirit, then with FFVIII (8) with the creatures coming from space (kinda). But there were no characters from the games there was no fantasy about the movie, yes its fiction but not fantasy. There was NO ONE WITH A SWORD!!! Cmon that is the heart of all FF games. I am a huge supporter of squaresoft I loved there games and i tried supporting this movie even tried defending it saying it kinda was like the movies, but that just cant happen. There really was no character devolpment like the game either. Usually its a rag tag band of people who become friends uncover the past and there character develops until all the characters come to together to have the same destiny. Again not there. The only character development was Capt. Grey sacrificing himself for about 30 seconds and that was that. It was cool they finally used earth but thats not fantasy, I mean it starts in old New York City, nothing Agaisnt new york but thats very far from Fantasy. In the long run If you are A FINAL Fantasy junkie and you want to really see a good Fantasy movie getting back in touch with its roots, go get Final Fantasy VII ADVENT CHILDREN! That is a true tribute to the Final Fantasy Game!! Sorry Squaresoft you missed the ball on this movie.
Great visuals, lacking a good story - Rating: 3/5
The animation was a "technical breakthrough" but the story had NOTHING to do with Final Fantasy. For those that like the games, play the games or are interested in the story in the games, this movie is nothing like it. The film and animation was outstanding, but the story was lacking. There weren't even any chocobos! This is not a story similar to the Final Fantasy games.
