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View Date: July 14th, 2001 Cast: (voices of)
Written
and Directed by: Official Site: Final Fantasy Related Viewings: Also see my reviews at:
Cast information and links
courtesy of
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Final Fantasy:The Spirits Within With the advances that have been made in computers and animation, it was inevitable that a film would be made which all but erases the lines between reality and cartoon. Final Fantasy:The Spirits Within is a computer generated tale based upon a very popular video game. To it’s credit, it does not suffer the fate of other translations, because it does indeed have a plot going for it, and is never insulting to the intelligence of the viewers. However, while the visuals are quite breathtaking and groundbreaking the writers overcompensated slightly by creating a tale that is difficult to follow and understand at times, and whose conclusion is slightly confusing at best. Despite this, the film still works based upon the fact that too much plot is never a bad thing, but tightening things up a bit might have helped the sheer visual feast. Near as I could tell, the plot deals with a society that has been ravaged by phantoms who came from an asteroid. The planet has become a barren wasteland. The government has created task forces to search for ways to take back the planet and is in constant battle with the phantoms. Two scientists, Aki and Dr Sid believe that the Earth is alive and that any forceful means will damage the spirit (or Gaia) of the planet. While the government believes that force is the only way, the scientist believe that by harnessing aspects of the spirit of the planet, they can somehow overcome the beasts. This is a very complex ideal and plot for an animated movie. Even though it never pretends to be aimed at children, those younger aged folks who grew up with game are going to be drawn in, and this plot may convolute and confuse even the most ardent and attentive movie goer. The pacing moves along consistently, but sometimes its not quite clear what is going on. There are well defined good guys and bad guys, but the resolution is a bit unclear and the plot is crowded which may lose those who are not expecting to put much thought into the film. However, the visuals and realistic look of the film compensate any flaws, faults or confusion that the plot may generate. They are the reason to see the movie. While the synchronicity of the mouths to voices was shaky at best, the rest of the film is truly something to marvel at from the standpoint of animation, movement and scenery. The previews show only a glimpse of the movies visual mastery. This may be the landmark for the future of computer generated animation. Examples of this are the first look at Aki, the realistic movement and reaction of her hair, Dr Sid's whole characterization and various other aspects of the crew and fight sequences. In the future, I just hope that they can find a balance between translating and stretching a short term story into movie. Past failures in the video game genre have discovered that there is very little material to sustain a long term project. With Final Fantasy, the exact opposite has happened. There is a plot which is smart and obviously well thought out, but someone failed to streamline the ideas. The point comes across, but the resolution is not completely clear, so the message is slightly diluted, but the experience is still a magical one. The voices are recognizable, but blend away, save Sutherland's distinctly fatherlike tones, and they almost become performers in and amongst themselves, especially Na (as Aki) and Buscemi. Their spirits lend to the success yet slight confusion as well, as the words do not completely clarify the vision and detailed storyline. Ultimately, Final Fantasy is a groundbreaking visionary experience that must truly be seen to be appreciated, however the confusion of the story slightly dilutes the enjoyment. While the effort is definitely appreciated, the writers could have organized things a bit more to give the visions the support that they deserved. The parallels with Star Wars, and Titan A.E. (which it far surpasses) are quite obvious, but the film slides in somewhere in the middle of those two as far as quality goes. The film tries too hard to deal with spiritual issues and cultural ones (peaceful resolution vs militant) and that may have been more than was necessary. The overall experience is amazing, and a definite optical fantasy fulfilled, it just hurts the brain trying to figure it all out. ($$$ out of $$$$$) Agree? Disagree, Questions? Comments? |
