Okay everyone, now to review....Spirits Within *cat hiss*
Now normally I try to keep my reviews in a "professional" style. Where I don't throw in extreme opinion, I try not to say "I" and so forth. But this is a movie that is based on a beloved favorite of all of us. So I may slip up here.
Final Fantasy: Spirits Within
It is July of 2001; for almost a year we have all been building up to one big nerd-gasim as we knew of a movie based on our beloved Final Fantasy series. We grow even more anxious knowing that the very man that created the Final Fantasy series is not only directing the film, but was also one of the major script writers. What could go wrong? We all knew what it took to be a Final Fantasy.
Every Final Fantasy game has, at least, the following:
1. A different world with different characters.
2. The use of swords and magic, even in the ones where guns were made available.
3. Chocobos, chocobos, chocobos.
4. Exaggerated technology (in some).
5. Various, mythological and/or fictional creatures (the main thing being that within the current 12 games, they have all been mostly familiar.)
Spirits Within only manages to have four and five. Perhaps the biggest problem with this movie is that it takes place on our earth. Meaning no magic, and no use of any form of weapon other than guns. I don't know about you, but that right there steals the very essence of Final Fantasy. So as you can see, the fact this movie calls itself a Final Fantasy movie all ready kills it, so lets look at the movie while trying to ignore half of the title.
Spirits Within, by itself is mediocre at best. The storyline of the film is very reminiscent of VII in that the world is supposed to be a living being with a life force flowing through it (the Gaia theory). A meteorite hit the earth, which came from another planet far away that was destroyed by its own beings in an endless war; this meteorite carried the very Gaia of that planet, so it brought with it the ghosts of that whole planet, aka Phantoms. Before we know it, we have to lock ourselves away in cities with barriers to stay alive as the world outsides dies.
The 3-d animation, for its time, was very realistic, so the movie is good on the eyes, like any Pixar movie. But the acting, oh god the english acting. Alec Baldwin is more emotionless as ever; truly the only good actor in the whole movie is James Woods. Every one else seems to be trying to hurry through their lines. But it can not really be helped as the whole plot itself seems more than rushed. One minute you're watching our female lead go after her sixth spirit, the next everyone's being killed. Movies that kill off 90% of their characters by the end of the film is really pushing it.
Despite how bad the acting is, and how rushed the movie is, generally it is still the plot itself that makes the movie mediocre. Had the name Final Fantasy been taken out of the title, chances are this movie would not have been as much of a flop at the box office as it was. Its a Sci-Fi movie that touches on the Gaia theory, which seems to be a concept no other movie has tried. It is only towards the end of the film that it slowly begins to become a better movie. More thought and emotion seems to be put into it. Baldwin even manages to squeeze some emotion in when he mutters "I love you".
It is only during the final half hour of the movie that it truly feels like a Final Fantasy, as it can not help but remind you of VII, when the team was in the crater after defeating Sephiroth. The only things that still gets to me, and many other Final Fantasy fans, is the fact they had to squeeze the Final Fantasy name onto it.
I'm not going to even bother saying whether or not to see this movie, I am pretty sure all of us here have. But if you have not, just don't.
Subject: Final Fantasy: Spirits Within 
Tue Sep 29, 2009 12:13 pm
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