Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Voices of: Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Donald Sutherland, Peri Gilpin, James Woods, Keith David, Steve Buscemi
Directed by: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Moto Sakakibara
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Animated, Science Fiction
Box Office: $32,131,830
2001

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Humanity has been almost completely destroyed by an alien race called The Phantoms. Dr. Aki Ross (Ming-Na) works with her mentor (Donald Sutherland) to discover the earth is run by eight spirits. Together, they attempt to collect all eight spirits, which they believe will create a power strong enough to destroy the phatoms and save humanity. Unfortuntely, they must overcome General Hein (James Woods), who thinks the best way to destroy the phantoms is with a huge weapon called the Zeus cannon. Aki is aided by Captain Edwards (Alec Baldwin) and his team. Now, it is a race against time. Aki must find the eighth spirit and save humanity before Hein makes a costly mistake that will destroy the earth.

Review:
Tim: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within possesses some of the most magnificent computer generated graphics I have ever seen. There are points throughout the film when I questioned if I was not really watching live actors moving around. One seen, having our heroine overlooking a cliff is just amazing. The film is visually stunning and beautiful to look at. Visually, this film is a masterpiece... too bad the same can't be said for the rest of the movie.

First, very little is explained in this film. You often wonder why things are the way they are, but you receive no answers. For example, we never really understand the past relationship between Aki and Gray. In addition, the whole "spirits" theory is as flimsy as a diving board with a 500 pound woman hopping on one foot. The same can be said for the plot of the movie, which never really goes in one direction.

On a bright note (and these are difficult to find), the voices of the characters were all excellently done, and brought a good element to the film.

Unfortuntely, in the big picture, the film loses major points. Fans of the popular video game need not see this movie. Trust me, if you are excited, saying, "Man, I HAVE to see this film,"- no you don't. I myself am a fan of the video game series, and all this movie has done for me is make me question exactly why I like the series in the first place. While it is safe to say children and preteens will eat this movie up, anyone who cares about plot, character development, or decent filmmaking will be pretty disappointed. This film is like a comic book gone wrong: viewers, beware, there are better films out there than this one. The film starts out slower than hell, making you wonder why you chose this film in the first place. The movie drags along, slowly picking up a little (and I do mean a little) momentum as it goes along. In addition, I must mention the character of the evil general (James Woods)is just a waste of time, coming off more as silly than anything else.

While I do knock this movie hard, I must admit it does have its moments (occasionally). Despite everything wrong with the movie, you find yourself biting your nails, and letting out an occasional, "Holy crap!" remark. However, do not be fooled by this smaller dim glitters. The movie is overall just plain silly and disappointing: Final Fantasy needs to stick to the video games... at least they can occasionally pull off a good one there.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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