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Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
The year is 2065 and Earth has been taken over by phantom alien forms. An alien infestation inhabits the body of a female doctor who is the center of a global investigtion into espinage by alien...  View more >

Starring Ming-na Wen, Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi...  View more >

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Reviews Summary


Please Note: Reader Reviews are submitted by the readers of The BigScreen Cinema Guide and represent their own personal opinions regarding this movie, and do not represent the views of The BigScreen Cinema Guide, or any of its associated entities.

Jul 11, 2001
One of the best movies of 2001,"Final Fantasy:The Spirits Within" had entered into a new era of the computer animation. It added a new diminison to the way we see computer animation. The characters is seen as real life, with real facial movements. the film has open up new ideas that the computer animation film can achieve.

"Final Fantasy" is based on the computer game, about Earth in the year 2065 that is overrun by phantoms who conqurered almost all the plants. the heroine is a girl name Dr. Aki Ross, who had experienced nightmares involving her and the creatures and is carrying a secret.

FF has many surprises, plenty of suspense and heroes we can relate to. "Final Fantasy" is must-see cinema.
[--- Good ---]by  
Jul 12, 2001
This film is technically wonderful, the animation is astounding, the scenic composition incredible. Yes, you could almost believe this is a real movie (almost).

I have the following problems with this film : -
1) Plot line not very engaging.
2) Characters pretty un-developed, the only characters that I could even empathise with were a couple of the 'grunts'.
3) I found the voice of Donald Sutherland disconcerting - what I mean by this is that I'm very familiar with his voice and his face, but I couldn't bring myself to to believe in it coming from Dr Cid.
4) Almost no relation to the FF Console RPG series. None of the main, or minor, characters were present - or even from the same 'timeline'. Should have been called 'The Spirits Within'.

I enjoyed the following : -
1) Animation - incredible, if I was a flesh & blood actor I'd be concerned.
2) Direction - Fantastic, the work that must have gone into the decisions that lead to the composition of each scene must have been astounding.
3) Textures - Amazing, these were very well chosen and executed.
4) Not available with real actors - Some of the scenes that wouldn't be possible today with real life actors, or visual effects (except CGI).


So, as a sum up - if you want to see a technically perfect animation movie (as is available today) then this is a must. But, if the animation is secondary, then this is an average movie at best.
[--- See Now! ---]by  
Jul 13, 2001
The animation in this movie reigns supreme. In some scenes it's hard to believe that you're watching CGI. If you're a fan of movies, see this, if you're a fan of the Final Fantasy games, DROP WHAT YOU'RE DOING NOW AND GET TO THE THEATERS!
Jul 15, 2001
CGI does not make a movie. It was technically impressive; a reasonable start to the whole computer-generated human actor era. But when it comes down to it, it makes a decent story-line for an RPG computer game, but a lousy one for a movie.

After seeing this movie, I'm still not sure what finally happened in the end. It's nothing but a story-line designed to produce eye-candy.
[--- Wait for Rental ---]by  
Jul 15, 2001
I have to agree with Dan on this. Visually it's impressive, but the story itself was very week. I came out of the theater asking myself what it was supposed to be about.

I wanted to like the charters, but had a hard time connecting. You could tell right away it borrowed HEAVLY from Aliens. It's OK to spend the three bucks to rent, but not worth the - for a ticket plus the popcorn and soda. Save it for a rainy day.
[--- See Now! ---]by  
Jul 16, 2001
You may be drawn in to a theater showing this movie because of the incredible animation shown in the trailers, but the eye candy is only a doorway to a thoughtful yet action-packed movie. This is one of THE BEST sci-fi epics I have ever seen, ranking right up there with the "Star Wars" series and "Titan A.E."

The animation is fascinating: not quite real, yet not quite a cartoon. It's stuck somewhere in the middle and is very interesting to watch. It also opens the gateway to some of the best visuals of the summer: the shell of a burnt-out New York City, a ghostly parade of soul-sucking aliens, a camera view of the heroine standing on water, and many more.

The plot involves a woman named Aki going on a quest to find the two remaining "spirits," which, when put together with the six she already has, may form a power strong enough to wipe out the aliens which have invaded our planet.

The action scenes are great, and the aliens are fantastic. They seem to fade in and out of existence. Very cool stuff.

The story is very involving and weaves its own underlying philosophy as it develops. The ending is more emotional than anything I have seen so far this summer (keeping in mind that I my eyes were kept bone dry during the stinker-in-disguise "Pearl Harbor").

And of course, for true fantasy fans there is a trailer for the first of the three upcoming "Lord of the Rings" movies playing with this one.
Jul 17, 2001
The animation was great, but thats where it ends. The story was very thin and at best ho hum. But to see the animation and the sound it is best at the theater.
Jul 20, 2001
The story was very weak. Potential worst movie of the year weak. Characters were even weaker. Don't waste your money or time.
[--- See Now! ---]by  
Jul 20, 2001
See it now... See it twice the same night... see it in the budget... rent it... buy the DVD... Can I stress enough that you WANT to see this movie? It was a religious experience!

Plot was origional and the animation was sensational!
[--- See Now! ---]by  
Jul 26, 2001
An excellent movie. Great characters. Visually stunning. A deep plot. In fact, the plot is apparently too deep for some people. Those people that "didn't understand" the end of the movie "2001:A Space Odyssey" will probably "not get" the end of this movie. There is a great deal of Japanese influence in this film, and because of this, there will be some missed metaphors.

While the virtual character representations were excellent, they were not perfect. The main characters had greater detail then the secondary characters. But considering the difficulty and the time constraints it was an amazing accomplishment overall. Working in this field and designing and animating characters of this nature (although not to this level of detail) has given me an appreciation for what it takes to produce films of this kind.

This is the first movie to step across the line between the real and the virtual and it will be remembered as such by those looking back on it from a future perspective.

See it.
[--- See Now! ---]by  
Jul 28, 2001
Ok, first of all I have to say im a huge Final Fantasy fan. My Favorite was Final Fantasy 7 i think it was the best of the games. Oddly the movie remimded me of it. Like the colors used and the huge gun in outer space remimded me of the huge gun on ground in final fantasy 7.

Ok enough of my obsession of the games, and more on the movie. I thought the movie was one of the greatest movies I have seen since "The Matrix". It well deserves to be called final fantasy because its alot like the games except taken place in the far future, and the plot was a movie plot and not a game plot which is good because i've seen game>movies that would have been better as a game and not a movie which made them suck. Some people are saying the plot was bad and some say it is great. I myself believe It was very good and well thought out. Another thing I thought was nice was the director did a wonderful job being his first movie. The director is also the president and creator of the Final Fantasy games, which is also a great thing about the movie becuase no one knows more about the game series than he does.

If you like the games and like movies You should get up and see it right now, you won't be disapointed, as for me im going to go see it again very soon.

Also if you watched the movie and loved it like many i know including me, but havent played the games, go out and buy a sony playstation one and buy Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 to start with. You won't be dissapointed.
Aug 1, 2001
Sorry about the negativism folks, but this movie was one more shameless New Age doggie biscuit thrown at the moviegoing masses. If anyone here is really interested in checking into this GAIA earth religion, please do so by simply typing the name into an internet search engine and.....see what the 'movement' is really all about. Namely population control, which means plans of eliminating 1/3 of the 'useless consumers' of the earths resources (opposers of the New World Religion).

Yes, these are the times we are living in, so be encouraged to think a second time about this one, do some searching and watch what you find out. I hope you will find honor in being called one of those (namely real Christians and Jews) who don't believe in destrying the earth, YET are not GAIA worshipping the earth either. We're getting down to crunch time.
[--- See Now! ---]by  
Aug 3, 2001
I've played alot of the Final Fantasy series of games. Squaresoft, the people responsible for this movie, have never told a bad story. I heard back in January they were making a movie, and I couldn't wait.

For those who have never played the series, Final Fantasy is a Role Playing Game. One game's plot and characters never carry on to the next game (So FFVII won't have the same plot/character's then FFVIII).

When I went and saw this movie my jaw dropped about six feet. The graphic's are beautiful, the first movie to use FMV the entire time. Sometimes, you can swear your looking at an actual human. The story is also beautiful, unlike Western films, this is a standard Japanese type style of story telling, it doesn't tell you everything, so you have to connect some of the dots. It also makes you think, if you miss any part of the movie you will miss out on some of the plot.

I won't even ruin anything for you, I highly suggest anyone looking for a new type of movie go out and see Final Fantasy the Spirits Within today.

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