Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within Reviews

An impressive spectable but lacking in that little something extra

I don't think you can say this is a bad film. It has an interesting premise, the outline of interesting characters, a superb voice cast and visual effects which are astounding. However, for me it suffers from two key flaws. One, a weak script that progresses the plot but doesn't round out its characters enough - a key issue in a film where all the characters are animated, and thus lacking the subtlety of expression which real actors can use to convey so much. The other problem, at least for me, was the irritating 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' hippy rubbish they kept spouting. All this stuff about the spirits of the Earth, returning to Gaia and enriching life experiences. Yeach - it certainly makes my stomach want to return my lunch, enriched or otherwise. It also drags for short periods (normally while nattering away about the above rubbish) and has a few loopy plot holes, but I quite enjoyed it really.

Final fantasy - hopefully it's final!!!

As someone who has played FFVII and 9 on the original PlayStation (and loved them), and egged on by the reviews above, I decided to give this one a go.

Despite the truly stunning CGI animation - the jaw dropping stuff seen in the original games, it couldn't overcome what, for me, was a film littered with every conceivable American movie cliche - the sort that makes your eyes roll.

This combined with a plot which looks anorexic when stood next to an After Eight Mint, made the film a big disappointment for me. My advice - play the games instead; they have better plots, equally good graphics, and are a better way to spend your time.

Could be better

This is an alright film but could be better. They've combined a great graphics with an excellent inventiveness when coming to the world and the technology, however the film's story line could be better and doesn't come close to the undisputable reputaion of the Final Fantasy series.

All in not a bad film but could probably benifit from bieng a little longer which would allow the story to develope better.

ddanonimity@aol.com

Never having played the video game, I'm very definitely not the "typical" audience for this film. However, the animation literally blows you away - astounding. The actual plot is fairly weak, but to be honest, that is not the reason to rent this DVD. The film is truly a milestone - I have seen far more wooden performances from "real" actors (well, the likes of Van Damme, Wesley Snipes etc.) so perhaps this is the future? I could watch this DVD several times before even remembering to watch it for the actual storyline! Which is just as well, otherwise I'd probably be bored after half an hour. Still, the groundbreaking animation throughout means this has to be rated as a classic. Check out the scene when the "team" first pull off their helmets back in the spacecraft near the beginning. Should have won an oscar for that alone...

The gaming experience

Watching this film was like bringing a futuristic prototype X box video game to life on a screen, in a non-interactive way.

The characters are life-like and the backdrops are very detailed and well-sculpted, leaving you considering the skills of the animation teams that created other animation classics like Shrek, the Incredibles, Finding Nemo and Toy Story.

The story-line is intriguing but relatively straight forward from a sci-fi futuristic thriller point of view.

In summary, this is a unique DVD experience and definitely a treat to admire the scope of graphics and animation

Nice GFX but I fell asleep!

Yeah it was certainly pretty but seemed to lose its way towards the end, play the games instead.

[Highly rated reviewer]

You need to watch the director's comments

This film is graphically fantastic but unfortunately they didn't manage to tell the story properly. It's only when you hear the director's comments that all is revealed.

Great visuals, shame about the film.

The story is complete nonsense, the scenes are riddled with SF-movie cliches, and the dialogue is banal. However, the film is worth watching purely for the computer generated images, which are actually rather impressive. Although in general you wouldn't mistake the characters for live actors there are moments when the illusion works. The landscapes, machines, and alien creatures are delightful eye-candy. So enjoy the pretty pictures (but don't forget to put your brain in neutral!).

Interesting !!??

I did enjoy this film although I found myself at times looking at the actors/characters to see how good the graphics were rather than connecting to them. That said by the end I did care about the characters and wanted them to succeed rather than still being impressed by the main characters hair. (You can tell that the programmers were happy with what they did with her hair, watch the film to see what I mean.)

The story is a little complicated and contrived but .... so are many less well made films.

In the end I enjoyed this film and would recommend it. Think Matrix cartoons or Americanised Manga. Computerised actors will never replace the real thing but this was not a failure.

astounding visuals worth watching

This must be a landmark film for the technology alone. The characters move in an almost too real fashion - sci fi fans will enjoy the spectacle and perhaps this is the best place for the CG actors. I was fascinated for the first half but the lack of a credible story line caused some annoyance -pity because there are many classic Asimov tales to be told that would would benefit from this technique. Rent it anyway!