Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in retrospect

[Dark_Legacy]

I just re-rented this movie, and scanned over some of the comments on imdb, and I was wondering if anyone had evolved any thoughts on the movie.

A lot of people hailed it as another failed video game-to-movie adaption, but can it really be classified like that. I mean, exactly what final fantasy would it be based off of? Also, despite it's award winning cast for voice acting, taking another look, not many animations have come close.

If Final Fantasy Advent Children had been geared more towards realism, it's graphics would have certainly surpassed it on every level, but this was produced and put in theaters in 2001. It's a huge step, including the animation of movement of various body parts like eyes and hair.

I dunno, in retrospect I've gained a lot of respect for what they did with this movie, and I don't think its fair to include it as a video-game movie cause it really isn't. Besides saving the world, (what action movie isn't about saving the world, or video game for that matter, isn't nowadays?), it differs in character and script. There is no clear cut enemy, there is no titanic battle, and weapons do not play a part in saving the world.

In fact this movie contains a message most final fantasy games touch on at some point but don't delve too far into. The deepest in this subject matter would be FF8, and we all know that game lost some people...

Anyway, yeah, I feel differently about this movie, what do you think? And-I encourage everyone who gave it a chance the first time, to sit down and watch it again as an older person, and in a different age, and see if your prospective changes as mine has.


-dL

 

[Longo_2_guns]

When I first saw it, I didn't know what it was. I was watching it in Spain on a movie channel and i thought that it was absolutely incredible. I thought that it might have been Final Fantasy due to the main characters resemblance to Yuna. But that movie blew me away.

 

[JCD]

I encourage everyone to sit down and watch it again as an older person, and in a different age, and see if your prospective changes as mine has.

So, does this mean I was actually the only person who liked this movie when it first came out? I'm not ashamed....

 

[Paradox]

well, once i pretended it had nothing to do with final fantasy, it was a pretty good movie. i liked it.

 

[GRColin]

Absolutely gorgeous movie... Absolutely horrible plot....

Wow, sounds a lot like a Final Fantasy video games when I say that.

Similar to the video games, the movie was much more style over substance. While that's acceptable to most gamer audiences (we're kind of used to it by now), mass audiences couldn't understand the plot and that doomed the movie. Of course, whether or not you could understand the plot ignores the fact that the movie is BORING and slow moving.

One you get past the pretty, there's nothing there... Kind of like my last girlfriend.

- C!

 

[DKR1138]

But I liked the movie, the graphics were great for the time, but as Colin said, it lacked any kind of depth. Other than the regular Final Fantasy plot which is usually pretty thin anyways. Its good though and I have the Special Edition DVD of it at home.

 

[matdevdug]

It was a proof of concept

When I saw that "movie" all I could think about it was that this was Squaresoft's way of showing the next generation of software development. The plot was horrible, and not in any way Final Fantasyish. I mean, the whole ghosts and spirits thing was just silly, and you ended up not caring about any of the characters that much.

In terms of technology though, I was wowed. I think it set the bar for what people expect this next generation of gaming to bring to the table. Not only for Squaresoft games, but I think that people want that level of attention in all of their games. It was a really interesting demo of what these companies can do with the right technology. Now, take that and give me a true FF game, and you just sold me a PS 3. Make a movie that makes me wonder if the writers were paying at all, and I see a whole lot of technology that is being wasted.

 

[Grey]

I liked it. I agree it was devoid of anything FF related other than three very small points;

• Cid
• End of the World (as they know it)
• The title

I remember how little attention it recieved and getting annoyed at articles in film magazines about Pixar being the top CG animators, when at the time if you compared Spirits Within with A Bug's Life the differences were very, very clear. Squeenix are still leaques ahead of everyone else in terms of CG animation.

Maybe I should do my dissertation on them...Duffman says OH YEAH!