Review of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Introduction

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within takes a well-established videogame and brings it to the big (and now small) screen as a spectacular sci-fi adventure. Seasoned computer gamesters should be very familiar with the Final Fantasy franchise as the series is now in its ninth incarnation. The transition from the interactive game world to the movie screen for many computer games - Super Mario Bros, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, Mortal Combat and Streetfighter - has been an awkward one, and unfortunately Final Fantasy is no exception.

Created by Hironobu Sakaguchi in 1987, the Final Fantasy franchise is tailored to Japanese sensibilities, and although screenwriters Al Reinert and Jeff Vintar have made some concessions to Western tastes, the adventure remains most strongly in the vein of Anime.

The premise is the post-apocalyptic world of 2065, the Earth having been hit by a huge meteorite infested with alien phantoms capable of ripping the life-force out of terrestrial life-forms. Dr Aki Ross and her mentor Dr Sid search for eight Earth-spirits which will save the planet from the alien menace and bring harmony to our ravaged world.

Video

Frequently eye-poppingly spectacular, it is easy to see why so many people were excited by this picture. It certainly does raise the bar for completely computer-generated movies. The alien phantoms are genuinely sinister, the scenery is chillingly post-apocalyptic and the characters are frequently so realistic you really do forget you are watching computer graphics.
With Toy Story, Shrek and Monsters Inc. there was always that air of unreality, constantly reminding you that nothing you were watching existed outside of a Silicon Graphics workstation. That fact was an additional attraction to those movies above and beyond the
faultless storylines, the brilliant humour and how desperately cute Donkey is even if he does sound like Eddie Murphy.

Final Fantasy has no sense of humour whatsoever, none of the characters are cute and the way the phantoms rip the ethereal blue spirits out of human beings is chilling to say the least. This is strong fare in comparison to the other movies, and the characters are human beings, not ogres, talking donkeys, action figures or walking green eyeballs. This puts the realism of the characters under a great deal closer inspection, because the slightest unreality sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. Unfortunately, the results are varied and that only serves to jolt the viewer that they are watching computer animation when they see something really realistic.

Like all the computer-generated movies these days, Final Fantasy is transferred completely digitally from the master files, so the image is flawless. That said, the limited or muted "realistic" palette used to render the images ultimately lends an unreality to skin tones in particular. The movie is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colours are, as previously mentioned, muted and realistic but the images are sharp, well-defined and contrasted.

Audio

The soundtrack is 5.1 Dolby Digital in both English and French, with two commentary tracks and an isolated score track with commentary by Elliot Goldenthal.

Features

A two disk set, Columbia-Tristar have gone to town on this title. Disk One carries the movie itself, with the abovementioned commentary tracks and isolated score, storyboards, "factoids" and (not mentioned on the box) a set of glamour shots of Aki Ross. Disk Two contains a "Making Of" reel, an alternative opening sequence, a "Thriller" video skit (animated by someone on the staff with far too much spare time), a mini movie "Aki`s Dream", Character Files and the opportunity to re-edit a key sequence in the film. DVD-ROM features include the screenplay, screensavers and weblinks. According to the box (a very pretty mirrored silver fold-out that fits into a transparent slipcase), there are four hours` worth of extras which is easy to believe. Incidentally, the information printed on the outer slipcase is difficult enough to read when the silver foldout is in place, but well-nigh impossible to read when empty.

Conclusion

While visually stunning, the underlying story of the movie is depressingly nihilistic. Elements are distinctly derivative (the Deep Eyes Squad are a bunch of marines straight out of James Cameron`s Aliens), and the core McGuffin is a piece of new-age, feel-the-force semi-mysticism about the Earth having a spirit called "Gaia". Compounding the problem is your typical neo-Nazi, posturing military leader who would happily rid the Earth of these phantoms even if it meant blowing the place up in the process.

A lot of people will like this movie, but I think a lot more will be disappointed by it. The makers promised a great deal in expanding the horizons of computer-animated movies. Admittedly it is visually amazing but ultimately it is a very empty film and that is the fault of its original source. Perhaps if more concessions had been made to Western sensibilities it might have been a more satisfying story, but then it might not have pleased fans of the original game.