Final Fantasy The Spirits Within movie review

Final Fantasy The Spirits Within is a fully CG movie that was released in 2001. The movie starred the voices of Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods, Ving Rhames, Steve Busceme, and Ming-Na Wen as Aki. Final Fantasy The Spirits Within, takes place in a post apocalyptic future earth. The earth was destroyed after aliens crashed into the earth with it bringing Phantoms that have destroyed life on earth. The humans have lost the war against the Phantoms, and have retreated to cities hidden behind barrier walls. In the beginning we are introduced to Aki, a dr who is seeking out living organisms, we start with her finding a plant in the ruins of New York City. At this point we meet the soldiers who "rescue" her. There is some character development and we learn more about the spirits at this point. Then we find out why Aki is hunting down living organisms, as her and dr Cid (Donald Sutherland) have discovered that the Phantoms have an energy wave, and the eights organisms that she is hunting create an opposite mirror image of the Phantoms' energy wave, effectively cancelling out the Phantoms' wave. However the fascist leader of the military is trying to push the counsel that governs the city to approve the use of the Zeus Cannon to attempt to destroy the impact crater where the Spirits are concentrated. We now learn about the Gaia Theory, that the earth has a living spirit. Then the troops that "rescued" her from NY are assigned to help her find the rest of the organisms to complete the wave. This movie first of all for the time it was released, is absolutely beautiful, and an amazing feat of technology, never before had anything quite like it been done, and it paved the way for CG movies that would follow like Avatar, Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children, Alita, and all of the other CG movies. However even though this movie was beautiful, and a groundbreaking work of art that had never been done before, it was also one of the biggest box office failures in movie history, only making back about half of it's huge budget. What did the movie do wrong? First of all, it was too far a head of its time, and and it tried to do more than it was capable of. People weren't ready for an all-CG movie at this point. Also some of the voice acting seemed a little flat and emotionless, honestly the movie struggled with conveying real emotions, and the characters seemed a big rigid and unnatural (again a lot of this came from the voice acting). A lot of critics attacked the story, saying that it was cliche, and uninspired, however I do actually disagree strongly with this, as I actually love the story concept, and I actually would argue that the story is original, and it really works well. As a fan of sci-fi movies I would actually argue that this movie holds its own as far as story goes. The movie was created by Hironobu Sakaguchi one of the creators of the Final Fantasy video game series, and though it is not tied to any specific game in the series, nor is there a game adaptation of the film, it still uses concepts that were used in the games, and elements that are reminiscent of a few of the games. For example the Gaia Theory feels similar to Final Fantasy 7 and the life stream, and the love scene is a bit reminiscent of the love scene in Final Fantasy 8, to though it doesn't have swords or fantasy elements that are common in the games, it does have concepts and ideas that are familiar with the games. The movie can easily be enjoyed without even being familiar with the game series, which I think is part of what they were going for. Maybe that helped to hurt it, maybe if it had fantasy elements that are more similar to the game, maybe audiences and critics would have been more accepting of the film. Then again maybe it was too much too soon, and film-goers just weren't ready for a fully CG film. I don't know, sure technology has improved and this movie could look better now, but honestly I feel it holds up well, and I still enjoy it every time I watch it. Sadly the film has never really received a cult status, and to many it seems to have just been forgotten, and can be found in cheap dvd discount bins. Another thing I wanted to discuss, is the collectors edition dvd of this film. The interactive menu is probably one of the best menu screens that I have ever experienced, it is beautiful, it is everything that the DVD adds back in the day promised an interactive DVD menu would be. It also comes packaged with a second disk that has a making of documentary, and many other features, including one that allows the viewer to edit and playback a scene, as well as the original opening sequence, and a short movie comprised of all of Aki's dreams. If you purchase this movie definitely seek out the special collectors edition of it, it is worth the $1 you will spend on it at your local pawn shop or used media store. The DVD release actually won an award for how well it was done. Would I recommend this movie? Yes, honestly I would. I love this movie, I first bought it when it was released on VHS, and I have bought multiple copies since then, and it is a movie that I do go back and watch rather often. If you haven't given this film a chance, or maybe you've never heard of it, then please do so, but remember that it was made in 2001, so remember the technical shortcomings, and then consider how amazing that it is, for what it could accomplish with the technology that was available, in a time period where most people still used dial-up internet. It isn't the greatest movie that you will ever see, and I am not going to lie and say that it is, but it does deserve more credit than it has given, because this film revolutionized what CG could do in film making, and definitely paved the way for future CG films. So hunt down a copy of this movie and I hope you love it as much as I do.