Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within on Sci-Fi tonight...

[Goodwill Hunter]

Just a heads up to anyone else that hasn't seen the movie yet, it's on the Sci-Fi channel tonight at 9 ET.

Rich

[SoulBlazer]

I'm probaly the only person here who not only LIKED the movie but bought the DVD.

[punkoffgirl]

Heh, I've seen that movie about fifty gazillion times on tv. Willie's mom didn't even know it was "animated" until we told her; guess she wasn't paying too much attention.

[hydr0x]

i've got the dvd (2-disc-edition) but haven't seen it yet x_x

[Bratwurst]

15 minutes into it and I could stand no more. What a bad, bad movie.

[Sylentwulf]

I liked the movie, but didn't buy the DVD (I don't buy DVD's, see class-action lawsuit)

Frankly, I thought if Sony had done a TRUE Final Fantasy movie, ala swords n armor, it would have done MUCH MUCH Better. What this movie they released, had to do with ANY Final Fantasy game EVER MADE is FAR beyond me. And the Lead "chick" is just flat-out ugly IMO, which also didn't help.

[hamburgler]

It was a bad movie and shall always be. Not that i'm dissing the games which are 100% much better and intresting then this garbage movie.

[calthaer]

The FF movie is essentially the same plot as a FF video game - it's just completely non-interactive and hasn't any random battles to liven things up.

Graphically, it's really good. In terms of plot, character development, and any other substantive story-telling mechanism, it's an abysmal failure.

I think I'll pass on watching it on TV or any other medium ever again.

[gamegirl79]

Being a huge fan of the Final Fantasy games, I went out and bought the 2-disc DVD set soon after it was released. I was very impressed with the way the movie looked, but I was disappointed with the story. The plot was very weak and overall it was just boring. The bonus disc is almost more entertaining.

[Kid Fenris]

It's all Alec Baldwin's fault.

Actually, I've never considered Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within a bad movie. It's mediocre by some standards, but when I think of bad films, I think of things like Mission to Mars, Krull, and Reign of Fire. And then I realize that the Final Fantasy film, flawed as it may be, is a far cry from such cinema.

Granted, the movie lacks memorable characters and never really rises beyond the appeal of a shallow action film peddled in the guise of science fiction. Yet I found it rather entertaining. I dug the visuals and the few amusing lines, and I feel bad that it didn't do better in theaters, mostly because its failure discouraged other companies from pursuing computer-rendered films that aim beyond family entertainment.

Years from now, The Spirits Within will be little more than a curiosity to Final Fantasy geeks, History of Visual Arts classes, and the odd action-flick fan. It's a disposable, simple movie. But it's not a bad one.

Curiously, the film came up in a discussion I had with a friend the other night about Wonderful Days, a high-budget Korean animated film that met the same fate as The Spirits Within. He agreed that Square should’ve shut down the movie at an early stage and invested their ideas in an action/RPG. It’d be fun to explore the ruins of New York City or fend off hordes of enormous, translucent day-glo dust mites, instead of just watching the characters do the same things for 90 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Wonderful Days, a high-budget Korean animated film that met the same fate as The Spirits Within.

THAT's the description I was looking for!

[Goodwill Hunter]

It's all Alec Baldwin's fault.

Actually, I've never considered Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within a bad movie. It's mediocre by some standards, but when I think of bad films, I think of things like Mission to Mars, Krull, and Reign of Fire.

Funny you should mention Krull...that's exactly the movie I had a flashback to as this rather lame movie was ending. The whole hero and heroine joining hands and letting the power of their love (or spirits within) overcome the beasties left a very bad Krull taste in my mouth.

And James Woods was far too recognizable for the bad guy's voice...I kept going back and forth between hearing Hades from "Hercules" and the hitman from "Best Seller".

Pretty, and a nice technical achievement, but I have to agree with most here that FF:TSW was not much of a movie.

Rich

P.S. Encore at 1 am for all you masochists out there...

[Sylentwulf]

Krull.... Bad? BLASPHEMER!

[Sotenga]

OH, YEAH! You die for defying Krull!!!

Come on! If it wasn't for the movie (which I liked) we wouldn't have the excellent Atari 2600 game to go with it! I love that game. Okay, so I'm not sure if a lot of people liked it. It is a cult film. So... you don't die. But Krull is teh rool to me. Fair enough?

[Goodwill Hunter]

OH, YEAH! You die for defying Krull!!!

Come on! If it wasn't for the movie (which I liked) we wouldn't have the excellent Atari 2600 game to go with it! I love that game. Okay, so I'm not sure if a lot of people liked it. It is a cult film. So... you don't die. But Krull is teh rool to me. Fair enough?

I'm sorry, the "flame of our love" ending has to be the lamest ever. Yes, they had a cool weapon in the glaive, but forgot about it until the last two fights in the movie..."yeah, we kinda have been getting our asses kicked throughout this movie, hey what about this glaive thingy?...ZING, hey look, it instantly killed all the bad guys, whadda ya know!" Plus it proved to be pretty worthless in the final fight (see "flame of our love" above).

And the only really cool character, the Cyclops, gets squashed like a bug! Although, I will admit I enjoyed the scene where he comes charging back on his steed to save the day...only to be squashed like a bug moments later. But overall, Krull sucked and blew at the same time.

Rich

[Jorpho]

Curiously, the film came up in a discussion I had with a friend the other night about Wonderful Days, a high-budget Korean animated film that met the same fate as The Spirits Within. He agreed that Square should?ve shut down the movie at an early stage and invested their ideas in an action/RPG. It?d be fun to explore the ruins of New York City or fend off hordes of enormous, translucent day-glo dust mites, instead of just watching the characters do the same things for 90 minutes.

Ah, yes, Wonderful Days. Really not too far from FF:TSW, that one, although it kind of reminded me of Rock 'n' Rule at times (with the oddly-deformed slum characters).

Final Flight of the Osiris (the Matrix short) was done by the same team as FF:TSW. I sure wouldn't mind seeing something like that on a grander scale.

[ubersaurus]

This one short cartoon called "The Cathedral" was far better then Final Fantasy the Movie. In fact, I dug around my archives to bring you our review of the movie, written right after we saw it:

Well, I accurately predicted that it would have nothing to do with Final
Fantasy. I think we all knew that much. Let's get down to the review:

First off, the absolute very best part of the movie. What, may you ask,
could that be? I think that it's quite apparent that the most
enjoyable, nay, savorable part of the movie was The Lord of the Rings
preview. Yes. The Lord of the Rings preview gave us a glimpse of a
movie that appeared to be what we were looking for in the Final Fantasy
movie. From here on in, in light of what I have seen, I feel it is only
fair to from now on refer to the movie not as Final Fantasy, but as The
Spirits Within, for I will never, ever, ever, and then some, ever refer
to this movie as a Final Fantasy movie.

Now the second best part of the movie: The Spiderman preview. I'm
quite looking forward to seeing what may just be the greatest
comic-to-movie transition. Spiderman gives us a sense of a hero, unlike
the Final Fantasy movie, in which any Joe scientist off the street could
have discovered the secret of stopping the phantoms. The cast was weak,
especially the lead character, Dana Scully (A.K.A: Dr. Aki Ross).

Oh, but we are not through here! Let's get to the plot. This was a
pretty decent sci-fi/alien movie. It's everything you could expect from
movies the likes of Alien or Independance Day. However, our group seems
to be of the opinion that there was nothing in this movie that set it
apart from other such sci-fi thrillers. There was never any decently
substantial reason as to why Dr. Scully was having those dreams.

There's one problem. Let's look at the (many) others. Let's look at
all the (two) integrated love stories. The first was from Squeaky Voice
Guy who didn't deserve to die that quickly and Buff Manly Woman. They
never acknowledged any previous story as to how they had related to each
other in the past. They never showed any trace of Manly Woman's liking
for Squeaky. Yet when Squeaky, it became apparent that (s)he did in
fact have feelings for Mouse Boy. Next, the relationship between
Generic Military Guy and Dana Scully. Why did they like each other
again? Was there ANY reason? Or were the sex-driven lustful sinners
who lost all control and just decided to fall in love in the middle of
the Danger Zone. Sure, they MENTIONED at the beginning that they had
KNOWN each other previously, but they NEVER mentioned any affair between
them. Coincidence? I think not.

Let Coincidence=Good Movie.

Now, as a side note, I'll point out a character that had virtually
nothing to do with the overall movie. Generic Black Guy. Who among us
did not for a second think that he was going to die not even halfway
through the movie? They were original; he did not die first. But he
died.

Before moving on, Brian has made an interesting point. Someone, name be
it unknown, mentioned how one of the similarities (?) to a Final Fantasy
game was that the spirits were basically espers. This is not the case,
unless you can see the distinction between humans exposed to magic and,
say, aliens exposed to death. That has nothing to do with this review
and should be completely ignored except for humorous purposes.

Let's talk about the Spirit Guide. For all it's worth they could just
as easily have said TV Guide and it would have made no difference in the
movie. What use against a phantom that could pull your spirit from your
body is anyone going to be to you in your bleeding dreams? Or was it
just an excuse to put Generic Military Guy in the dream so he might
actually believe the scientists, since to any Generic Military Guy
scientist obviously wouldn't know what they were talking about?

Imagine how weak this movie would have been if anyone had known
Vanish/Doom! Those phantoms would be so dead! But seeing as how this
is NOT Final Fantasy, we don't have to worry about that. Let's
conitinue with the problems once more. Hopefully we can fit them all in
one email.

So Dr. Sid (not CID, because this isn't a Final Fantasy movie) tells Dr.
Scully to burn all her notes on the Gaia theory. He fears that their
discovery will result in their punishment of some unmentioned but
assumed arrested type. Then, the good Dr. contradicts himself, by
telling all in front of the council. Not only did this make him look
either a) stupid or b) senile, but his actions were of NO CONSEQUENCE to
either him or Dr. Scully.

Okay, let's get to the personal opinion problems:

At the end, Generic Military Guy dies. I waited that whole movie for
Dr. Scully to drop out of existence like so many mayflies, and it never
happened. She sucked. She needed to die. She was boring and never did
anything exceptional other than rescue Generic Military Guy twice. And
I didn't even like him.

Oh, but the general was really cool. Yes. REALLY cool. He was a man
with a mission, moreso than anyone else in that movie, and he went
further than anyone to fulfill his ambition. Yet the creators of this
movie shrugged him off, gave him little to do, made him a bad guy, and
ultimately killed him off in quite a ridiculous way. I wish they would
have ended the movie with him destroying the earth, because everyone on
the planet at that point, well, sucked. Plain and simple. Sure, he
would not have been very happy about what he'd done, but *I* sure
would! And I'M the one who's real. I'M the one who gave the creators
money for this pile of garbage! *I* wanted something done for me in
return. But I could find no solace in the creators of UNfinal Fantasy.
I think it's time for a real champion to emerge. One who will give the
people what they want. One who will crush the forces that take a good
idea and make everything about it stupid. I speak of course...of Joel.
I don't know why, but I thought it would sound funny.

As Brian pointed out, Square could have made a movie about football and
called it Final Fantasy, and there would have been as much relation. I
won't make any certain statements, but I bet that the only part of
Square that worked on this movie was the CG team from the last three
Final Fantasy games, and that's why they called it Final Fantasy. I may
be wrong, but I'm putting this in here for the sole purpose of giving
anyone who wishes to argue at least ONE thing that they could prove us
wrong about. It's only fair.

To finish, we've decided to make some game-based movies of our own. One
will be Sonic The Hedgehog, about a human being who runs fast and has a
pet hedgehog that doesn't really do all that much in the movie but
sleep.

Another would be Rockman the Movie. It's about a boy who runs a paper
route and one day gets hit by a car, giving him psychic abilities. This
one's a real winner! *Snicker, snicker*

So I leave you with these words. Pester Squaresoft to make a Final
Fantasy movie, and do it in a way which leaves them thinking that we do
not even acknowledge the existence of this movie. And should they say
that they did release a Final Fantasy movie, say to them, "What? Never
heard of it. I think you're lying."

Good day!



Brian Clark
Justin Fraser
Kevin Bunch
Brandon Fraser

[RoboticParanoia]

TSW was an alright movie, by all means. It wasn't incredibly pathetic, and it has it's moment.

[briskbc]

I watch this movie about once a year. I don't like the story but some of the animation is just beautiful. I hope they bring that Final Fantasy 7 movie to North America.

[Jorpho]

This one short cartoon called "The Cathedral" was far better then Final Fantasy the Movie.

The Cathedral? I remember that one, I think. Was it also done by the same team?