Ming Na Movie:

Editorial Review:
Earth is a desolate wasteland in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Humanity has been decimated by an invasion of Phantoms, insubstantial aliens that extract and devour the spirits of living things. The few remaining humans have retreated to a handful of cities that are protected by massive bio-energy shields. The beautiful Dr. Aki Ross (voiced by Ming-Na) and her mentor Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland) have discovered that the energy signatures of eight key Earth spirits can cancel out and destroy the Phantoms. With the help of Captain Edwards (Alec Baldwin) and his band of marines, they must scour the globe for the last two remaining spirits before General Hein (James Woods) manipulates the refugee government into attacking the aliens with an orbital laser that may also destroy the Earth.

Hironobu Sakaguchi's film is taken from the popular Final Fantasy video game franchise, which is particularly well suited to film adaptation with its series of original stories, but the movie features entirely new characters and settings. And like Toy Story and Shrek, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is completely computer generated. Unlike those cartoon comedies, though, The Spirits Within is a serious science fiction drama with astonishingly human digital actors. Aki, the female lead, appeared in a full-page spread in Maxim magazine's Hot 100 list--and was indistinguishable from the real-life models. The setting and conflict make for incredible action, but it's the larger issues, character interaction, and human elements that really make the movie shine. The Spirits Within is not simply a science fiction movie, in the same way that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not simply a kung fu flick. The result is a fantastic summer movie with better action and more emotion than Pearl Harbor, and actors more lifelike than those in that other video game movie, Tomb Raider. --Mike Fehlauer

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within [Region 2] Reviews:
final fantasy
2009-10-02 - if you see that i gave it only a 4 stars, it's because i feel it's just a next step up. remember vhs to dvd.

don't get me wrong i love the movie, but when you have a home collection with more then 1,000 dvd, and now you have to replace them with blu-ray. and it has taken me about 12 yrs to collect. i just hope they don't come out with another format, then i have to start all over again lol.

Convoluted story with an ambiguous ending
2009-09-05 - This is a very dark animated film, in which a remnant of humans are fighting aliens - and each other - to survive. On the one hand, you have a band of idealists, who believe that the Earth has a spirit that can be used to fight the invaders (whose true nature remains a mystery). They seek spirit essences of some sort, which when united might save humanity. On the other hand, there are militarists who see no reason to believe any of this; their ultimate weapon threatens to destroy the Earth's spirit, Gaia.

From this somewhat promising premise, the story becomes both a confusing shootout (it is unclear if the enemy aliens die and how to fight them) and a political struggle that becomes extremely deadly. At least for me, I could not quite forget that I was watching something made up - I never suspended my disbelief and gave myself over to it. The risks and ambitions just get bigger and bigger, the scenarios more outlandish and desperate and ultimate. By the end, it had nearly completely lost me.

One thing that is good, in my view, is that the outcome remains unexplained and ambiguous. The viewer is not told what happened and what it means, which is nice in that it leaves a lot to the imagination, which is the mark of all quality sci-fi. However, I found the characters boringly two-dimensional and the plot unoriginal, in spite of the good special effects. I assume that the product shoudl stand on its own, as I am not a gamer, and for me it barely did.

I would not recommend this except to those who like this world because of their familiarity with the game or because they want a simple adventure. It is not for hard sci-fi fans.

CGI Animation Done Right!
2009-08-28 - Long before James Cameron started pimping his Avatar epic, Square Pictures pioneered the world's first full-length photorealistic CGI animated movie. This was based on the hit video game franchise of the same name, although the movie took a more sci-fi approach as apposed to the more high fantasy that most of the earlier games.

Taking place on a post-apocalyptic Earth(that's right, not Ivalice!)in the mid-21st Century, Aki Ross is a scientist who is trying to collect eight seperate spirits, which when combined will create an energy field that will rid the planet of an alien force. The invaders are creatures referred to as Phantoms, which are ghostlike monsters that literally suck the souls out of people. This happened after a meteor crashed on Earth decades earlier, and the Phantoms spread throughout the world and killed off most of the humans. The survivors live in specially shielded cities, who have built a giant oribiting cannon to blast the alien meteorite and save the planet. But Sid, the scientist who created the special Phantom-proof shields, realizes that this might cause the aliens' spirit to take over the Earth's spirit known as Gaia, which would destroy all life. Sid along with Aki are enlisted the help of the special military squad of Deep Eyes, the commander of which is Aki's old boyfriend, Gray. They try to find the remaining spirits, however the vengeful General Hein is plotting to destroy the Phantoms at any cost.

The Spirits Within was the precursor to several other computer animated films that attempted to have the characters(human or otherwise)appear as real as possible, such as Beowulf, Kaena: The Prophecy, Resident Evil: Degeneration, and Negadon. The animation was virtually years ahead of its time, which might have worked towards its disadvantage as some people were possibly just not ready for that kind of advancement in cinema. Granted, it might seem pretty common by today's standards, but when this came out in 2001 it was groundbreaking, and even busts the chops of some of the more recent digital animation.

Of course the biggest gripe most people had was that it had very little to do with any of the actual Final Fantasy games. Most fans of the series expected guys with gravity-defying hair riding on Chocobos and swinging colossally huge swords around. However, the movie offered a compelling sci-fi/action/drama which managed to incorporate most of the better attributes that the games had, mainly brilliant character development and a compelling plot. It truly is an exceptionally great film, and worth a second look for those who are willing to see past the fanboy hatred.

MAGNIFICENT AND BREATH-TAKING 9.5 OUT OF 10
2009-08-21 - It's a shame that this film didn't do as well as it should have. It didn't do very well in terms of critical response (44% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and a 49 out of 100 on Metacritic), it was a box office bomb to the point of where Square Enix kicked the film's director and producer Hironobu Sakaguchi (The creator of the Final Fantasy game franchise) to the curb, and some people have been popping up who proclaim it to be "the worst video game movie ever!" Surprisingly, one of the biggest defenders of the film was film critic Roger Ebert who I hate greatly for a number of reasons. Roger Ebert handed the film a 3.5 out of 4-star rating and didn't believe people would understand the film. I believe Square Enix reacted a little too quickly to fire the creator of Final Fantasy, which I believe was a big mistake. And to those of you who think this is the worst video game film ever, clearly you've never sat through an Uwe Boll travesty, have you? Not to mention, most scores on different sites that I've researched, beg to differ on such a proclamation. I loved this film, it was an amazing cinematic accomplishment in terms of CGI and sci-fi action films. It may not have the most original storyline, but it does pull you in to a certain extent.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Year: 2065, thirty-four years previously, a mysterious alien forced called Phantoms invaded the Earth and destroyed most of the life on Earth by stealing the spirits of their victims. Now the planet is overrun with the Phantoms. Dr. Aki Ross is a woman struggling with a Phantom parasite inside of her body and suffers from strange dreams she cannot explain. She goes around the planet trying to find eight spirits which, when all eight are collected, will destroy the Phantoms. With the help of the Deep Eyes Squadron and her mentor, Dr. Sid they search the planet to find the seventh and the most important eight spirit. But they face troubles with the military, and the military unknowingly is about to destroy Gaia (Earth's spirit) and let the planet become overrun with the Phantoms. Now Aki and the team must stop this from happening and destroy the Phantoms at their source.
MUSIC: This music is simply amazing. It fit the mood well and was extremely well-written and composed. I have absolutely no gripes with this area at all, the music is stunning to put it bluntly.
ACTION: This film a feast for the eye. The CGI is staggering and beautiful in every way... and this film came out eight years ago! Nothing competes with this film's CGI, not even Pixar films! The action scenes are wonderful and totally awesome in every regard. The film starts off slow, but then the film goes off with a bang and doesn't stop till the end. It gets the blood and adrenaline pumping and refuses to let go. This is how a Star Wars animated flick should be, not the disastrous Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Widescreen Edition) (Let's just try and pretend that never happened). Quite simply, this sci-fi flick is kickass.
ACTING: Although not all these actors are recognizable, their performances are really good, even though there are some moments of questionable dialogue. This film may not have the most compelling characters, but they do their job well and they do move the storyline along quite well. Overall, this area is really good.
OVERALL: If you love sci-fi flicks, CGI films, or just love awesome films in general, you must see this film because it will blow you away in just about every way.
THE GOOD: Stunning CGI animation, awesome action scenes, good acting, and great music.
THE BAD: The storyline doesn't quite live up to the potential and there are moments of awkward dialogue.

Definitely a gamers' movie
2009-05-15 - Beautiful colors and brilliant animation with excellent voicings.

That's it. That's about all you can say about this rewarmed pot-boiler. Hackneyed plot, nonexistent character development, unsatisfying conclusion.

This is a film that will appeal to gamers and fans of anime. Everyone else can find better use for their ticket money.