Review of the movie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Written by: Joshua Bozeman on January 23, 2003 at 8:15 P.M. CT.

Overall rating (on 1-10 scale, 10 being the highest rating) 6.5/10

I had seen parts of this movie on Cinemax many times, but had never thought of watching the whole thing. I'm not into sci-fo, never have been, so I never thought I would see this movie at all. Today, however, I happened to flip to Outer Max and saw the movie on, and that it had just started. I had nothing better to do, so I kept watching. I missed the first 10 minutes or so, I guess, but I pretty much saw the entire movie. You cannot deny that the animation is gorgeous...it's just amazing. I remember seeing pictures from the movie online, and at first, I thought the pictures of Aki were of a real person, and she's really beautiful. Tho, when you watch the movie, you won't mistaken them for real people, you do watch and are amazed...the way the characters faces have flaws- like skin tags and the slightly unshaven look on the men and the muscular outlines of the neck on both the men and the women...then, there's all this talk about how Aki's hair was made up of thousands of digital strands to make it more realistic- it's all too crazy. It's a great movie in regards to the cgi and the overall look, but when it comes to the story, problems arise. It's just not very exciting. It's an okay plot, but the way the film was made- it runs way too long, for one- there are too many scenes where too little happens...plus, there's not enough variation in the action to keep your interest fully. The movie feels like it should be ending soon, yet it's still got over 40 minutes to go. That's my main complaint with the movie, and if not for the amazing animation, I might not have kept watching until the end...but, that animation- wow.

The voice work is very nice as well- one exception being Alec Baldwin, I cannot stand that guy, and his character was too dull- there wasn't really much that stood out about him. I think I enjoyed Donald Sutherland's character the most- really great animation on him, and his voice is great for the part. It's also nice to hear Ving Rhames and Steve Buscemi in the movie as part of Gray's crew.

I would definitely recommend this film- I want to try to get the DVD at the library to see all the extras I have heard about- but, in the end, some points are taken off due to a somewhat poor script, with a story that moves way too slowly. In the end, the animation and the likeable characters redeem it to the point that it's a really good movie.