[Zsinj16]

Well, I just went to the new Final Fantasy movie yesterday and I just thought I would put my two cents in about it. Here goes:
Overall, I thought this was a pretty good movie. I really enjoyed the battles between the alien phantoms and the space soldiers, and I also liked the post-apocolyptic atmosphere. Also, I thought the computer animation and special effects were stunning! But, I do, however, have one complaint about this movie, I didn't see really any fantasy elements in it. Well, except the Gaia thing, which I thought was an overall good concept, but it seemed to me to be a little bit too "tree-huggish" if you know what I mean. I was kind of hoping that there would be some magic and sorcery in this movie that is usually true to the Final Fantasy name, but, alas, there wasn't, and thus I was a bit dissapointed because of that, but overall I think it was a pretty good movie, although I would just call it science fiction, not science fantasy, as some of my friends told me it was going to be.

By the way, at the beginning of the movie's coming attractions, I had to sit through that stupid commercial of Britney Spears dancing and singing to promote the Pepsi corporation. UGGH!! And the worst part of it was, it was on with the speakers cranked up loud! So I buried my head in my hands while a bunch of guys around me whooped and whistled and hooted like a bunch of mindless nincompoops. I mean, I'm a guy, and even if I liked Britney Spears (which I definitely don't!!) I wouldn't stoop to the idiotic level they did! The day I start liking Ms. Spears is the day that pigs fly and the day that the ghost of J.R.R. Tolkien appears to me and says Hullo!!
Anyway, despite that idiotic music video I saw, I did see some pretty good-looking trailers for the movie "LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring" and "Spider-Man"!

[tamlyn]

You mean Tolkien hasn't visited you yet? Poor thing. He came and had a drink with me. Or rather I had a drink and he watched.

[Black Echo]

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!! (Possibly)

The animation was great and so was the hardware, however, the story was so liberal touchy feely that it almost didn't rate as being very 'Japanese'. The stuff of 'Gaia' and 'planet energy' etc. was just so much bunk to have to choke down.

OK, my gripe is this: Besides being a bunch of tree hugging 'gaia-spirit new age BS', the plot didn't make much sense from a logical point of view.

WHY did the ghosts need to 'attack' humans or spread out from their initial impact point? Ghosts, at least in the 'real' world, tend to haunt one location, not multiply and roam around the countryside. There couldn't be THAT many ghosts on one hunk of debris from the planet, yet they multiply like they are breeding. Ghosts can breed? Now that's a novel concept!!

Why do energy weapons affect ghosts? I mean, if they are already dead...

Why can you kill ghosts with plasma / laser guns? Why do weapons affect 'spirits' at all? The logic of that escaped me...

Why (how!?) can ghosts 'infect' people with some type of micro-organism / bacteria if they are 'spirits'? The logic of that escaped me as well...

If bio-energy or whatever kills ghosts, how do the ghosts swim up the power conduits if they are full of this energy?

Why don't they just use religion to exercise the ghosts instead of some mystic hoo-doo about 8 spirits (and WHY must there be 8 spirits... why not 6 or 10 or any other number).

EXCELLENT animation, but the pseudo-religious tone of the gaia stuff really got old after a while. I enjoyed the animation, but the story was, as one critic said best, 'convoluted'.

I'll own the DVD and the soundtrack, but it could have been a lot better. Call this one "ALIENS" meets "GHOSTBUSTERS" and you've hit the nail on the head for this movie plot.

Great animation, convoluted story.

[Umesha Chalanie]

But, then, the hype for this movie was about the animation, wasn't it? No-one really cared about the script - only the characters, background, nature, effects etc.

[Erebus]

I don't know much about the Final Fantasy games - not having the time to indulge in such luxuries! - and I know little more about the movie other than for the fact that there are apparently no real actors involved, other than for voices.

For that alone, a completely animated "live-action" movie, it certainly sounds impressive, and from the trailers I've seen, looks pretty good as well! Unfortunately, animators, for all their technical brilliance, cannot save a weak or lacking script. But, it does seem like a lot of fun, and for that alone it has to be worth the price of a ticket, don't you think! http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Black Echo]

It was, IMHO, worth the price of admission if just to see the animation and effects. It was very nicely done. The story was, as they all do, probably broken down in the 'translation' from Japanese to English and somewhere we ended up with what we see.

And yes, the FF series has some magic in it, but sorry, I like my fantasy to be isolated from my science fiction. Star Wars and the "Force" is one thing, but having wizards with blasters and space ships is enough to make me walk out of a movie, which is what I would have done if they had started using magic.

Uggh.

[enazwo]

I agree with the posts here conerning the logic gaps and the hackneyed metaphysical earth spirits, etc, etc,.

However I'm glad that participants in this site have supported the movie by going to see it. It is important if we want to see animation of this quality in future, that fans of science-fiction/fantasy support these kinds of efforts.

Because who knows just maybe someone may try and bring "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" or "WoT" or what ever classic fantasy that strikes you fancy, to the big screen with this brand of animation.

For you that haven't see "Final Fantasy" the quality of the animation is worth the price of animation.It is revolutionary as at times the you can almost forget your watching animation.

enazwo

[FitzChivalry]

Just saw the movie, cool movie, the plotline was pretty Squarish, and the computer animation was amazing.
However, too bad there wasn't any connection to the games beside a character named Cid.
I was kinda hoping to hear the Final Fantasy theme song in Dolbey Digital or the crystal song...

[mistressoftheforce]

I went and saw Final Fantasy: The Spirit's Within a while ago and was blown away by the effects. Not only were they amazing, but they were the kind of standards, RPG gamers and fans of Final Fantasy, have come to expect from Square. All the game have an element of the "Gaia" and the "Life Force" and particularly saving the world from a being or beings bent on destruction. I loved the soundtrack but I agree that the storyline was a bit lacking, to say the least. They could have done more for the background of the story, explain a little more about the relationships within the movie.
mistressoftheforce

[Alucard]

In my opinion, the biggest blunder of the spirits within was modeling it after other sci-fi movies. If they would have gone with the style that is used for the games(swords and scorcery with technology tied in as well), it would have gotten a lot more attention. But as it is, it's just another sci-fi movie, only delivered with a terrible script and a bland story. I read an interview with the producers who said that they were making it more sci-fi in hopes of appealing to a broader audience. If you ask me, that was digging their graves. People, especially nowadays, are more impressed by things that they've never seen before. The more different, the more it stands out, the more people will be interested in seeing it(this is a generaliztion, by the way). And excluding starwars, science fiction seems more niche than mainstream anyway.

But on a good note, the animation was completely amazing. If only it had been put to better use...