A meter carrying an endless amount of phantoms is about to hit Earth, and two methodsof stopping it have been presented to the council. Final Fantasy stars Ming-Na as Aki, afield doctor who works for Dr. Sid. (Donald Sutherland) Their job is to find the eightspirits that will allow them to stop the alien phantoms from reaching Earth. Bad boyGeneral Hein (James Woods) has his own plan for saving the planet, and will do anythingto get it done, even if it means killing Aki.The shoreline is solid, and the movie is interesting since it is 100%computer generated.The graphics are amazing, many times you will believe you are watching actors, notspecial effects. Fans of the video game will probably enjoy this concept come to life, but itisn't enough for people who expect a really good movie out of this.Most of Final Fantasy focuses on Aki trying to find the spirits, while accompanied by agroup of military style cops. At the same time, the General has been proposing to thecouncil, that only his method will work, which involves shooting large rays at the rockheaded for Earth. I give “The Spirits Within" points for it's originality and it is quite entertaining, but it lacksgood character development. The relationships among the crew members are unsteadythroughout, and there are heavy stereotypes that go along with each character. Forexample, the macho tough solider, versus the stern bull like attitude of the female. Final Fantasy isn't your ordinary cartoon, there is plenty of violence, death, scenes oftorture, and even the issue of suicide. You'll even here a few vulgar words that nestlesthis film into its PG-13 rating. Overall, Final Fantasy was decent, but nothing more. The story manages to twist a littletowards the end, such as new information arises about the truth of these mysteriousphantoms, and the history of the main characters. I still don't think we are ready for amovie done entirely of computer graphics, because the sympathy is not there for thecharacters that don't survive. Even though you are following fictional characters, mostpeople won't find it hard to enjoy “The Spirits Within," after all, it's only a fantasy.
|
