Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within... an early verdict

Shinji

I popped along to see Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within at a special digital preview screening in Odeon Leicester Square this morning. Quite a nice screening - the cinema wasn't packed, and those there were all film and game journalist types (some with older kids and so on in tow, admittedly), so the audience was well behaved and didn't munch crisps TOO loudly.

A word first about digital projection. There's no doubt that this is The Way Forward for cinema, and I have to wonder how long it'll be before the big studios decide to bang some heads at the cinema chains together and force them all into upgrading. Essentially there's nothing MASSIVELY special about digital - you won't sit there and go "oh my dear lord it's digital, I'm blown away!" - but this is film as it should be. The visual quality is utterly perfect, without a blemish in sight, and the sound is likewise - no crackles at reel change, consistent volume handling etc. You probably won't even have consciously registered many of the problems with conventional film reels until you see a digital film, at which point you'll suddenly wonder how you ever put up with film stock projection...

On to the film itself. I entered the cinema with a vague sense of trepidation - reviews from stateside haven't been entirely glowing, but I've been waiting for this film for years, ever since Square initially announced their plans to do a CGI movie.

I was not disappointed. The stateside reviews, frankly, are a load of rubbish.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within utterly owns my soul. The graphics are everything they're cracked up to be; not quite human, but yet in places you could be easily fooled (Dr Sid, voiced by Donald Sutherland, is especially impressive, and looks entirely realistic in most scenes) and the whole thing leaves Toy Story, Shrek et al in the dust. Perhaps most impressive of all is its depiction of incidental details - the eagle which appears in a few different places in the film is jaw-droppingly accurately modelled and animated.

Square have done what Toy Story and A Bugs Life failed to do; they have taken advantage of the medium offered to them and created a film that, rather than saying "CGI isn't quite up to the standards of live action yet, so we'll cover areas that are easy to do", turns around and announces "CGI is now better than live action - what cool stuff can we do with it that you could never do live action?".

Every shot costs the same in CGI, so why bother skimping on sets or special effects? It costs nothing to constantly render impressive holographic devices in CGI, so they're about all the time; fantastic, ghostly alien life forms are as easy to do - if not easier - than drawing the main characters hair, so why not draw armies of them? Zero gravity scenes can be as lengthy as you like without extra cost; you can put the camera wherever you like, and indeed some scenes even show a view from underground, with footsteps represented as little lens ripples. The overall visual effect is breathtaking and consistently stunning.

The film would be worth seeing for that alone, but it goes so much further. Square put up all the cash for this film, and Sakaguichi basically got to write the script himself, without the usual Hollywood thing of 20 scriptwriters taking it apart and putting it back together again with no consistent feel and all the "good" bits excised in favour of bland action.

The Spirits Within has a plot like you've never seen before; it reminds me in a lot of ways of Final Fantasy VII in terms of its setup, and really requires you to keep an open mind because you're hardly into the film 20 minutes before it's asking you to take on boards concepts like Gaia, planetary energy and the existence of a "spirit" within every living thing that can be understood by science as a kind of sentient biological energy force. It's heavy duty stuff, and to the films credit, it never tries to sit down and explain the plot in big letters, instead leaving you to work a lot out for yourself and come to your own conclusions on the symbolism of many of the elements within the movie.

The conclusion of the film is bizarre by western standards, and typical Squaresoft. Any film studio in LA producing this idea would find that ending on the cutting room floor - but it's thought provoking and bittersweet, which is probably a big part of the reason why the Americans didn't like it. It's not your average "Yay, we won, god bless America" ending, and I think that's a bit hard for some people to swallow in a summer blockbuster film.

The voice acting was nearly flawless - I found only a few tiny places where it jarred, and I'm REALLY picky about voice acting in movies and games. It's helped by the fact that most of the characters have good dialogue - only General Hein seemed a bit weak at times, although he does get a few of the best lines of the film. Again in typical Square fashion, the flick managed to maintain its sense of humour even when treading inches away from the end of the world...

In summary: see this film. Maybe your imagination and suspension of disbelief aren't up to the concept of the film, but even so, see if for the visuals... And for those who "get" FF: The Spirits Within, it's a movie experience unparalleled so far this year. A sci-fi summer blockbuster that tries to tread new ground, assumes that its audience is intelligent, has an unexpected ending, and takes its lead on imagery from arthouse flicks... Whatever next, a genuinely good summer romantic comedy?

OConnor

you like it then
Is it a film for Hardcore RPG/FF films?
Gamers in General?
Everyone?
Non-Americans?

Chubby

hey rob, did they greenlight a second movie? Read something about a 2nd movie if they make at least $35mil in opening weekend.

Karl Hungus

I cannot wait...

When is it out here?

adnans

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by AngelWhore:
I cannot wait...

When is it out here?</font>

its out on august 3rd in UK so its should be the same date for Eire. I cant wait either...

adnans

Mills

As did I, I saw a trailer for it on TV the other day that said August 10th, and, mmmmmm.

gandalf

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by adnans:
its out on august 3rd in UK so its should be the same date for Eire. I cant wait either...

adnans

</font>

EIRE !!!!!!!

Ireland please !

Bah,

Gandalf.

adnans

wow, first time i ever use that word i get slapped on the wrist. why?

adnans

Jimi-Spandex

Horray, Go Eire

[offtopic]
Are we not entitled to practise our national language without criticism? thats basic human rights.
[/offtopic]

Thank god the film turned out good anyways

[This message has been edited by Jimi-Spandex (edited 24-07-2001).]

Coyote

man what a movie. I have to say it's the best ever compuer made movie i have ever seen. the people look so real it's scarey, you realy forget that they are not real but for there voices.
as for the plot it's very good, well thought out. some of the things in the movie have been done befor, colours for diff things were a bit over done. but if your going to the movies then this is one of the best things to go and see.

Coyote

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This is my signature, there are many like it, but this one is my own.

Puck

I heard it was August 10th.

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John (yes THE John!)
"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."

Greenbean

[offtopic]"Horray, Go Eire

Are we not entitled to practise our national language without criticism? thats basic human rights."

People take offense to Eire because the british said Eire when they didn't want to say the Republic of Ireland, or the Irish free state - an insult if you will.
[/offtopic]

Shinji, you have to admit it may have simply been criticised because these reviewers have to tell people whether they are going to enjoy it or not. Mr joesoap etc; and if they find that it requires alot of brain work, a sudden rejection of western style thinking and an embrace of oriental (and utterly strange/foreign) thinking to get into it then they certainly can't recommend it. The majority of people won't get it - and worse, they may even have to think. Thats the critics jobs, to steer people who agree with their opinions in general, away from stuff they won't like.

But, it certainly sounds like something I'd like to get out on dvd and watch a few times and get into.

tHE vAGGABOND

[Still OT]
GB - I disagree to a point. Brits would use 'free state' too, just like Fianna Fail ****ers would call Fainna Gael ****ers 'free staters'

Eire is what a lot of republicans refer to when speaking about the 26 counties
[/still OT]

The movie does indeed look good, but I await what joe public thinks of it? I think the whole 'out there' thing may be enough for them - most of the cartoon, futureistic movies have gone down the toilet in the last while. So geeks will go and see it, it needs the couples of a sunday evenin' to go and see it to make any real money!

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">assumes that its audience is intelligent</font>

its ****ed in America so

[This message has been edited by tHE vAGGABOND (edited 27-07-2001).]

_CreeD_

Just saw it on DVD (Singapore knock off, pretty good actually - I'll be away for 3 months and wont get to see it, 'tis my justification...anyway...).
I'm not a real Manga fan, and I never played any of the FF series, but I REALLY loved this movie. The best SciFi flick since 5th Element imho.

Bob the Unlucky Octopus

Saw this film a few days ago at my local...and it's unbelievably good. The voice acting is spot-on, the CGI practically flawless. And the plot- jesus. Definately not the sort of thing you'd see coming out of any European/American studio. Not in a million years. Nor out of the manga cutting-houses either, though the nod to those roots is clear if you look closely. It's a timeless film and story for me, impossible to categorize. Reminds me of when I first picked up and read Frank Herbert's Dune.

As for the reviews that have come out here...ignore them. It's too modern or "lowbrow" for the likes of Siskel&Ebert, and too much of a "geeky" film for your average movie-going person. This fact scared off the movie-goers in many parts of the US, and with low turnout, almost inevitably come bad reviews in many MidWest writings. The usual exception to the rule is arthouse cinema, and this is hardly in that category for either the snobbish or the popularist critics.

I can however, tell all of you that the movie theaters in Seattle are packed, absolutely packed, even now. Weekend seats are nigh on impossible to get in the best theaters, and for good reason. The reason the film hasn't done amazingly in the US is simple- not enough broad appeal for the American public. A specific, plot-driven story with open-minded characters is more than most of the MidWest public can handle. The big cities have lots of niches who enjoy the film, so it gets a big name there for a while, and then fades away as anticipation for December releases (Harry Potter/LOTR posters are already littering the theater entrances).

This is a film unlike any other ever made- and I'm pretty sure that it will be remembered by posterity as a landmark movie. I mean, let's not forget the abysmal treatment Star Wars: A New Hope received at the hands of critics. These days, it's a film everyone has seen, and rates as a superb ride. The ending is bittersweet and unpredictable- everything you'd expect of Square's writers. Unhindered by the meagre budget offered to them by computer game producers, they've gone for gusto, and deserve every buck that they get.

Even if games/movies about games aren't your thing- this film will never be one where you leave the theater muttering about the price of the ticket. Needless to say, I recommend it highly for whenever it's released in the UK/Eire.

Bob the Unlucky Octopus

Chubby

News taken from www.thefinalfantasy.com

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Although no specifics were mentioned, Square did state that they are considering development of a CG television program. First games, then movies, and now television shows... the world really is Square.

At any rate, the show will most likely be developed at Square's state-of-art CG studio that was built for the Final Fantasy movie. Speaking of movies, Square insists that they will continue on with development of the second Final Fantasy movie and stated that the movie will be paid for by outside investors and not Square themselves.

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A cg tv series and a 2nd movie...yay.


[This message has been edited by Chubby (edited 01-08-2001).]

Hobbes

How can it be an early verdict when I saw the movie weeks before you?

Mills

Ahhhhh, august 10th can't come soon enough