FINAL FANTASY - THE SPIRITS WITHIN(2001)
This movie was the follow-up to Final
Fantasy IX, tho' it didn't have anything
to do with that great game!! The artwork
is more like that of Final Fantasy VIII, tho'
again it has nothing to do with it either!
The attempt here was to make a quality
movie in the Final Fantasy mode! The opening
is quite impressive, with great animation/cgi
and a lot of action! But no explanations of what
the hell is going on, other than a short narrative
about an invasion of Earth that wiped out most of
the population!
As for connections to the Final Fantasy franchise
Sid(Cid) is the only one that I've come across!!
Other than that, why the moniker of Final
Fantasy is beyond me!!
Overall, the real problem here isn't plot, which
I found interesting, nor is it the animation/cgi,
which is spectacular! It's just that the movie is
boring!!!! Mostly do due to the dialogue!! The
actors are apparently doing the best that they
can with what's been given them, but that isn't
much! And the plot is very convoluted!! Bouncing
around here and there, but never really making a
point!
While not as bad as some have said, still as a Final
Fantasy movie just an ok story with GREAT animation!! B+
From IMDb.com:
I'm a fairly forgiving film watcher - I can usually
find a redeeming feature in almost anything. And
in Final Fantasy, it was the animation. Just beautiful.
Every little detail rendering lovingly, down to the hairs
on the back of the characters necks. However, it didn't
cover up the lack of story. The actual plot premise
itself could have been promising - but somehow, it just
didn't deliver for me. The characters were 2 dimensional,
and boring - particularly Gray's team of interchangeable
back up commandos; and things just never really got
moving properly. It's a real shame, because this film
could have been a belter. Unfortunately, it will
remain memorable only because of how it was made,
rather than what is was about. - katiepoppycat