Load of rubbish!!

good back-story, and good acting

Brilliant and touching

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

For a movie based on a video game franchise, it wasn't atrocious. But it still was a wasted opportunity of what could have been a really good film. Before this movie, the Final Fantasy CGI cutscenes were really cool to sit through have reaching certain points in the video game. However it doesn't really work in movie form. As a matter of fact, this would have worked fine as a video game. With more development with the background, more in-depth with the with the story and the characters and such. But it doesn't really work when if feels like your watching a really slow video game with characters trying to collect items to achieve something. I really liked the stylish and cool futuristic design of the world created in this. It's actually one of the coolest sci-fi design I have seen in a movie. The CGI was topnotch when it came to a animated movie and the effects still even hold up today. A lot of effort was put into this film, with top of the line technology to achieve the visuals. I mean just look at the facial animation. Although the dialogue is flat, it didn't get super corny either. But that is basically the only positive things I can say about this movie. It's a shame that this movie cost as much as a Pixar movie to make, but far from it being a box office hit like Pixar films. And there are reasons for that, because although it's a CGI animated movie it will not appeal to little kids. Mainly because they won't be able to understand what is exactly going on, even some adults might get confused with this. Despite it having a really straightforward and simple story, which isn't a good thing. This is just my opinion, but this movie was taken too seriously. A bit of good humor then and there amongst the characters and situation would have made it at least more gratifying to sit through. Despite the serious situation the characters are in, but I think it would have worked. Overall this movie is a wasted potential. However if you are a fan of the Final Fantasy or anime this might be worth a watch. I think Hironobu Sakaguchi is a good game director, but his efforts to make a full length movie faltered. I could tell what direction he was trying to go with this. And it might have worked if it went in a full Japanese direction or an anime with 12 episodes or so to flesh things out. Nice effort though.6.4/10

While it's a technical triumph, it's not a compelling story. It is head and shoulders literally beyond what Robert Zemeckis gave us in The Polar Express (2004). The faces and hair look very realistic. It'll be some time before it's surpassed by the likes of Avatar. It all boils down to the faces. My biggest compliment is that they look human.The story is that in the future, the Earth is invaded by a strange race of ghost like phantoms. The only way to survive is to live in cities surrounded by shielding. The phantoms are a mystery that is never quite explained satisfactorily. It's a mystery that nobody really cares about except maybe the people who play the video game. While the action is pretty good, the story always gets into the way. Sometimes it left me scratching my head.

Final Fantasy, as many know, is a series of video games that has spanned over two decades and is arguably the most successful video game franchise of all time. Final Fantasy (the original) was released in 1987 and since then 13 games have been released, including one sequel as well as countless spin-offs and two in-development projects. Growing up with Final Fantasy I grew to love everything about the series. The stories, the game play, everything little thing. When Squaresoft (now Square Enix) released Final Fantasy VIII I was given a copy for Christmas '99. It was the first FF game that I played through entirely and since has been my favorite of the FF games. I've played em all, beat em all and loved em all.When I first saw the trailer for this film my first thought was (I was only ten) "OMG! MOM! WE HAVE TO GO AND SEE THIS!" On the day of its release, July 11th, 2001 I believe my mother took me to see this at the beautiful Cinemark in Moosic. Even at that age I wasn't deceived by Hollywood in that they merely took the name Final Fantasy in order to market a product that had no relation to its source whatsoever.The movie follows Aki Ross, a scientist in a future Earth inhabited by Phantoms. Phantoms are alien like creatures. Remaining survivors live in "barrier cities" as they struggle to save humanity and the planet. In certain Final Fantasy games, especially FF VII, saving a dying planet is the main problem you face. Oddly enough this is the only relation The Spirits Within has to the Final Fantasy gaming series. Also there is a power hungry military man named Hein who is dead set on using a space cannon to destroy the Phantoms. Problem with this is the cannon would cause extreme harm to the planet and probably kill it but he's from the military so we can excuse him for lacking intelligence or humanity.Like I said before, the creators of this film only took the name Final Fantasy to help sell this movie to fans of the series. As a stand alone film it is exceptional in its class of CGI/sci-fi blend. Unfortunately I have to give this film a low rating because of its failure to rely on source material or follow any story in the FF galaxy. Even the story to FFX (which IMO was the weakest of the games) would have served this film much better. I always think about Stephen King's novels when I watch this movie. King has written very, very great novels in his time but the majority that are made into films are just crap. Why, because they don't follow the story of the original and they try to make it "Hollywood-style" and it just doesn't work. If a book is a national bestseller, why change it for a movie? If a game is an international bestseller like FF, why make a movie called Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within if the film is devoid of any spirit that was within the games? A five for a film that is great on its own but with a name of something entirely different.

To start off, I'd like to give a brief summary of the history of cgi. 2-D raster graphics in Westworld, wire frame graphics in Star Wars, the light cycle sequence in Tron, the stained glass knight in Young Sherlock Holmes, the first CG liquid effects in The Abyss and T2, Jurassic Park, Titanic, and now Final Fantasy. It is unfortunate for the movie that this form of animation has been vastly improved since, as can be seen in Robert Zemekis' latest films, The Polar Express and Beowulf. Final Fantasy remains competent in CG, but an equally accomplished plot is needed to make it a competent sci-fi, and although there are a couple of nifty ideas, the screenplay does not stretch things out enough. As a result, Final Fantasy feels too small in both scale and running length to shock and awe. Perhaps it is the kind of thing that would work better in theaters, but that doesn't feel like a good excuse for mediocrity. The best filmaking can engage a viewer even if watched on an iPod screen.Set in the distant future, man lives in space and Earth is an abandoned wasteland (thats new... ha ha). We follow a young ambitious doctor in her journey to find the answer to a crisis. Man is at war with a race of strange alien spirits, 'phantoms'. Who are they and what do they want? In her quest she is joined by others including an old lover (sort of).I think I may have simplified the plot a bit, but this gives you a general idea of what to expect. If done well, the story of Final Fantasy could be adventurous, intelligent and perhaps even emotional, and it is not. Though there is plenty of action, a lot of it feels dull and intertwining these scenes is a large amount of silly dialog, in which the subject matter is too much of science and not enough story. Last time I saw that happen was in Battlefield Earth with John Travolta's lines. The ending feels anti-climactic and with a somewhat silly plot twist. Final Fantasy is not a terrible film but to recommend it is a stretch. Whether or not the animation will be enough to captivate you or not is hard to say. Whether or not you'll find the story weak and unengaging, or adventurous and inventive is also hard to say. What I can say is that there are far better entries in both sci-fi and animation, If you really want a good film, try the Ghost in the Shell, not this.