VG Movie Week #2: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

On 06/11/2013 at 08:55 AM by The Last Ninja

Final Fantasy goes into a bold new direction

The Final Fantasy series has always been full of lively characters and exciting adventures. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the man behind FF, decided it was time to take the series into movie territory. It would be a computer animated movie, using the best technology they had. And let me say, the visuals are quite convincing, even to this day.

The movie was released in 2001. It was directed by Sakaguchi himself, along with Moto Sakakibara, and Square Pictures was formed as a result. Sakaguchi was planning on making several more, but it didn't work out due to some problems. The movie was distributed by Columbia Pictures. This is a very exciting movie, and I found myself enjoying it.

The story takes place in the near future. Spirits known as phantoms have taken over the earth, and humans must live in "barrier cities." These phantoms can kill humans just through physical touch; human bodies can also be invaded by phantom particles. A young woman named Aki has been having strange dreams about these phantoms; she believes that by collecting eight spirit signatures, she can negate the phantoms. She is supported by Dr. Sid.

We are quickly introduced to these terrifying phantoms, and also a squad known as the Deep Eyes. Their leader, Gray Edwards (voiced by Alec Baldwin) once was romantically involved with Aki. The other members of the team are Ryan, Neil, and Jane. The personality of each individual is established well, and the comraderie between them is great. The romance between Aki and Gray, on the other hand, is not that great.

Obviously, the people of earth see the phantoms as a great threat; they must be destroyed. A council is held with General Hein being in charge. He suggests that they use the Zeus Cannon to blast away the phantoms, but Aki and Dr. Sid believe that to be the wrong course of action. Dr. Sid believes the earth has a spirit (known as Gaia), something which is not proven and easily mocked by the council (especially General Hein). Aki shows everyone that a phantom particle is being contained within her body, and the council decides to allow the two of them to try it their way (collecting eight spirit signatures). General Hein does not like this; he believes Aki is being controlled by the phantom.

Let me just say that this movie does not feel like a FF movie; it feels more like Star Trek or some other sci-fi movie. While there is a party and they do fight together, they never use magic in combat; just a lot of shooting from guns. At times, it felt more like Contra as they took their guns to the giant menacing phantoms. The movie also takes cues from FF 7, with the earth having a spirit and being alive. [spoiler alert] At the end, a long blue lifestream comes out of the planet and cleanses it of the phantoms (sound familiar?).

General Hein

Now I'm not going to give away the whole movie just in case you haven't seen it. Needless to say, General Hein causes problems by convincing the council to fire the Zeus Canon, and Aki's life, along with Gray, is placed in great danger. Hein is the real villain of the movie, not the phantoms; Hein becomes obsessed with destroying the creatures, no matter the cost.

As is typical of a FF plot, the story is very weird, yet intriguing. Not everything that happens in the movie makes sense, but this is fantasy (mixed in with some sci-fi). The movie disappoints in some areas, such as the shallow romance, and also with what happens to some of the characters. The CGI, however, is top-notch. The company actually went over budget, reaching a final cost of $137 million. Sakaguchi's desire was that Aki look and move as realistically as possible. While Aki did not quite look perfectly human, she was very convincing.

One of the phantoms consuming a human spirit

While I certainly enjoyed the movie, I must admit that the ending was disappointing and did not make sense. [BIG SPOILER ALERT] At the very end, Gray sacrifices his life to the phantoms in order to transmit the completed spirit into the Gaia. But since he's not a scientist, how would he know to do that? As a result of this, Aki is left without her true love at the end of the movie, clutching the dead body of Gray. It's a sad ending, and it's unsatisfying.

Final Thoughts

This movie could have just been called "The Spirits Within" because, as I stated before, it does not feel at all like Final Fantasy. Perhaps you've seen the other FF movie, entitled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. This movie was great if you look solely at the CGI and fight scenes; however, the story and characters leave something to be desired.

Cloud in Advent Children

While this movie was not perfect, it was still a lot of fun to watch. I give it 3 out of 5 stars and recommend you watch it. The CGI still holds up today, and in an age of super hero flicks and horror movie extravaganzas, that's saying something.

Thanks for reading. Be sure to check back all week for more VG movies.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

06/11/2013 at 09:23 AM

yeah I like this movie, even if it isn't that great. It could have been better though.

The Last Ninja

06/11/2013 at 07:27 PM

Yes, but it was a really good first try (I'd say even better than Advent Children is some aspects).

BrokenH

06/11/2013 at 12:10 PM

I honestly prefer Spirits Within over Advent Children. I understand that Spirits did not give the FF fanbase exactly what they wanted (It was more of a sci-fi epic and had no recognizable FF staples what so ever) but it had a better plot, better narrative, and yes, better characterization. To me Advent Children was nothing but shallow & flashy fan-service. Don't get me wrong. Advent Children was fun to watch but you can get the same fangasm playing FF Dissidia 012 Duodecim. lol.

06/11/2013 at 07:28 PM

You're right, AC was fan service, no doubt about that. It was cool to see all the FF7 characters in beautiful CGI, but the shallow story (confusing too) was its biggest problem.

GamerGirlBritt

06/11/2013 at 01:53 PM

I watched a good bit of this when it came on some obscure television channel one time, but I couldn't sit through the whole thing. I'll admit it's not as bad as people made it out to be, but it just wasn't for me. Trust me, I tried to like it. On the other hand I own the 2 disc version of Advent Children, and I watch it every time my family goes on any kind of road trip. I think a good bit of the reason I like it is that I watched it before I actually played Final Fantasy VII. I know, sounds stupid, but it happened. Hence the poorly developed story and characters didn't have such ill effect on me because I didn't have a strong connection to the world yet.

06/11/2013 at 07:30 PM

Hm, interesting. Well, AC felt like a FF movie; spirits within, however, did not look or feel like one. Perhaps you're not a big fan of space sci-fi futuristic type stuff?

daftman

06/11/2013 at 02:55 PM

The movie's not as bad as most people say it is but it's also easy to see why it flopped. The plot is shallow compared to similar movies and Hein is the worst kind of video game villain. Still, the CG has held up remarkably well and I think the true nature of the phantoms is just awesome. Definitely a bummer ending though

06/11/2013 at 07:32 PM

The ending is sad. Hein was a very stereotypical villain, not listening to the wise, obsessed to take out the phantoms, not caring for the lives of others, impulsive, blah blah blah. So I was happy when he was caught in his own explosion. Loser!

smartcelt

06/11/2013 at 05:56 PM

Such a wonderful movie,and one I own on Blu-Ray now. I got excited to see it on a big screen when it came out. The CG was amazing at the time,seems like the best I'd seen at that point. The emotions of the characters showed on the faces so clearly. Very impressive acheivement for them. Set the groundwork for many others.

06/11/2013 at 07:34 PM

I agree, the CG is good; it still looks good today (albeit not as good as Advent Children). I was impressed with that part. The facial expressions are pretty good too, very real many times.

Cary Woodham

It's not a bad movie, but it's not Final Fantasy.

The FF7 CG movie they made a few years later was pretty silly. Felt like an invisible giant kid was playing with his FF7 action figures. :)

06/11/2013 at 07:35 PM

Yes, AC was quite silly. However, I thought the action was superb (nothing like FF7 characters flying through the air doing amazing combat). Overall, though, spirits within is a better movie.

Coolsetzer

06/14/2013 at 12:48 PM

I really wanted to like this movie, but the plotline was just horrible. Full of cliche's, and the ending left me angry.

06/14/2013 at 04:59 PM

I feel ya. Especially the ending (so disappointing and sad). What I didn't like about this movie was the fact that it didn't feel like FF in the least. You could have slapped any old title on this movie and it would have felt fine, because FF this is not.

PixlBit