Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

This is one amazing movie, different from anything you have ever seen. It is extremely ambitious. It is the first computer generated movie to try not only to be in 3D but to actually represent reality. A few characters, especially Dr. Sid, can fool you into thinking they are human, an incredible achievement. It is a science fiction story wrapped around a spiritual core, a very difficult proposition. It has adventure, aliens, alien war, romance, valor, tragedy, violence and pacifism. This is a conceptually, artistically and technically groundbreaking work.Does it work? Not quite.The graphics may be much more advanced than anything seen to date, including the contemporary Shrek, but they are flawed. Aki Ross, the main character, has a beautiful and soulful face, but her mouth seems chiseled on her chin, her teeth seem to be planted too far out and look like a fish's, her eyes are not wet but rather seem built of a hard plastic, her hair (each of the 60,000 threads individually animated) looks like a synthetic piece. Her body is too long, and her, uhm, bottom seems all wrong. Still she has an intriguing, star-like presence. Other characters, unfortunately are very cartoonish. All suffer from stiff bodies, their limbs attached to rigid torsos, as you see on plastic toys.By the way, the movie is not really computer generated. Rather the computer is used as a very powerful, knowledge based, colored pencil, under the control of human artists. The resulting visual experience reminds one of a very detailed drawing. Live actors were used to help the animators use the computer to render the movie's characters. No wonder, the whole thing cost 100 million dollars to make.The storyline is built around a complex spiritual core, which is revealed little by little in the movie. (If you haven't yet seen the movie you may want to jump to the next paragraph.) It proposes that each life bearing planet holds a spirit in the ground out of which each life form is born from and to which it returns after death. These planetary spirits are formed from some kind of wave, and, significantly, they are incompatible and deadly to each other. A fragment of an alien planet destroyed by nuclear war, has fallen on earth and has disgorged many deceased individual spirits of that planet, which move around like phantoms and lay waste to much of our life sphere.Well, this is a rather complicated background for most of the movie going public, not to say slightly derogatory of the Christian world view. Star War's "the force be with you" was a much simpler proposition. The joy in Final Fantasy is in taking in the beauty of the realistic but completely human-made world it depicts. Less spirituality and more laughs and sexual tension would certainly have made it more successful. This movie takes itself too seriously for its own good. Shrek's creators were smarter in this sense.I understand that Final Fantasy has been a financial flop. This is a great pity. Personally I would love to see Aki Ross again in a few years time, at 10 times better rendering technology. If a movie deserves a sequence, this is one. The movie's creators must realize that they own much more than the first photo realistic picture in human history, they also own the first human-made movie star. Let's hope they will be able to build on top of this amazing achievement.

The great movie

Cameron even admits it, hats off to him. The sound track album for this movie also is grammy quality, with song number 17 being truly astonishing with a kindof sci-fi / Native American blend to the counterpoint. It's available on Amazon here: Final Fantasy - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Most composers give Goldenthal 5 of 5 stars for this album, but it is still little recognized by the recording industry! If you pass on this film, and only want to spend a buck, download song 17 from the album, you will NOT be disappointed, guaranteed.By now, everyone knows that this movie failed at the box office (cost, $140 million US, revenue $85 million worldwide). The plot is weak and character development poor. The big BUT: the team assembled over 12 years ago in Hawaii to CG the film is historic for the technology of the time. It literally is, in some ways, technically BETTER than Avatar! If you have any interest in the technology, this is a must have disc.If you're just trying to relax with a "good movie" the plot will probably fail you. The underlying premise is wonderful, as is the game series, of alien spirits as the challenge, but this slice of a story doesn't capture the majesty of that premise, except in the utterly amazing graphics and music. That's the blend and balance. I'm the CTO of shaderjoes dot com, an animation studio, and that's my bias.Library Picks reviews only for the benefit of Amazon shoppers and has nothing to do with Amazon, the authors or publishers of the books and products we review. We always buy the books and products we review for the sake of objectivity, and although we search for gems, are not shy about trashing a title if it's a waste of time or money for Amazon shoppers. If the reviewer identifies herself or her field, it is only for the sake of a point of reference for the skill set viewpoint to help you gauge the bias.

I like this movie - great from back in the day - my wife has only fallen asleep to it 3 times, she says the story line is not interesting enough.

I remember my dad renting this movie for us to watch one weekend when my mom and sister were out of town for whatever reason. And I remember being completely blown away. I had never seen anything like it. Both my dad and I were watching the movie with our jaws hanging down to the floor. Even after all this time the movie looks like it could be a new release, but for back then it was unequaled. To be honest I’ve never really played a Final Fantasy game, nor do I know much of anything about that universe, so my basis for this is simply on the movie itself. Which I find to be an incredibly fun watch even to this day.I have finally broken down and decided to upgrade my copy to blu-ray based on a friends recommendation. I heard it was missing some of the special features that the DVD had, but to be honest I don’t usually take the time to check out any of that stuff anyway, so not a deal breaker for me by any means.I’d recommend this to anyone who is a fan of sci-fi, whether they care for animation or not. The animation of this movie is of such quality that at times you kind of even forget that’s what it is (well maybe that’s a stretch!). Because I saw this movie back when this technology was pretty new, it holds a special place for me. The newer generation would probably still like the movie, but I don’t think they’d be as blown away as I was as a kid.

Great condition. Does not skip. Happy camper.

Gracias llego en buen estado