Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Review by William Barker

As indicated by Dr Aki Ross (voice of Ming-Na), every living thing has a spirit. Plants to animals and even the Earth itself contain spirits, which she believes are the key to saving humanity from a ghostly alien race.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is set in 2065 and the Earth has become a barren, virtually lifeless wasteland. Thirty years before this time, a meteorite crashed in the Caspian Mountains, which unleashed an alien race called Phantoms.

These translucent fiends come in all shapes and sizes and have the capacity to infect humans with deadly pathogens, or, even worse, can simply remove their spirit, killing them instantly.

As such, humankind now lives in sheltered cities, surrounded by special barriers. Dr. Ross, together with her mentor, Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland), are conducting research into how to stop these predatory aliens by combining eight special spirit waves, though their work is shunned by many.

For instance, General Hein (voiced by James Woods).

His solution to removing the spectral aliens from the Earth revolves around an orbital laser, the Zeus. He believes this could be the answer to destroying the Phantoms, but it could also destroy the planet, too.

What ensues is a story as far removed from traditional Hollywood guff as you can get. The plot isn't particularly spellbinding, but it does a better job than most sci-fi offerings.

However, what will keep you glued to your seat is the amazing eye-candy on offer. Four years in the making at SquareSoft's Honolulu studios, the company's first movie after more than 10 Final Fantasy computer and video games is captivating, to say the least.

While it's not action aplenty, it does contain all the right ingredients. Car chases, ugly aliens, guns firing, space ships cruising and those cool giant orbital lasers. Even if you hate science fiction, it's worth the price of admission just to see Dr. Ross' thousands of individually textured strands of hair waving in the wind.

As the PR spin describes it, 'hyper-real' actors star in the movie. This is pretty close to the truth, as the quality of the computer-generated imagery (CGI) is superb. On the whole, the 'hyper-real' actors look amazing, but there's no way you'd compare them to real film. They still contain a slightly cartoony look, but the animators have definitely taken the next step in CGI film.

The lighting and shading are impeccable and the life-like movements, such as walking and running, look fantastic.

The facial close-ups display pores, stubble, skin blemishes and amazingly life-like expressions. And, if you look really closely, you'll notice an animator's eye is reflected in Aki Ross' pupil.

However, most characters have only one costume for the entire flick and not much skin is visible save for face and hands. They never perspire either, which seemed a bit odd for 'hyper-reality'.

The Phantoms look amazing and quite grotesque, too. The way they moved through solid objects was particularly scary and puts them right up there with H.R. Geiger's creations.

What can be said about the acting? It's better than most fantasy flicks, but with lines like "This city may be lost, but we're not" you'd think that writers Al Reinert and Jeff Vintar were drinking too much happy juice.

Woods role as the nasty Gen. Hein was voiced well and the other major roles, such as the hard-nosed military-man, Capt. Gray Edwards (Alec Baldwin), whose job is (together with his Deep Eyes Squad) to guard Dr. Ross when in the field, wasn't too shabby either.

Other notable performances came from Ving Rhames as Gray's straight- talking second-in-command, Donald Sutherland as the calm Dr. Sid and Steve Buscemi as the wise-cracking pilot, Neil.

While this isn't the movie event of the year, it is a very watchable film. Non- gamers should enjoy it too, as it has no relation to any of the plot-lines from interactive games of the same name. Director Hironobu Sakaguchi should be proud.

The movie is more than just a novelty, but don't expect to be overly wowed by the plot and the acting. This reviewer actually thought the plot was quite cool, with a weighty conclusion, but it's complexity and overall weirdness won't sit well with the mainstream.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Columbia Pictures
Rated: M15+
Australian release date: July, 2001.
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi.
Cast: Voices of Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods.
Running time: 119 minutes.
Website: www.finalfantasy.com