Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
| Year: | 2001 |
| Production Co: | Square USA |
| Studio: | Columbia |
| Director: | Hironobu Sakaguchi |
| Writer: | Hironobu Sakaguchi |
| Cast: | Ming Na, Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Donald Sutherland, James Woods, Keith David |
Arriving with a flourish as the first fully CGI feature film, this video-game adaptation disappointed almost purely on a story level, proving that just because video games are said to have incredible stories nowadays, a little more work needs to be put into them to make them films that you consume passively.
A scientist in the future has to team up with a group of commandos to counter an invasion of what appear to be the ghosts of an alien race. Some elements of story are included, including giving the scientist a former lover in the leader of the commando squad, but it's all so clichéd it's hard to swallow.
With a better script, the astounding visuals would have had a much more attractive home.
It was also proof that computing power still isn't up to the stage of replicating human movement confidently. You couldn't put your finger on what was wrong about the way the characters moved or what was missing from their eyes, but there was a distinct lack of... life.
A scientist in the future has to team up with a group of commandos to counter an invasion of what appear to be the ghosts of an alien race. Some elements of story are included, including giving the scientist a former lover in the leader of the commando squad, but it's all so clichéd it's hard to swallow.
With a better script, the astounding visuals would have had a much more attractive home.
It was also proof that computing power still isn't up to the stage of replicating human movement confidently. You couldn't put your finger on what was wrong about the way the characters moved or what was missing from their eyes, but there was a distinct lack of... life.