I was sorely disappointed by this movie.

I love animation. I really like computer animation. I enjoy the Final Fantasy games. I should have been drooling during this movie. I should have been an easy mark - someone who would go see the movie, go back to see the movie again, buy the merchandise, buy the DVD. Instead, here I am proclaiming to anyone who'll listen: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is not worth your money.

Square really screwed up with this movie. Anyone who has played a Final Fantasy video game will tell you that the people at Square had a lot of cool stuff to draw from. Past experience would lead you to believe that they never have problems comin gup with exciting plots and interesting characters... adventure, fantasy, sci-fi and cool graphics. They could have (should have) come up with a much better movie than they did!

Plot
"Plot" is an overstatement for this movie. Perhaps "basic idea" would be a better restatement.

the world has been invaded by "phantoms" from outer space. No-one can stop them; they're taking over and killing us mercilessly. Dr. Aki Ross is scouring the globe looking for "spirits" that will help combat the phantom menace (sorry for the pun, couldn't help myself!). With the backing of Dr. Sid (a visionary in his field and the man who came up with the spirit plan) and the help of some military-types (lead by Mr. All-American himself, Gray), Aki is determined to save herself and everyone on the planet. But first they have to figure out why the aliens are here, and what are they, anyway? And what is Aki's secret? (Can't you just hear the dramatic music playing in the background?)

Realistically, this could have made for a great plot. Unfortunately, the screen-writers must have been gathered up from the local "difficulty with being interesting" support group. The dialogue is completely awful - At times, it made me cringe. And the dialogue does nothing to answer the overriding questions that the average movie-goer is inevitably going to have. It's obvious that Aki and Gray had a past relationship; there's no need to spell it out for us. What isn't obvious is how some of the pivotal conclusions in the movie are reached.

All together, it left me with tons of questions and a heavy feeling of disappointment over what "could have been."

Breaking it Down
Visuals - B
Many people will disagree with me, I'm sure. However, the visuals were quite inconsistent. For a movie that's claim to fame was supposed to be computer artistry, the characters, backgrounds, etc. vary greatly in quality.

Some characters (i.e. Dr. Sid) were very well done. Other character (i.e. Jane) looked very poorly done in comparison. Perhaps they should have taken a few extra months to go back through the movie and level out of the CG quality. Because of the massive inconsistancies, I would have to rate the Visuals a B.

On a side note: I never once believed that what I saw was real. I'm sorry, but computer graphics have not progressed far enough to replace living, breathing humans in that aspect.

Story - D
Lame story. Huge plot holes. Dialogue so crappy that it was at times painful to listen to. Perhaps they should have chosen a simpler plot. The plot was perfect for a 3-4 CD video game. But 2 hours was not enough time for the movie to delve into it. The storyline felt like an afterthought - only there because movies need plots.

The characters were never truly developed. (Again, see my comment about only 2 hours...) I certainly felt no sympathy for Aki's plight. I didn't care about their past relationships. I didn't really care about the characters.

And, whomever wrote the dialogue should be barred from ever writing movie transcripts again. I am being generous by giving the storyline a D.

Performances - C
The dialogue sucked; it's true. However, I felt that the actors did their best with the drivel they were given. Ving Rhames (Ryan), Peri Gilpin (Jane), Steve Busemi (Neil) and Donald Sutherland (Dr. Sid) were quite good in their parts.

Unfortunately, I did not like Ming-Na's performance as Dr. Aki Ross. The voice just didn't match the character and some of her lines sounded very stilted. I really disliked Alec Baldwin's voicing of Gray. -Were they really aiming for GI Joe the Real American Hero??? James Wood gave an unimpressive and rather inconsistant performance as the nemesis "General Hein" However, I'm apt to chalk that up to the fact that his character was given some of the worst lines in the movie.

Musical Score C
Decent. I would have rated it higher had they re-used/re-orchestrated some of the game music. (After all, they've been recycling it throughout the game versions...) It also probably would have garnered a higher rating if the final song in the credits had made any sense at all in the context of the movie.

Overall - D
I have seen worse movies than this one. However, I think it earns its D rating out-right. D is for Disappointed, which is an understatement of how I felt when I left the theater.

I am a big fan of the Final Fantasy games. It was amusing to see some of the same character types from the games reused in the movie. (Ryan - Barrett; Sid - Cid; Hein - Hojo; etc.) However, my appreciation and enjoyment of the video game wasn't enough to make me like this movie. If you really want to see it, I suggest waiting until it comes out on video and renting it.

Recommended:
No