Take Sigourney Weaver in ?Aliens,? Orson Scott Card?s novel ?Ender?s Game,? and the aliens from ?Pitch Black.? Toss them in a blender, but filter out every bit of emotional connection that one might feel for any of the characters in the aforementioned creative works. So goes ?Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.?
Based on the highly successful string of video games and animated films, ?Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within? would be expected to entice viewers, much the way ?Lara Croft: Tomb Raider? lit up screens earlier this summer. The formula would seem to work perfectly ? a feature film version of video game characters that have already become household names.
While ?Tomb Raider? shows considerable emotional depth, ?Final Fantasy? director Hironobu Sakaguchi has a hard time evoking any feeling from his characters. Where other science fiction films personally attach the viewer to the unlikely heroes that fight evil aliens, ?Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within? leaves one unfulfilled. It is not entirely Sakaguchi?s fault. After all, his characters are not real.
Done entirely through computer animation, ?Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within? might be lacking in character development, but the film is nevertheless a video-game lover?s dream. Sakaguchi?s 17-member visual effects team has raised the bar in realistic-looking animation with this film.
The attention-to-detail team went through to make each character look as real as possible, and the result is marveling to behold on the silver screen. When the wind blows, main character Aki?s hair flaps just like any human?s. When Aki?s scientific mentor, Dr. Sid, is introduced to the film, his liver spots look genuine. The sound effects are another remarkable feat, with quality unprecedented in animated films.
A storm cracks thunder and snaps lightning in the first scene of the film, and one starts to wonder if it?s raining outside.
An 18-member audio effects team made each sound seem as though it was coming from a human equivalent of the animated object. Despite the fact that the entire film is a feature-length cartoon, its premise is not aimed at children.
Aki, an adventuring scientist, scours the scorched earth looking for eight spirits to fight evil phantoms that have killed almost every living being.
