Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

3 out of 4

Starring: voices of Ming Na, Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, Steve Buscemi, James Woods, Ving Rhames

Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi

Time: 105 mins

Computer-animated films have been appearing on movie screens more frequently over the last few years. Since the ground-breaking Toy Story in 1995, Antz, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Dinosaur, and the recent Shrek have all done good business, due to a combination of captivating visuals, simple story, and hip humour. Now comes Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which takes realism in animation several steps further. A sci-fi horror film in the same vein as James Cameron's Aliens, Final Fantasy is the most realistic animated film to date (though it's not quite 100% yet). And unlike Tomb Raider, the other recent video game-turned-movie, Final Fantasy is actually entertaining and interesting, rather than an overblown advert for Angelina Jolie.

The story is set in the future, when Earth has been invaded by a group of ghostly alien creatures that suck the life-force out of humans. Dr Aki Ross (Ming Na) and her mentor Dr Sid (Donald Sutherland) have been searching for the source of eight "spirits" that they believe can counter these phantoms. Helping them in their quest is a group of soldiers which includes Gray (voice of Alec Baldwin, but looks a lot like Ben Affleck), the wisecracking Neil (Steve Buscemi), and Ryan (Ving Rhames). Hindering them is General Hein (James Woods), who wants to destroy the aliens and, possibly, Earth.

Final Fantasy is unlike the previous computer animated films in that the depicted humans are so life-like, even down to the skin texture and walking motion. This is especially true for the main character, Aki, who could almost pass for a living, breathing human. The only giveaway is her greyish skin tone, which is not quite right, but one could argue that maybe it's due to a colour filter like the blue James Cameron always seems to use. The supporting characters aren't quite as well-drawn, with their movements sometimes wooden and sometimes too smooth, almost as if they were floating. The landscapes, though, are as spectacularly rendered as any scene in A Bug's Life, Toy Story, or Shrek.

I haven't played any of the Final Fantasy games, so I can't say how close this film adaptation is. The story is fairly reminiscent of Aliens, right down to an aggressive female soldier that sounds and behaves like Vasquez from the Cameron film. The voice synchronisation isn't totally seamless, and some of the dialogue is cliched, but the "realism" draws you in nonetheless. I suppose one of my concerns before watching Final Fantasy was whether I could be as attached to an animated character as I was to, say, Ripley in Aliens, especially since the trailer promised plenty of thrilling scenes. Would I have my heart in my mouth, or just yawn because I knew it wasn't a real person on screen? Rest assured, while the excitement is nowhere near the same level as in Aliens, there are action scenes and crises galore to sink one's teeth into. Steve Buscemi adds a touch of humour as the wiseguy soldier, but this type of character seems too common nowadays.

Final Fantasy is a landmark in animated motion picture realism. The visuals are breathtaking and the story, while reminiscent of Aliens, is interesting enough to hold your attention. It's about 85% there in terms of seamlessness, but no other film has come close (not that Shrek or the Toy Storys, the only previous computer animated films with humans, tried to be ultra-realistic in that regard - they offered a fairy-tale or different view of the world, and hence the humans were depicted in a different way). It's worth a viewing to see how far computer generated imagery has come, and the potential that lies ahead.

(c) Joe Wong (12 July 2001)