General Thoughts of The Spirits Within

[Zidane's True Love]

Yeah, I found time to watch "The Spirits Within" with my roommate several nights ago. Here are my impressions of the movie. I hope you post your thoughts of it here too.



The title of the movie is appropriate. However, the only controvertial thing I felt was not entirely (or rather, politically) correct was how we saw places like New York City or Dallas and such considered to be a fantasy of its own. Other Final Fantasies are of their own world, their own place. True, the time period is not a given, but it does show our Earth, something I do not consider to be really a fantasy.

Like all Final Fantasies, the beginning FMV is the main attraction point. It did a bang-up job creating the water-like illusion and the setting, which is remarkably mysterious and really made me eager to find out more about the place already. And as usual, you don't exactly see the larger issue of things till halfway through the game (or movie). For example, I got wondering why she was shooting those flares up into the sky and such until a much later point that these "shadows" are deadly beasts. And the mysterious military, well, technically they ain't military.

As the movie progresses, you can kinda get a picture into your head that this can really become a real game. That is, these shadows, the characters Aki, her "old friend", and the others, can really form a battle part of its own. You know the talk about how we can make a game into a movie? Well, whynot movie into a game? That's what got me thinking about it when I noticed them driving the 21st century wheelie in the dome thingy.

My apologies if I don't remember the pronouns. I've only seen the movie once.

Oddly enough, there were many elements I thought really could use a Final Fantasy link to it all. The only ones I could really catch first glance was Cid and Gaia. He seems to be the only link that ties the movie to the Final Fantasy series in a game. I feel that there is potential for other names in there as well. The Zeus Cannon could be nicknamed "Ultima Weapon" or something. Aki's vessel the "Ragnorok", and so on. I feel there could've been more relations then there was.

Again, this movie is entirely CGI, so no doubt there are some spectacular computer graphic scene to it all. My personal favorites would be the part of the mysterious Gaia, the blue hues of the light below the cliff, and the healing of the spirits if you like to call it that way.

Some parts I really wish would be a little more developed. The antagonist general dude could've been a little more sinister. He ended up killing himself. Well, Kuja ended up killing himself, but he had to get his butt whooped by Zidane and party first. But then again, it's a movie. How are you going to do that? Well I thought maybe Aki could be forced to throw "a wrench into the gears" and such for the sake of restoring Earth.

More importantly, the romance was not as developed as I had hoped. It was mostly talk about past and comparing it to their current situation. I suppose love can occur for many reasons so instead of debating what I think it should be, I'll stop here.

Overall, a combination of well-done CGI, good voice-overs, and a new feel for Final Fantasy in general, I rate this movie 8.2 of 10. It's not the best, but it's not bad either.



And you? Have you seen this movie?

[Dagger aka Garnet]

I think Final Fantasy Spirits Within was okies ^_^ It could of been better but it was their first movie so..

Half of Aki's "party members" died...I dont think they should of and her love interest died too x.x.. I really dont think he should of.The ending was so so sad..I cried alot..I cried on FF9 but it turned to be happy tears near the very end ^_^.. But Anyways I do like FFTSW but I do think it could of been better.

[Kuro]

Anyone who doesn't think The Spirits Within was "related" to the games at all obviously doesn't think very deeply about the games and didn't bother to think deeply into to movie. That's how I feel.

I have some veeerrrryyy strong views about this movie, for various reasons, so forgive me if I sound rather defensive. ;)

Final Fantasy, as a concept, is a story about life and death, and about finding self-worth. It's a story about how people need to look inside themselves, at their mysteries that come from within their own being, at things that they don't understand, and use it to unravel and solve a bigger issue. Which is usually something like saving the world. The story for TSW was no exception. It IS Final Fantasy to me, and it always makes me cringe when people say it had nothing to do with the games. For one thing, TSW was Sakaguchi-sama's baby. He was the one who wrote it, directed it, and produced it, so he had the right to damn well do whatever he pleased with the movie. And I thought it was a very commendable first (READ IT: FIRST) effort.

Getting into the technical aspects of the movie, TSW got very short R&D time, in comparison to already-established animation studios like Pixar. Whether or not their operation fell victim to some nasty mismanagement, that's not for me to say. I've heard my share of what went on (and what DIDN'T go on) behind the scenes of the movie, so I can fairly say that the movie probably did fall short of what it could due to internal problems.

But it's definitely not fair to compare a two-hour movie to a muti-disc game that has somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 or 12 hours of just pure storyline and character development. The original script was much, much darker, and much more violent, and it explained a lot more about the past and what happened to create the world Aki lived in.

Aki, as a character and a female role model, fast becaome one of my favorite leading ladies in animation. Although I'm very, very biased in that sense. :P Anyway, it was certainly refreshing to see a woman in the lead of anything that had to do with Final Fantasy. Her character was someone who had a subtle inner strength. Ming-Na was someone I was rather surprised to discover was going to be doing her voice. But becasue I loved her work in Mulan, I was really looking forward to it. And I think she was an excellent choice. When Roy Sato set out to animate her, he made sure that much of her emotion was conveyed in subtle ways, through her eyes and small body gestures. The sponteneity of a live performance is something that I think animators try hard to capture in their work, but because animation is so much more planned out, some of that gets lost. TSW was phenominal in that sense, especially Aki, Dr. Sid, and Gray.

I don't know if it was because the animation got better as time went on, or becasue I got more and more involved in the story than thinking "this is animated!" but after a while, I forgot (or just didn't focus on the fact) that the people were animated. I went to watch Shrek the week after TSW and it was PAINFUL to watch Fiona's animation. o_O

On to the storyline. I wasn't sure what to expect when I first saw the movie. The only Final Fantasy I'd played at the time was Final Fantasy 7. And I was actually hoping to God that it wouldn't be a movie like FF7. Why? Because I honestly don't like video-game-turned-movie movies. I was thinking that the brilliance and depth of FF7 would be ruined, had they turned it into a Cliff's Notes version and called it "The Spirits Within."

Now the dialogue, when translated, was something left to be deisred. Bah, I admit, I was expecting more in that sense. But the storyline itself was well-done.

Aki's dreams were the key to some strange mystery involving thie Phantom invasion, and she alone was trying to understand it. Gray gave her the strength and support to find out what those dreams meant. As she said, "The dream is always the same. I'm standing... waiting for something. They're trying to tell me something... but what?"

And then there was the kiss scene. Wow. When I was asked what my favorite scene in the movie was, I immediately responded, "The Kiss Scene!" Partially becasue I'm a Romantic Sap (heeheehee), but there was something else about that scene that made it stand apart from me. Sure Aki and Gray were both distraught over the deaths of the Deep Eyes. And suddenly all the emotions they feel, for everything, and for each other comes flooding to the surface. That kiss was for comfort, but it was also the rekindling of a lost passion between them. And the technical aspect of that scene is breathtaking. The lighting, the animation, everything.

I had the benefit of getting a lot of the storyline explained to me on the side after I saw it initially. So when I saw it a secone (third, fourth, fifth, and sixth) time, I definitely spent more time picking out smaller details and enjoying it without having to rewind my brain to replay the last few scenes. Which I think was a problem for some audiences. TSW was hard to grasp. Not much was spoon-fed, in terms of explainations. But that's very common in Japanese filmmaking.

Like I've said in a lot of places where I've talked about TSW, there are a lot of "what ifs" that came up after the movie was made. To see Bahamut and Moogles and Chocobos might have been a treat. As I was watching the opening to FF11, the comment from one of the TSW filmmakers was "maybe this was how we SHOULD have made the movie, huh?" But who knows? I honestly think it would have suffered a different fate, and probably might have been a little more successful, but maybe not by much. The fan base just isn't there.

Maybe TSW disappointed more FF fans than satisfied them. But I saw the movie before I played all of the games. And to tell you the truth, I don't think I ever would have played all of the FF games without watching the movie. I love both. I got a bigger appreciation of both the movie and the games, and it was one becasue of the other. I might be in the minority in terms of how the movie affected me, but it affected my appreciation of the "Final Fantasy Universe" in a very, very positive way.

I'm glad that it got out of Square Pictures' doors. Many people doubted that it would even make it out. It might not have been the success that they'd hoped for, but at the same time, I think it WILL be recognized for the breakthrough in filmmaking that it was, several years from now.

... and THAT is my ramble. :laugh:

- EDIT -
Well, THAT was an embarassing typo!! Yikes! XD

[Zidane363]

Originally posted by Zidane's True Love
Again, this movie is entirely CGI, so no doubt there are some spectacular computer graphic scene to it all. My personal favorites would be the part of the mysterious Gaia, the blue hues of the light below the cliff, and the healing of the spirits if you like to call it that way.

One word came to my mind when I saw that movie for the first time and witnessed that scene and I quote

"o_O IS THIS FINAL FANTASY VII!?"

heheh actually when you watch it carefully you can kinda tell some factors of FF games were featured in some bits of the movie and the Gaia Scene happened to be one of them. Along with one of Aki's Dream Sequences showing a somewhat simaliar Olivert Scene from FFIX. which fooled me on one of Kuro's Graph once o_O

my all time favorite scene was probably the escape from New York's Biosphere thingie. it had a lot of action and true feelings being brought out, aka Hein losing it and sort of realising what's he done wrong but then backs away from it and goes on with doing the unthinkable. o_O

When I first saw screenshots with the movie I was like "Oh great wonder which dumb actors they hired for this movie" then when I saw the words "All CGI Animation." I go "=-O WHAAAAAAAAA!???? ALL CG!!!!!!!????" the CGI was so realistic I though they were real actors o_O I wish Roy Sato was here to give us the scoop on how long it actually takes to get something as real as those characters cause man they fooled me when I though they were real actors and found out they were just computer colored people ;)

[Akiross]

With a screen name like mine, its obvious I don't hate FF:TSW. :D

What are my thoughts? I enjoyed it as a movie, enjoyed it for its awesome technical breakthroughs and enjoyed it as Square's first attempt at movie making in a field once thought dominated by studios like Pixar. I like cheering for underdogs that ridicule other studio's attempts. ;)

The Spirits Within did more than just show up on the silver screen with Square's name. If anyone followed up on the news that surrounded its release, it was both controversial and ground breaking at the same time. Actors were afraid they'd lose their jobs to digital actors if the movie did really well. Sakaguchi/Square's first time out put shame to many other CG studios who were long in the business and didn't feel better when some of their best artists were taken away by Square. Square didn't follow any of Hollywood's "rules" and it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Even after Square's movie division shut down, the movie wasn't even given proper credits in the Oscars that year, losing to nominees like "Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius". It showed me how corrupt and biased Hollywood can be if you don't play by their selfish rules.

If you think about most director's first attempts at film making, you'd come up with a lot of embarrasing titles they'd want you to forget about. I think Sakaguchi's first attempt did a way better job despite the criticism from movie and game fans. He still gets my two thumbs up. :D

[Beatrix the Goddess]

Alright Kuro you have officially scared me. I'll be nice to the movie from now on! I promise, just don't hurt me! ;)

I admit that my first impressions of TSW were not good. I think I (and no doubt many others) were expecting for a literal translation from game to film, without allowing for all the limits that films would put upon something like Final Fantasy. It wouldn't be sensible marketing or budget-wise to make such an involved storyline as the games have, because just think how long the film would have to be o_O But despite realising this, for months I've stuck to the comment "It was a masterpiece for a film, but a tepid achievment for a Final Fantasy", and in a way I still do think. But I've also come to realise that considering the limitations I mentioned before, it really was a very cleverly and imaginitively made movie.

My biggest complaint was that it was set on Earth.
This was the first thing that hit me as bad. Final Fantasy is meant to be set where it's name suggests- in a fantasy world. However, I think I can see the reasons why this huge change was made. If an entire new world was introduced, a certain amount of time would have had to be spent in subtly explaining information about it to the viewers. All well & good if the film could run for longer, but since it wasn't immediately destined to be a sellout like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, making the movie extra long would have been very risky. And taking time to introduce a completely new world would have wasted valuable storyline space. Instead, the film was set on Earth, but Earth in a completely different condition to what we know it as. A world supremely different to the present day, but with enough similarity to not confuse viewers too much. So now I've come round to thinking that this was actually a good idea, if my theory is remotely right. They did a very good job of "reinventing" Earth to give it fantasy qualities.

The storyline was somewhat thinner than a Final Fantasy usually is, but again, it's the length problem. Considering the limitations, it's actually a very good story. The relationships between Aki & Grey, Grey & his crew, and Aki & Dr. Sid were very sensitively explored and shown- in fact that was what kept me more gripped than the phantoms and Gaia storyline. And isn't that what Final Fantasy has always been about? Characer interaction and growth. I feel that nothing was lost in that respect.

Gaia and the Phantoms......the thing that spoilt that for me, is that the "great unveiling" of the fact that the phantoms were just ordinary animals rather than an invading army, feel rather flat. My response was "Uh....huh......you've only just figured that out?" I'd been thinking that since the beginning of the film! So I feel I missed something there. But the rest was sufficiently interesting for me not to get bored. I think I was more interested in the way it was told, rather than what it actually was though.

General Hein was an interesting character in so far as he had the same objectives as Aki, but a different method of achieving them. It was hard to think of him as "the baddie", because he had a lot of personality features that are perfectly normal, but worked against him in the situation he was in. I found the scene with him & the photo of his wife and children, particularly poignant.

Graphically it was of course groundbreaking, and I think most people forgot they were watching CGed characters. Is there maybe such a thing as being too good? If people forget they're watching CG, they can't take in so much of the sheer brilliance of it.

All in all, I think the movie was incredible, but occupied too much middle ground to be a box office success. Final Fantasy fans didn't like it because it supposedly wasn't FFish enough (although as Kuro points out, the themes of life, death and friendship were there), and non-FF fans were unaccustomed to the way it was presented, and didn't possess that "staying factor" that people who've played the games have. As was said- very little is spoonfed. The first time you watch it you only really get the broadest overview of what it contains.

I have saved my two pet bad points until now. I can't find satisfactory explanations for either of them -_-

1. Dr. Sid. Cid. Why??? Was it really necessary to change it? That's just bastardising tradition.

2. Elliot Whatshisname, not Nobuo Uematsu. If he was too busty then why the hell didn't they put if off for a while? It's scary how much Nobuo is withdrawing from things these days...TSW...FFX2..FFXI...how long before he disappears completely? :( Not that I have anything against Elliot. The Dream Within is up in the ranks of Melodies of Life and Suteki da Ne, but the rest of the soundtrack didn't have the same effect as Nobuo's work.

Heehee, TSW created some good memories for me though ^_^ Aki's face has become rather a joke, they should never have done that face-only picture that didn't include the hair. When I showed the advert for it on the back of the FFIX instruction manual, to a friend and asked him what game he thought it would be of (there were no detals of it at this point), he studiously studied it and decided it was FFVIII because the main character looked vaguely like Zell o_O

And then when we went to see it at the cinema, all the seats in the waiting area were taken, so we squatted down in front of a poster promoting the film. After about 10 minutes a little boy, must have been about seven, came running over, pointed to Aki's face and confidently claimed "Muumy, that's Cloud! Teeheehee....

And finally, my friend & I kept getting irritated looks, because we were having a rather loud whispered argument over whether a certain monster was in fact, a Stilva, or not. It was, I tell you! It was!

[Wolfaura Rose]

I thought the movie sucked, the story was boring, the only good thing about it was the graphics. If I was made up entirely of eyeballs and nothing else I would've liked it.

[Kuro]

*LOL* Sorry, Bee. I've oficially scared a LOT of people lately. Teehee, then again, I'm just a freaky person. Mwahaha!!

And BTW, no one can really say that the filmmakers didn't play the FF games. Because while maybe it's true some of them didn't, a lot of the staff from FF9 went on to work on the movie after the game was done. Moto Sakakibara, who directed the FMVs in FF7 and FF8, also co-directed the movie, so it's pretty silly for people to say that the staff didn't know the games at all.

Anyway, I was talking to some of the filmmakers about what the movie would have been like, had it been an FF game translated to film. After getting up off the floor and wiping the tears of laughter from our eyes, this is basically what we came up with...

---

Scene: Phantom comes onto screen. Screen goes all swirly. (Whoa!)

GRAY, AKI, NEIL, and JANE all line up in front of the Phantom, in battle stance.

GRAY: My ATB isn't full yet! Who's going first?!
NEIL: It looks like my ATB is the fastest, sir!
GRAY: Well, HIT the damn thing!
NEIL: Yes, sir!

Neil shoots once at the monster. It flinches, then stares at him. A white '2450' appears above its head. Then it rushes forward and smacks Gray with a tentacle. A white '550' appears above Gray's head.

GRAY: Well, crap!
AKI: It's my turn!

Aki jumps forward and throws a potion at Gray. Everything goes all sparkly and pretty for a minute.

GRAY: Now it's my turn!

He shoots the monster, and it's down for the count. Yay!! They all twirl their weapons and then rush forward and collect the dropped potions, armor, guns, and money.

---

... hmm, doesn't quite work, does it? ;)

[drkl0rd2000]

When I watched the FF movie I viewed it not as a movie tied to the concepts of the game but as they intended it as a story of our planet under siege by unknow hostiles and our fight to get it back. As stories go the overall movie was excellent in its context it was a complete storyline with a novel ending.

It was the classic alien invader movie... you have the hero, the grunt, the fatherly figure, the evil corp bent on destroying by force, the innocent citizens who just want to live a good life, the aliens who are here for some unknown reason and the love story between 2 people in this destroyed world. All in all as a movie it was excellent.

[Ozma Omega]

Old thread - Bin time!