Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Posted by fetchblog

July 10, 2008

The film is set in 2065 – several decades after “they” took over, or so a narration tells us. “They” are a group of indestructible alien phantoms that gobble the energy out of the human form like meat off a chicken wing bone.Fantasy’s heroine, scientist/physician Aki Ross (voiced by Ming-Na, ER), has been infected by the aliens and is in search of an environmental treatment that will both cure her and save the planet from total domination.Together with Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland, Space Cowboys), she has determined that collecting eight “spirits” will do the trick. Aki has six now, and heads to Old New York City to find the other two.
It is here she meets Captain Gray Edwards and the Deep Eyes squadron (which sounds like a kitschy garage band), who protect the few remaining citizens living under the giant protective dome that covers a big chunk of Manhattan. Gray (Cats and Dogs’ Alec Baldwin, providing his second “voice” job in the last two weeks) and his crew (Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin and Ving Rhames) help Aki and Dr. Sid in their quest to find the missing spirits, which must be done before the evil General Hein (James Woods, Scary Movie 2) unleashes the giant, space-based Zeus Cannon on the alien meteor, which landed in the Caspian Mountains. See? It’s good vs. evil, with a whole environmental message thrown in for good measure. As silly and downright confusing as it is, the story (penned by director and game developer Hironobu Sakaguchi and Apollo 11 scribe Al Reinert) is largely inconsequential. How powerful is the ability of computer animation? It can make Buscemi into an attractive man, for Pete’s sake. But seriously, folks, the characters are so frighteningly lifelike (especially Dr. Sid) that it becomes distracting, which I guess actually helps the story in a way. If you look hard enough, you can find plenty of flaws (especially in the mouth movement when the characters talk), but don’t bother – this still looks pretty goddamn incredible.