The CGI lines are crisp and cleaner than ever, and you can see way more details on the ground of Tucson (my home town ironically) than on the Blu-ray. However, despite the aging CGI the UHD shows palpable increases in clarity and detail levels. The Blu-ray looks even worse in reality, but still a solid ENCODE (not be confused with weak animation). Now it looks a lot creakier around the seams and the lack of fluid motion, mouth control, and general lack of detail by modern standards is VERY obvious how far animation has come. I remember this film being a stunning work of CGI animation when it came out in 2001. Rated PG-13 for Sci-fi action violence 4K Video: Video: It’s got guns, pretty animation (especially for the time) and it’s story makes a TON more sense than Kingsglaive or Advent Children to the average viewer. All in all, this is a fun popcorn sci-fi animated flick that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Buscemi is sadly under used with cheesy one liners, but Ving Rhames and Peri Gilpin doing solid backup jobs. James Woods hams it up to level 11 as Hein, giving him the sort of comic book maniacal nature that is needed for this type of story.
FINAL FANTASY SPIRITS WITHIN STREAM MOVIE
It adds a mystical element to the movie that keeps it from being a bland sci-fi venture, but also cheeses things up a bit (and don’t forget some of the dialog, which is stilted and cheesy to the max at times).īaldwin himself is a bit stiff as Gray, while Ming-Na Wen is actually spot on for Aki. The story isn’t anything to write home about, and recycles the ancient Gaia theory as it’s central premise, which is both a good and bad thing.
There’s a lot of big name actors (for the 2000 era) putting their weight behind charaters, ranging from the fast talking Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin (best known for Roz Doyle of Frasier) and Alec Baldwin as Gray. But if that is put aside, the movie itself is still a lot of fun. Meaning that Aki and a romantic love interest soldier named Gray (Alec Baldwin) have to rush and find that 8th spirit before the general does something everyone will regret.įinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within is Final Fantasy in name only, and really only a title card letting everyone know that it was a Square Productions animation project. However, Hein is not to be trifled with and is looking for just the opening he needs to use the Zeus cannon and wipe everything off the planet for good. Sid and Aki manage to convince the council to hold off on Zeus in fear that it might damage the planet and rush to finish gathering the 8 “spirits” that Sid believes hold the key to creating a wave pattern parallel to the Phantoms energy signature. However, the rest of the human council, including General Hein (James Woods) think it’s ludicrous, and that using their highly advanced Zeus cannon fired into the heart of the Phantom base should eliminate them once and for all. Sid is convinced of the ancient Gaia theory, and that the Aliens are a spirit force similar to the energy signature of our very own planet. Sid (Donald Sutherland) are both scientists working to create an energy wave that will cancel out the energy signature of the invaders (given the name of phantoms due to their ability to pass through solid matter) and eliminate them once and for all. Humanity has hunkered down into energy field surrounded cities, creating weapons that can fight the unstoppable monsters. The aliens are made of pure energy and can suck the life out of a person just by touching them. Sometime in the future the Earth is under siege from alien invaders. But it is a fun sci-fi action romp that does a lot better than many of the other Sony CGI animated films (such as the Resident Evil or Starship Troopers animated films) taken from games.
Is it a great Final Fantasy flick? Not in my personal opinion. Color me surprised but after putting my preconceptions down and taking a break from the subject matter I was able to look at the film in a new light. Years later it became one of the first Blu-rays on the market for Sony and one of their big demo discs in a time when most Blu-rays were barely moderate upgrades over the DVD counterparts (there’s a reason a lot of those 2007-2008 Blu-rays have all been re-done by the studios with remasters) and I remember forcing myself to revisit the movie.
I was a sophomore in college and playing through Final Fantasy VII at the time on legacy consoles, and got a little butthurt that it was “Final Fantasy enough!” and instead chose to just take the name and a few character ideas and create it’s own unique story. I remember straight up HATING Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within back when it came out in 2001.
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