Warning: I walked out of this movie, turned to my brother Tim and asked him what he thought. "A million whores," he said intently, "blowing a million sailors couldn't suck as much as that movie." I suppose you might want to keep that in mind as you read my embarrassed and tentative recommendation.
FF: TSW is the first full-length CGI movie from the makers of the popular Final Fantasy video games; as far as I can tell, there's no other relation between the fantasy RPG (with its few, almost steampunkish, sci-fi elements) and this movie, which is a sci-fi adventure with head-scratching spiritual qualities.
Taking place on a ruined Earth overrun with invading "phantoms" that
arrived when the Leonid meteor collided with Earth, 
the
film follows Dr. Aki Ross as she and her mentor Dr. Sid struggle to find the
eight spirits that will form the frequencies of a wave generator capable of
neutralizing the wavelength of the phantoms. It's a goal they feel they must
accomplish before the military (embodied by General Hein) get the authorization
to use the Zeus satellite to try to destroy the phantoms--a move that Aki and
Sid feel will only drive the aliens deeper into the core of the planet.
I mention most of the above because the first fifteen minutes of the movie, as Aki hunts in the ruins of New York for the life form with the sixth spirit, were just too contextless for me to enjoy even while the filmmakers piled on the action. I really don't want to say anything else plot-wise, in part because so much of the astounding CGI animation is put in service to explaining exposition. However, I will say that like a lot of filmmakers, the forces behind FF: TSW occasionally forget the first impression is sometimes the strongest: the scenes in which Dr. Sid burns his old notebooks (filled with writings explaining the spiritual basis of his research) led me to think the culture, because of the nature of the quasi-ethereal phantoms, had turned fearfully away from all manners spiritual and toward a strident technophilicism. But, no: it was just another spin on that classic '50s science fiction film scientist/military dualism. In fact, the movie plays like a variation on Them, if you could imagine that movie with giant ghostly fleas and gorgeous CGI animation.
Ah,
yes: the gorgeous CGI animation. How gorgeous is it? ("Not gorgeous,"
Tim sneered, "Just show-offy.") Well, it was gorgeous enough to keep
me enthralled for much of the two hours: most of it spent in rapt attention
on Aki's hair which turned, tossed and blew about perfectly. (Remember how the
movie Charlie's Angels spoofed the show's obsession with the Angels turning
their head and their hair bouncing about bewitchingly? This film takes that
obsession to new hirsutophilic heights.) It was gorgeous enough that I gaped
slack-jawed at dream sequences of a sunrise on a alien world. It was gorgeous
enough that I ogled the gauzy fibers on Aki's knees and marvelled at the slight
line of freckles under her eyes or the small mole on the side of another character's
neck. And it was gorgeous enough that any time the animation didn't perfectly
mimic real life, the audience was instantly aware of it. Which is another reason
why I think your viewing of FF:TSW might go over better the more formalistically
minded you are. I tuned out a chunk of the exposition and thought about how
accurately the phrase "imaginary neo-realism" might describe the the
movie's appeal, wondered if the ol' Russian Formalists would have gone nuts
over Final Fantasy. Every gesture or texture that succeeds or fails to mimic
reality made me more aware of how I perceived reality. For me, the movie wasn't
a failure because I walked out more aware of the lines under people's eyes,
the way hair falls and moves, or how the world looks when the sun rises. Despite
all the guns and explosions and crashes and life-or-death situations, Final
Fantasy: The Spirits Within is an art movie; for me, its successes and failures
are far closer to a Tarkovsky movie than Tomb Raider. Although I always respect
Tim's opinion, I still say this is a worthy matinee movie.
All written material on these pages is © 2001 by Jeff Lester. With the exception of non-profit distribution, all other rights are reserved.