Hey folks, Harry here... I fear that this will be the majority feeling on FINAL FANTASY... the early cut that I saw was far more wordy and subdued than most folks are expecting or wanting from the reactions to the trailer's hyped up action feel. In reality these characters are extremely understated and unemotional in the western sense of things. It is extremely Eastern though... but with a Western Character look. I liked the film as a Buddhist Animism Science Fiction Fantasy Animated Film sort of way... simply because I've never seen anything quite like that before... and it is quite lovely... but I fear most Western Audiences will find the film lacking in the action and suspense and thrills department. However, who knows... maybe it'll catch on... we'll see...
Hey Harry, Dee-Spy here with my update.
Well, I finally got to see an advanced screening of Final Fantasy, The Spirit Within and I got to say it was sort of a let down. It seems that the wizards at Square were so intent on perfecting the hyper-realistic technology that they missed some very important aspects of moviemaking. Number one, suspension of disbelief. If a film works it has to bring the audience into its realm and make them believe its real----especially emotionally. There are so many things in F.F. that jolt you out of the film you feel like you're on a bungee cord. It's amazing to me that with all the time and money spent on animation, no one noticed.
The biggest problem of all is setting the film on Earth in the future. The story would have worked so much better if we were not constantly comparing the animated characters to real people. They look like "Stepford Wives" a creepy vacancy in their eyes makes them look like the walking dead. This is all the more obvious because such great care has been used in movement and detail--right down to Aki's constantly windblown hair.
Also, when you hear a voice as recognizable as Donald Sutherland's coming out of a very real looking old, fat, bald guy your brain says "what the fuck??"
Also, I found the story line about alien phantoms...(spirits from another world that destroyed itself and arrived here on a huge chunk of space debris) a little inane to say the least. And then of course we have the sterotype villain, voiced by James Woods, with a "damn the torpedoes" attitude who is endangering the entire world because he won't listen to the monotone pleadings Ms. Ross so he fires his mega-space cannon into the center of the alien activity jeopardizing all life. If people are worried that this technology is going to replace real actors they can rest easy. And if your expecting to like the movie cause you liked the F.F. games...you are sure to be disappointed. I certainly was.
The magic of animation is that it makes you believe in fantasy. What's the point of attempting to recreate reality by animation? What you get is the worst of all worlds.
