Movie review: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Viewed on: Blu-Ray
Released: 2001
It’s been 21 years since I saw Final Fantasy: Spirits Within at the cinema. Back in 2001 it pioneered in showing movie goers, and Hollywood alike, how advanced CGI from the gaming industry had become. Pushing animation boundaries with incredible facial detail, effects and environmental design.
While I’m not a die-hard Final Fantasy fan, I’ve played more than enough of the games to conclude that Spirits Within doesn't represent them in a meaningful manner. The connection to the famous, and incredibly popular, JRPG franchise is, at best, incredibly subtle if you don’t pay attention.
Let’s come more back to that later, though. On the surface you should prepare yourself for a sci-fi movie and not a one that echoes Final Fantasy in any meaningful manner either.
Spirits Within kicks off inside a reoccurring dream to the main, female, lead, called Aki. Where it visually, for 2001, incredibly showcases a neat, orange tinted, sunset drenched landscape of a canyon, followed by a close shot of Aki's eyes, face and blowing hair. The dream sequence is then topped off with an impressive, for it's era, water and ripple effect. Even from the very beginning, the movie brings out the big guns of cutting-edge CGI animation to please it's 2001 audience.
However, in this day and age the sunset looks like an old Photoshop effect from that era and the animation looks stiff. Although, I must say, the facial detail still holds up favourably. Reminding me of how amazing it looked when I first watched it back then.
This first scene, which is expanded upon further in Aki’s dream sequences throughout the movie, is, in a strange way, the most it has in common with the Final Fantasy franchise. Aki's design, flowing hair and the canyon with the enemies, all echo Squaresoft’s CGI style of it's early 2000's era. Reminiscing the art and animation style in Final Fantasy X's cutscenes. Somehow, for me, Aki echoes FFX's Yuna too.
From this introduction scene we're thrown into the main meat of the story and learn that Aki is collecting eight spirits which resonate with our dying planet. An, over the top military general, stereotypical bad guy, wants to bomb the shit out of the monsters on our abandoned, post-apocalyptic, world. All while Aki, and her scientist mentor, want to heal the planets soul. There's an obvious echo of Final Fantasy 7's main plot here, where Cloud tries to save the planet from dying after resources are sucked from it's core.
It’s a subtle nod to FF7, for sure, but it's never explained in a deep or meaningful manner to be something the audience should care about. For that, the running time of a movie is simply too short, compared to the depth an RPG title that can cater for it's story over tens of hours of gameplay.
Where Spirits Within fails the most at being connected to Final Fantasy is it's lack of swords, magical spells or typical battles. It succeeds at being a competent sci-fi movie, with clear influences from classics like Aliens. There’s a lot of cool sci-fi vibe here, with a touch on anime style to it's futuristic cities and overall design.
Viewed as such, leaving the Final Fantasy aspect aside, Spirits Within shows its stronger side. In comparison to my cinema experience in 2001, I was prepared for the lack of Final Fantasy connections and decided to enjoy for what it was. A sci-fi angle perhaps Squaresoft should've leaned more into, than using the Final Fantasy franchise to promote it, yet I totally understand why they did.
It’s a mismatch of influences, but at the same time it has small nods to its franchise origins. They're very subtle but typical Final Fantasy design choices. However, if you're familiar with the games and want that experience out of Spirits Within, then its going to feel like an odd movie.
Take the ending for instance, it builds into this massive scene of Aki and her love, Captain Gray, descending into the planets spirit in a massive crater, while simultaneously being bombarded by a lasers from a massive space station. Ending in a spectacular, rekindling of the planets spirit, raising a fountain of fireworks and planet aura which rebuilding the post-apocalyptic world.
The ending sounds very typical Final Fantasy when you think about it. The visual representation, the music and the atmosphere used to highlight it. Yet, it still doesn't connect to the game franchise in any meaningful way.
Younger audiences will find little interesting here. After all, the CGI is dated, the animations are stiff and the uncanny valley facial animation is quite pronounced. However, it reminds me of what I enjoyed watching it at the cinema in 2001, when I was younger. It was a massive undertaking for Squaresoft making this kind of CGI detail, while at the same time balancing a typical sci-fi story with Final Fantasy elements to cater for an audience reaching way further than gamers.
Over time, it's looked back on as a dated movie. Missing the point of truly showcasing what FF was all about to a broader audience. It stands as a significant shift in time, where the gaming world reached such a high level of presentation and could be seriously noticed outside of the gaming industry.
This was the era of the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, and while Spirits Within was far beyond these consoles abilities, it represented what gaming had become visually. It proved that videogames could tell mature, deeper and cinematic stories using computer technology.
As an avid gamer myself I was underwhelmed by it's story, but I was immensely proud of it's existence as a showcase of what made games magic for me, to the rest of the world. And, in a strange way, I still feel so when re-watching it so many years later.
It became a landmark for public acknowledgement of gaming technology and should be remembered for that very reason.
As such, Spirits Within should be viewed with these factors in mind and respected in for accomplishing acknowledgement as a technical showcase. It's a window in time, to where the gaming industry was going, technologically, over 20 years ago. Expect a sci-fi movie, much less Final Fantasy, and keep in mind it's age before viewing it.
