Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Motonori Sakakibara

Starring: Ming-na Wen, Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Donald Sutherland

Primary genre: Science fiction

When “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” was released at the dawn of the new millennium, CGI advances were actually meaningful and required a lot of effort to render the processes as efficient and as realistic as possible. Twenty plus years ago, the idea of a fully computer generated animated film with photorealistic human models was hailed as a costly (ambitious) and pointless project that had no place in cinema.

Looking back at “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” retrospectively though, it is hard to not admire its stretched out across four years scale and ambition. Boasting a visually arresting presentation of a post apocalyptic and almost desolate world, the movie features excellent futuristic ideas - touch screens, dream recorders, holographic surgery - that seem wholly possible in 2023 and counting. Every frame carries superb production design and the so-called “ghost” designs shine through the emotionally distant environments. Elliot Goldenthal’s grandiose, rich and vastly underrated score is spectacular too.

However, no matter how much visual (and audio) panache is thrown at each (expensive) screenshot, nothing hides the soulless of the proceedings. The script attempts to populate the paper thin plot by frequently dream flashbacks, a creative decision which prohibits the film of establishing a distinct identity and a clear momentum. The story of why the “ghosts” are here and where we should go afterwards feels like an afterthought and any popular Japanese themes are not explored at all (e.g., spirit of the Earth) but stated as facts. With low dramatic stakes (since humanity has found a way to survive these attacks), the search for the “spirits within” is a meagre one. The inclusion of these transparent main sources of threat who can pass through any object, from any direction and kill in an instant touch is never really explained and is instead anemically inserted into the several action sequences raising questions in the viewer’s head.

Meanwhile the movie’s characters are as blunt as they come. Lacking any emotional material to develop besides bearing typical personality traits, in what little screentime they have, they use to deliver exposition after exposition. Furthermore, the stiff line delivery renders the film an expensive videogame cinematic as opposed to a full blown thrilling cinematic experience. And then there is James Wood’s villain, General Hein. Hinting at a tragic backstory that deserved Shakespearean characterization, he is betrayed by the script as a so laughably one-dimensional (even his design betrays his sinister intentions) individual wasting the opportunity to go over his obsession and/or his descent(?) into madness.

It is a shame that “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” feels hollow, wondering aimlessly at a cinematic wasteland and searching for a relevant audience. It has technical finesse (which is even more impressive considering where we are now) and it is backed by a clear love for the material but all these are ultimately distractions from a paper thin story.

Visually stunning but hollow spectacle

+Visually arresting

+Novel sci-fi ideas

+Excellent production design

+Superb soundtrack by Elliot Goldenthal

-Stiff line delivery

-Ghost threat not convincing

-One dimensional villain

-Exposition, exposition, exposition

-Archetypical characters

-Paper thin story