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Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
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Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:8
Rotten:17
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: The movie raises the bar for computer animated movies, but the story is dull and emotionally removed.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for sci-fi action violence
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Jul 11, 2001 Wide
Box Office: $31,490,045
Synopsis: Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi (who also created the best-selling series of video games that inspired the film), the groundbreaking FINAL FANTASY, which stars a startlingly lifelike cast of... Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi (who also created the best-selling series of video games that inspired the film), the groundbreaking FINAL FANTASY, which stars a startlingly lifelike cast of animated characters, is the first photo-realistic computer-generated feature film ever made. In the year 2065, Earth has been taken over by a race of alien phantoms and transformed into a barren wasteland sprinkled with dome-enclosed barrier cities--the last remaining bastions of human civilization. Dr. Aki Ross (voiced by actress Ming-Na) has teamed up with Captain Gray Edwards (Alec Baldwin) to search for the "eighth spirit," a powerful entity dwelling in an unknown life form somewhere on the planet. It holds the key to perfecting a system of energy waves that will neutralize the phantoms. Ross's opponent is the reckless General Hein (James Woods), who is determined to put a stop to the alien invasion by firing a satellite cannon directly into a nest of phantoms located deep within the Earth, even though this could mean obliterating the planet itself and all life upon it. [More]
Starring: Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Donald Sutherland
Starring: Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Donald Sutherland, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin, Keith David, Jean Simmons
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Screenwriter: Al Reinert, Jeff Vintar
Producer: Jun Aida, Remington Scott, Hironobu Sakaguchi
Composer: Elliot Goldenthal
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment
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Reviews for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
The exercise is so elaborately pointless you'd think the Pentagon had bankrolled it.
After you're done marveling at the characters' semirealistic way of moving and the freckles and minor imperfections that dot their skin ... it's all too easy to get hung up on the things that make them seem clumsy and awkward.
The only reason to see Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is to gaze in amazement at what the future of film may hold. It's not a particularly good movie, but it's a movie that may change the movies.
Moviegoers accustomed to Hollywood action probably won't find this contemplative adventure so appealing.
The too-smooth skin, the too-tidy hair, the slightly wooden way the characters move -- all of the elements that nudge them from the realm of the ordinary -- only serve to heighten the sense that everything on screen deserves our utmost attention.
The sight of these characters getting romantic is about as involving as watching two expensive mannequins kissing in a Macy's window.
Predictable, nonsensical plot, laughably lame dialogue and a surfeit of cloying environmentalist piety.
At least the movie tries not to come across like a video game that you can't play.
Like Dr. Ross and her companions, the movie artfully mimics life without ever truly living.
Sooner or later, viewers have to ask themselves: If they were to do this film with live actors, would it be worth seeing?
Digital technology allows man to create man in his own image with greater sophistication than ever before, and the 'man' he creates is a bore.
Narratively, thematically, this is a dismissible picture, just another in a long and forgettable line of silly action flicks.
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 15% 15% | The Ugly Truth |
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
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| 45% 45% | Shorts |
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