It's not very usual that a movie based on a game turns out to be a stunning movie. But Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, however, is just that. The incredibly realistic characters and beautifully rendered backdrops in this movie make it a fascinating work of CGI. Unfortunately, its story falls short of anything but a rather boring Sci-Fi plot, which I'm sure is what caused it to be such a failure in the box-office.

The Spirits Within follows a young scientist named Aki Ross, who shares a belief with her colleague Dr. Sid that with the collection of 7 spirits they can stop an invading alien race and save the earth. Being a fan of the video game series of the same name, I remember getting pretty excited for this movie when it first came out. After seeing it for the first time, I could not figure out why in the world they would call this movie "Final Fantasy". Aside from a few subtle references to characters and themes from the video game series, it does not contain enough blatant similarities to possess the Final Fantasy title, and I feel like this should have been a more important goal in directing this movie. It was a great choice to have done this movie in CGI rather than in live-action, as one of the most captivating things about the Final Fantasy series are its fantastic cinematic scenes. To have a whole movie based on the quality of an epic Final Fantasy cinematic really shows the hard work that goes into creating all of these scenes. Every model in the movie displays a high level of detail from the main characters to the ships that they fly in. The freckles on Ross's face allow for intense close-ups. The subtle movements of their facial structures make them more interesting to look at. It's an art form that was very well presented in this film. In fact, this was the first full CGI film to feature fully realistic characters, modeled to look like real actors. The fact that it is a computer generated movie allows more freedom to conduct scenes and also set camera angles in places that would be impossible to get if it were shot in real life.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within portrays a mastery of computer generated imagery for its time. It's a fine tribute to the wonderful cinematics of the Final Fantasy series. But it doesn't possess a very original plot line, which doesn't even portray enough references to be called Final Fantasy, and should have just been another Sci-fi called "The Spirits Within".

This sci-fi film is set in a future where most life on Earth has been wiped out following a meteorite strike which brought with it 'phantoms'. These phantoms consume the life-force of those they touch. Aki Ross has been infected by a phantom but survived, with the help of Dr Sid. Now they are searching for eight spirits which they believe will stop the phantoms. These spirits are to be found in eight different life forms; as the film opens Aki is looking for the sixth, a plant, in the remains of New York City. She ends up being rescued by a military unit lead by Gray Edwards, with whom she was once romantically involved. Not everybody agrees with Dr Sid's theories; most notably General Hein who wants to use the powerful Zeus canon to destroy the Phantoms... something Sid is certain with make matters much worse.

I have not played any of the Final Fantasy games so can't say whether this captures the feel of the franchise... but as a movie in its own right I thought it was surprisingly good. Even after almost twenty years the CGI looks great. The story is solid and there is a genuine sense of danger; characters one would expect to survive don't always. The monster fights are impressive; they have a PG 'Starship Troopers' feel to them at times... something I do mean as a compliment. The character designs are really impressive; it may be obvious that they are animated but the characters feel real. They are helped by a high quality voice cast which features many well-known actors. I enjoyed the way supernatural elements were intertwined with more conventional sci-fi. On the down side some of the humour seemed a bit forced; thankfully there wasn't too much of it. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of sci-fi action.

As far as I am aware, this was probably the first film to use the new form of CGI called "Performance Capture", just like The Polar Express and Beowulf. Based on the long running Japanese computer game franchise, the story set in 2065 sees Dr. Aki Ross (Mulan's Ming-Na) is having many nightmares that she sees as messages, and also her body is infected with alien particles. So she needs to save herself and, seeing the nightmares as messages, planet Earth from the invasion from the alien life-forms known as "Phantoms. The only way to stop them is to find seven spirits to destroy the Phantoms, and she accompanied by mentor Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland) and the squad led by Captain Gray Edwards (Alec Baldwin), oh, and General Hein (James Woods) is being a bastard, and may have caused some of the problems. Also starring Pulp Fiction's Ving Rhames as Ryan, Reservoir Dogs' Steve Buscemi as Neil, Peri Gilpin as Jane, Volcano's Keith David as Council Member #1 and Great Expectations' Jean Simmons as Council Member #2. The story may not be much, and the lip movement isn't that convincing, but in terms of animation and imagination, this film does do relatively well. Worth watching!