Final fantasy is but a fantasy!
Often I wonder what people imagine the future to be, especially those who make a movie that we refer as science fiction. Have you noticed a certain trait?
Existence of human race is under threat - either because of some machines that mankind made (Soldier, Terminator, Matrix etc) or because of Aliens (Aliens, Independence day etc)
Earth is a miserable place to live. Its not green or blue anymore but more of terrains and mountain landscapes and machine debris (We are getting closer to this future though as is evident from Afghanistan).
Human beings (those that are alive) are not quite living on planet Earth but in space stations and great space-ships.
Guns and weapons unheard of, super vehicles or transportation devices that can travel between planets.
We have another such flick that has all the above elements with only one thing that is new - an all computer generated movie. So what was Antz or Shrek? Final Fantasy is different - it has human characters that are complete 3D, and it took me a while to realize that the lead heroine (Dr. Aki Ross) is actually a computer-generated wonder - its so life like, very close to reality. Aki is a babe with good looks and silky hair. I congratulate the animators and special effects guys for creating those hairs, which a girl from real world would envy.
The story, like all claim, is boring. It has a lot to do with the original game series ’’Final Fantasy’’ from Squaresoft. The game was a supposedly a last effort for survival of the company and was a super success. Squaresoft has a $40 million state-of-art animation facility in Hawaii. So getting into movie making is quite obvious. So materializes ’’The Final Fantasy: The Spirits within’’ their first try - AN ABSOLUTE COMPUTER WONDER. Coming back to story.
Life on Earth has been decimated by ’phantoms’, ghost-like alien invaders who have the ability to extract the life force from any living being (see the blue wireframe animated souls being extracted from the virtual actor). As a result, the phantoms have bled the planet dry of all life, and all that remains of human civilization are a few domed cities. In it there is a team of people, such as (Dr. Aki Ross - the babe, her mentor Dr. Sid, the jokey Neal Fleming, Captain Gray Edwards, the buff Jane Proudfoot, and the level-headed Ryan Whittaker. These are the good guys, who believe that by collecting ’8’ spirits from universe, they can create a wave pattern that is opposite to ’’phantom’’ patterns and hence eliminate the alien race. There is another team under ruthless head of the military, General Hein (the bad guys), who believe that by using the Zeus weapon (kind of super laser as seen in ’’Golden Eye’’ James Bond flick), they can kill the aliens completely. The problem with the second team’s idea is that the beam can be so powerful that it can destroy earth too in the process. So the council gives the first team a nod. The rest of the story deals with race between the two teams to destroy the aliens.
The above mentioned story is not so new though it did engross me. But then I believe that any likely viewer for this sci-fi is not in it for the story but the dazzling animation. Besides, the story has its confusing moments such as the entire movie depicts an alien invasion but in one scene Aki announces that these phantoms are actually confused spirits who have landed on Earth after their world had been destroyed by comet, and hence its not an invasion. So leave apart the story and confusion and concentrate on what you are paying for - the effects!
Sakaguchi and his team have created some of the most photo-realistic animation to date, particularly in scenes staged in low-lighting conditions. The motions, eye-movement, reactions and expressions are very close to real actors but still not quite there. What I mean is that I was awed by the animated expressions, but I realized the fact that they were virtual characters - all of them. Dr. Sid and Aki are absolutely close to real actors, while captain Gray appeared clearly animated. The plus point of this computer generated wonder are these virtual actors who are so real that our Cast Away guy - Tom hanks feared that Hollywood would soon have all real actors cast way. In fact the Maxim (magazine) listed Aki as 87th in its list of 100 most beautiful women. The transparent and neon lit aliens were quite different from the aliens portrayed in earlier movies.
Overall I would say that the movie is successful depiction of the video-game on the silver screen and a landmark achievement for computer generated effects but still relies on patience of the viewers and fails miserably in being a box office hit.