Blu-ray Disc Review: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

8/10/2007 Posted by Admin

Hironobu Sakaguchi’s 2001 sci-fi thriller, now out on high-definition Blu-ray disc, is a paradox--it's at once exhilarating yet exhausting, thrilling yet boring, masterful yet banal.

Its apocalyptic story of a ruined Earth overcome with soul-eating monsters is hardly new, but since “Fantasy," upon its release seven years ago, featured such an enormous leap forward in computer animation, it was impossible to stop watching it even though it was a pleasure to stop listening to it.

That still is true. Nothing here is ever as important as the animation, and it shows. The film, which Sakaguchi based on the video game he created, is convoluted, cliched, choppy and soulless.

Watching it, you hunger for something more, a richer, deeper story filled with stronger characters that would rise to the level of the film’s countless technical breakthroughs and turn “Fantasy” into a new classic.

The potential was there, but it didn't happen.

Rated PG-13. Grade: C+

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5 comments:

  1. avalanche222 said...
    This comment has been removed by the author.
  2. avalanche222 said...

    your review is a fuckin joke, and totally misses the point of the story or any empathy/intellectual thought in general whatsoever.

    I'll only agree that the ending might become a little too touchy or incoherent, possibly as far as i can remember, but alot was hampered due to translation issues (creator did not speak english, and it was an english-language movie). Maybe if you stopped chomping on popcorn and fattening your fat ass and actually listened with some comprehension the concepts wouldn't be so alien to you as to completely fly over your dull american short/cropped haircut head and be able to appreciate flawless character development until at least the hour mark, which is what I've seen up to of it just recently.

  3. avalanche222 said...
    This comment has been removed by the author.
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  5. Anonymous said...

    how about review it in 2001 instead of 2006?
    nowadays even if you show a human with 6 heads it wouldn't spook anybody. But back then you probably don't even know how to write proper reviews.