Despite having some of the most stunning visuals in film history, this movie suffers from one fatal flaw, and that is a stinker of a story...oh, and some bad voice-actors.
Being a fan of the Final Fantasy videogames, I went in with above-average expectations. Having already read a variety of reviews, the majority being of the negative sort, I was thinking that maybe the critics just didn't get "it". Surely, I told myself, with Hironobu Sakaguchi (guy behind the videogames) behind the story, this thing had to be phenomenal. The FF game storylines are like nothing you have ever experienced, being complex, enchanting and plain old "Wow". The Final Fantasy movie however, calls for a big "Yuck".
First off, the animation for the most part is excellent, as you would expect. It's amazing what they can now do in this realm. However the Hollywood actors shouldn't be worrying about being overtaken by these invading CG actors just yet, because they still have a long way to go.. Don't get me wrong, the animation was excellent like I said, but often the characters had that "mannequin" look about them. The faces on the whole are not very expressive, and while you can appreciate the subtle little nuances that the animators managed to convey, I felt they didn't quite manage to nail it with the emotions. For instance, at times Aki is reduced to tears and you can certainly hear it in Ming-Na Wen's voice (in all its corny, over-the-top glory), but you don't see it on the screen...
And then there's the story... What on earth happened? The characters babble on with so much fancy-schmancy jargon it is often confusing. The story starts off at a slow crawl, and it stays like that for the first hour and a half. It's only when the action all starts happening (for the last half hour..) that you're able to sit back and follow what "resembles" a movie...
As for the voice-acting, it was pretty dirty. Steve Buscemi's voice just didn't gel with the character, but it probably has more to do with the fact that the animators couldn't transfer the humor that he conveyed, into his onscreen character... The only person in the cast I think who deserves any sort of mention is Donald Sutherland... The other actors...they were just nasty.
I gave this movie a 6 out of 10 and I just wonder what on Earth went wrong. The makers of this film had one of the most imaginative, amazing franchises ever to be invented to play with, and they mauled it. It doesn't seem to have much mainstream appeal and therefore I'd really only recommend it to the animation buffs or the fans of the videogame series. Oh, what could have been...
Being a fan of the Final Fantasy videogames, I went in with above-average expectations. Having already read a variety of reviews, the majority being of the negative sort, I was thinking that maybe the critics just didn't get "it". Surely, I told myself, with Hironobu Sakaguchi (guy behind the videogames) behind the story, this thing had to be phenomenal. The FF game storylines are like nothing you have ever experienced, being complex, enchanting and plain old "Wow". The Final Fantasy movie however, calls for a big "Yuck".
First off, the animation for the most part is excellent, as you would expect. It's amazing what they can now do in this realm. However the Hollywood actors shouldn't be worrying about being overtaken by these invading CG actors just yet, because they still have a long way to go.. Don't get me wrong, the animation was excellent like I said, but often the characters had that "mannequin" look about them. The faces on the whole are not very expressive, and while you can appreciate the subtle little nuances that the animators managed to convey, I felt they didn't quite manage to nail it with the emotions. For instance, at times Aki is reduced to tears and you can certainly hear it in Ming-Na Wen's voice (in all its corny, over-the-top glory), but you don't see it on the screen...
And then there's the story... What on earth happened? The characters babble on with so much fancy-schmancy jargon it is often confusing. The story starts off at a slow crawl, and it stays like that for the first hour and a half. It's only when the action all starts happening (for the last half hour..) that you're able to sit back and follow what "resembles" a movie...
As for the voice-acting, it was pretty dirty. Steve Buscemi's voice just didn't gel with the character, but it probably has more to do with the fact that the animators couldn't transfer the humor that he conveyed, into his onscreen character... The only person in the cast I think who deserves any sort of mention is Donald Sutherland... The other actors...they were just nasty.
I gave this movie a 6 out of 10 and I just wonder what on Earth went wrong. The makers of this film had one of the most imaginative, amazing franchises ever to be invented to play with, and they mauled it. It doesn't seem to have much mainstream appeal and therefore I'd really only recommend it to the animation buffs or the fans of the videogame series. Oh, what could have been...