I remember when "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" came out. All the talk was about the excellence and the detail of the CGI. It was a very big deal that the graphic images captured strands of the hair. Sadly, I don't remember any talk about the movie's storyline.
I'm not familiar with the Final Fantasy video games hence everything was new to me. FFTSW takes place in a dystopian future in which alien "phantoms'' have invaded Earth. They are so aggressive and ubiquitous that the remaining humans were driven into barricade cities where they can be protected from the phantoms.
Our protagonist Dr. Aki Ross (Ming-Na) and her mentor Doctor Sid (Donald Sutherland) are looking for eight "spirits" of "Gaia" in order to combat the deadly effects of the phantoms. They figured out that the phantoms are nothing more than "confused alien spirits" which makes them aggressive and deadly. The question was, "What will make them unconfused? And how many human lives should be sacrificed to unconfuse them?"
It became a battle within a battle. Aki and Sid were at odds with the military types in order to find a non-combative solution to their phantom problem whereas the main military honk, General Hein (James Woods), preferred to use Earth's most powerful weapon to destroy the phantoms. The only problem is that this superweapon, known as Zeus, would also destroy Earth's "spirit" and hence Earth itself.
Aki wasn't going to be able to find her spirit solution on her own. For that she would need the help of military guy and love interest Gray (Alec Baldwin). He and his team of Ryan (Ving Rhames), Neil (Steve Buscemi), and Jane (Peri Gilpin) would be at her service to essentially make sure she survived and her spiritual solution was fulfilled. It was all love and spirituality in the end of this expensive animated sci-fi flick, but in the end it was very much style over substance. The CGI was a modern marvel while the story was modern mediocrity.
I'm not familiar with the Final Fantasy video games hence everything was new to me. FFTSW takes place in a dystopian future in which alien "phantoms'' have invaded Earth. They are so aggressive and ubiquitous that the remaining humans were driven into barricade cities where they can be protected from the phantoms.
Our protagonist Dr. Aki Ross (Ming-Na) and her mentor Doctor Sid (Donald Sutherland) are looking for eight "spirits" of "Gaia" in order to combat the deadly effects of the phantoms. They figured out that the phantoms are nothing more than "confused alien spirits" which makes them aggressive and deadly. The question was, "What will make them unconfused? And how many human lives should be sacrificed to unconfuse them?"
It became a battle within a battle. Aki and Sid were at odds with the military types in order to find a non-combative solution to their phantom problem whereas the main military honk, General Hein (James Woods), preferred to use Earth's most powerful weapon to destroy the phantoms. The only problem is that this superweapon, known as Zeus, would also destroy Earth's "spirit" and hence Earth itself.
Aki wasn't going to be able to find her spirit solution on her own. For that she would need the help of military guy and love interest Gray (Alec Baldwin). He and his team of Ryan (Ving Rhames), Neil (Steve Buscemi), and Jane (Peri Gilpin) would be at her service to essentially make sure she survived and her spiritual solution was fulfilled. It was all love and spirituality in the end of this expensive animated sci-fi flick, but in the end it was very much style over substance. The CGI was a modern marvel while the story was modern mediocrity.