Hey folks, Harry here... Capone has seen the final version of FINAL FANTASY and had his breath-taken away by everything but the dialogue and ending... FINAL FANTASY is amazing to look at... a visual delight that's just amazing, but it isn't quite everything we want, but what is these days? Definitely check it out... SPIDER-MAN trailer is going to be attached as well....

Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago. I realize there's already been some significant coverage of this film on the site, and I've largely ignored it because...well, frankly I didn't care that much about the movie. But based on the overwhelming crowds at last night's Chicago-area screening, clearly the interest level is high. Here's my look at FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN. Please realize I approached this movie knowing nothing about the video game it's based on.

When is animation not really animation? Check out FINAL FANTASY and you’ll see the latest version of computer-generated animation that at times looks so human and so real it frightens you. Based on the popular series of video games, and directed by one of "directors" of a few versions of those games, FINAL FANTASY painstakingly creates human-looking characters down to the skin pores, stubble, and individual eyelashes. They don’t looks exactly right (the skin is a little too plastic, the mouths don’t quite form the words correctly, they move their hands and heads too much), but the movement is so fluid and realistic, you sometimes forget that nothing you’re looking at is real.

The year is 2065, and a large meteor has hit the earth. Within the meteor is what appears to be an invading race of phantom-like aliens in all shapes and sizes, who phase through human bodies and rip out what appears to be your essence. Major cities all over the words are devastated by these creatures and a group of military personnel and scientists (all American, of course, because Americans rule!) are trying to figure out what to do to stop the menace. One solution (military) is to shoot a giant ray gun at the earth from space right into the crater made by the meteor, but the scientists don’t like this idea because they believe the ray will cause irreparable damage to the earth’s “spirit.” Another solution (scientists) is to collect eight “spirits” from all over the world and combine them into a kind of cleansing force against the aliens. I like the big gun idea better.

I’ve never played any version of the video game Final Fantasy, but much like a game, our heroes must collect the spirits, kill the alien phantoms, and get the crater in a set amount of time. Our leader is Aki Ross (voiced by Ming-Na, who I also believe did the voice for Disney’s MULAN), who seems to possess the best parts of the military and scientific worlds. Aki has been infected by alien particles, which will soon take over her body and kill her (there’s your time limit). But with each new collected spirit she gets a little more strength back (kind of like extra life in a video game). Her mentor is Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland), the only old guy in the whole movie. Other members of the team include Alec Baldwin as Grey, Aki ex-boyfriend and Ben Affleck look-alike (for those keeping score, this is the summer’s third military role for Baldwin after PEARL HARBOR and CATS & DOGS); Steve Buscemi as the wisecracking Neil; Ving Rhames as Ryan; and Peri Gilpin as Jane Proudfoot. The human villain is General Hein (James Woods).

Aki and Co. figure out that the aliens aren’t quite as evil as they thought and they set out to “heal” the phantoms instead of shooting the hell out of them. The touchy-feelie stuff gets a little much by the time we get to the end of the movie. By the time Aki says “The phantoms aren’t evil; they’re just hurt and confused,” I wanted to say, “Okay, but they’ve killed millions of people; maybe they ned to die anyway.” I swear I’d gotten to the point where I was seriously rooting for James Woods to blow up some alien butt and most of our heroes.

I’ll give the film credit where it’s due. I liked that no character’s life was necessarily sacred. Due to the energy-like nature of the phantoms and the way they killed people, there’s almost no blood in the movie, but that doesn’t stop the human and alien deaths from being cool. There are some remarkable dream sequences from Aki’s mind that are breathtaking, and the phantoms themselves are just plain cool. But as with most films that introduce a technological advance, FINAL FANTASY sticks the most basic of story and character development. There’s isn’t a single line of dialogue here that you haven’t heard in 100 other sci-fi movies, and nearly every opportunity to learn anything about these characters is wasted. Still, Aki has more more emotional depth that Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft could dream of. By the end of the film, the story nearly drowns in its own half-witted spirituality, and the ending is simply a major let down. Technically, I was impressed beyond words, but that’s only half the game people.

Capone (Email Me Here!!!)

And see my collected reviews at Buffalospeedway.net; just click on Steve@theMovies