Even though it is hard to tell exactly what the hell is going on in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the fact that things look amazing whilst doing it is indisputable.In short the Earth was taken over 34 years ago and the remaining human population has holed up ever since in increasingly small pockets. The outside is a barren lifeless wasteland where the phantoms reside, creatures that are translucent glowing things of varying sizes that can pass through solid matter. Touching them brings infection, should they pass through a body they effectively rip the very life out of the inhabitant – this is a game of tag where you don't want to be 'it'.Dr Aki Ross and her mentor Dr Sid (Donald Sutherland) have a theory, they think that the phantoms are actually haunting/attacking the Gaia – the spirit of the Earth. Unfortunately the army lead by General Hein (James Woods) have other plans, they have a giant cannon pointed right at the heart of the Gaia ready to blow away the phantom menace (tee-hee). Team Science thinks this will destroy the very spirit of the planet.Which is bad.So Aki Ross and a team of soldiers including her ex Gray (Alec Baldwin) head into the barren wasteland looking for the last few of the 8 spirits that can heal the planet – a plant is one, Aki herself is another – as Aki is a spirit as an unwelcome by-product she is phantom-bait, meaning that she and her escorts are rarely safe for long in the open.As must happen the hothead army guy ignores Team Science logic and in a rush to move things along unleashes all hell. The team are inadvertently stuck in the middle of a huge rush to escape with the spirits encroaching ominously and the clock ticking down on the giant cannon being fired.The ending is fairly hippy-ish, as is the underlying message that we must be good to Mother Earth (Note: I didn't say it wasn't an accurate or false message, just the way it was related here was hippy-ish and a little heavy-handed.) Final Fantasy boasts an all star-voice cast including all the above plus Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames and Keith David. The visuals are often incredibly well-rendered, it's hard to believe this was made 10 years ago.Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is like a Brazilian supermodel with no command of the English language, whilst it looks absolutely amazing once the dialogue starts it is easy to get a little confused at times, but for the most part you still don't mind.Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. Come for the visuals, stay for the… well more visuals really.

*Spoiler/plot- 2001, The year is 2065 AD. Uncontrollable alien spirits have invaded Earth. These aliens are killing humans and controlling large areas of the planet. The last of the human race is in a doomed protective city. The Earth's military are trying to fight the invaders. Lead by a strange dream and guided by her brilliant mentor Dr Sid, scientist Aki Ross struggles to collect eight spirits with the hope of creating a force powerful enough to protect the planet. A secret scientist group has found the spiritual answer to stopping and understanding the aliens, their alien origins, and their power to keeping the Earth surviving intact. Aki must save Earth from its darkest hate and unleash the beneficial spirits within.*Special Stars- featuring the voices of Alex Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi. Director- Hironobu Sakaguki *Theme- Nature and spirit are twin forces for good, always. Humans only upset the natural balance in their ignorance.*Based on- Several previous 'Final Fantasy' film plots and Video Game genre. The film has obvious Eastern and Green religious and political themes.*Trivia/location/goofs- Last recent release from a notable series of feature science fiction films. Animated CGI film.*Emotion- While the animation in production values of this film are viewable and good, the plot is too simplistic and clichéd. The few dramatic plot instances have been better explored by other western live-action and bigger budget films writers. The voice actors dialog is disappointing and so predictable. It's full of trite western clichés and boring. IMHO: Also the basic principle of not using live action performers on camera in such narrative film is flawed. Only using their voices to get ticket sales and not allowing the whole performer to be seen and enjoyed on camera is only using half of the actor's innate art or talents. This film suffers greatly.

Okay, at first I thought that it was going to be a pretty bad film, since it is based on a video game (And I hate video games) but then I read that this movie didn't had anything in common with the video game franchise in which this was supposedly inspired.Anyway, this was very good film, not only because it had a incredibly animation (Not like the boring and bland CGI crap that you see in most of the animated flicks released every year) but also, because it had a very interesting plot, combining science fiction with mysticism...And also, it had lots of aliens, all of them with an unique and fascinating look.This movie had many beautiful sequences, I liked specially the "dream" scenes, that take place in one alien planet. Also, I liked how it was deconstructed the whole concept of "alien invaders" that appeared in so many films... Apparently, one of the animators from the great movie "Avatar", Andy Jones, worked in this film too, so no wonder why the animation was so good.It is true that not even the best animation could replace the emotion of real actors, but despite that, I still believe that this movie is a great achievement for the cartoon world. Hey, at least it is much better than the overrated kiddie crap that came every single year. And considering that it was inspired in a video game, it could have been very much worse: This could have been anime.

To start off, I'd like to give a brief summary of the history of cgi. 2-D raster graphics in Westworld, wire frame graphics in Star Wars, the light cycle sequence in Tron, the stained glass knight in Young Sherlock Holmes, the first CG liquid effects in The Abyss and T2, Jurassic Park, Titanic, and now Final Fantasy. It is unfortunate for the movie that this form of animation has been vastly improved since, as can be seen in Robert Zemekis' latest films, The Polar Express and Beowulf. Final Fantasy remains competent in CG, but an equally accomplished plot is needed to make it a competent sci-fi, and although there are a couple of nifty ideas, the screenplay does not stretch things out enough. As a result, Final Fantasy feels too small in both scale and running length to shock and awe. Perhaps it is the kind of thing that would work better in theaters, but that doesn't feel like a good excuse for mediocrity. The best filmaking can engage a viewer even if watched on an iPod screen.Set in the distant future, man lives in space and Earth is an abandoned wasteland (thats new... ha ha). We follow a young ambitious doctor in her journey to find the answer to a crisis. Man is at war with a race of strange alien spirits, 'phantoms'. Who are they and what do they want? In her quest she is joined by others including an old lover (sort of).I think I may have simplified the plot a bit, but this gives you a general idea of what to expect. If done well, the story of Final Fantasy could be adventurous, intelligent and perhaps even emotional, and it is not. Though there is plenty of action, a lot of it feels dull and intertwining these scenes is a large amount of silly dialog, in which the subject matter is too much of science and not enough story. Last time I saw that happen was in Battlefield Earth with John Travolta's lines. The ending feels anti-climactic and with a somewhat silly plot twist. Final Fantasy is not a terrible film but to recommend it is a stretch. Whether or not the animation will be enough to captivate you or not is hard to say. Whether or not you'll find the story weak and unengaging, or adventurous and inventive is also hard to say. What I can say is that there are far better entries in both sci-fi and animation, If you really want a good film, try the Ghost in the Shell, not this.