Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Directed by: Hironobu Sakaguchi

Starring: Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames

Remember this movie? The movie that flopped so badly Square had to be bought by Sony just to keep it from going bankrupt? This was actually an okay movie. The plot was stupid, sure, but who has ever played a Final Fantasy game for it’s plot? They’re all about kids becoming bionic warriors and saving the earth spirit from guys in trenchcoats with elaborate haircuts. Pretty much the same as this movie.

The Spirits Within takes place in a future where Earth is plagued by “phantoms,” an alien race that crashed on the planet on a huge asteroid and can kill with a touch. They don’t seem to ever really die, no matter how many times you kill them, so the army has developed a giant space laser that they want to use to destroy the meteor and home base for the things. Dr. Aki Ross (Ming-Na) and Dr. Cid (Donald Sutherland) believe they can defeat the phantoms by creating an energy pattern that is the exact opposite of the phantoms’ energy pattern, so when you put them together, they cancel each other out. They do this by collecting specimens of plants and animals across the world, because every living thing has a spirit energy to it.

The main antagonist in the story isn’t really even a bad guy, he’s just kinda dumb and really wants to blow shit up. However, he does have a trenchcoat and he’s voiced by James Woods, so that pretty much makes him have to be the bad guy. The doctors are helped out by a squad of army folks (Baldwin, Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin) and at the end everybody dies. And the world is saved or something. Whatever, everybody dies.

There’s a pretty good cast in this movie, and a lot of names to go with it, and the animation is very well done, especially for 2001. So why was this movie such a bitter failure? Sure, the plot was stupid as hell, but let me put forth my own theory: It’s all because of the name. Yep, I contend that if this movie hadn’t had the Final Fantasy at the beginning of it, it would’ve been seen by a lot more people, and probably had better reviews. I’m not saying it would’ve made it GREAT or anything, but it wouldn’t have been a failure. Here’s my reasoning.

When you take a big name in the videogame world like Final Fantasy and say you’re going to make a movie out of it, you get a lot of people excited. All the nerds who love the games can’t wait to see their favorite characters on the big screen. Of course, The Spirits Within had little to nothing to do with the games, which disappointed all the nerds. On the other side, your normal Joe sees that a movie is coming out named Final Fantasy, and since he knows nothing of the games, he figures it’s not for him and so he just doesn’t see it in the first place. Add to that the (rightfully earned) stigma associated with movies based on video games, by naming a movie after a game and not actually making it’s content anything to do with that game, you manage to alienate both your fanbase and everyone else. Oh, and critics love frying video game movies. Most of them have some sort of old man grudge about how video games don’t belong in their movies. Based on the evidence, I’d have to agree, but that’s beside the point. Just because of those two little words, Square completely screwed themselves over. At least, that’s my theory.

All this fun backseat filmmaking is great and all, but it’s about time for me to go to work so I gotta wrap up shop. The biggest reason to see this movie is for the visuals, which are well done. However, if you compare them to the newest stuff Pixar’s putting out, which by the way have great stories to go along with their breathtaking visuals, it falls incredibly flat. For now, The Spirits Within lays as a warning marker for all those game companies that want to break into movies to come. I really, REALLY hope that Citizen Siege pays attention to this movie, because I don’t want Oddworld to go bankrupt.