Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Today on Movie Russian Roulette, Alex watches the one of biggest modern examples of cinematic hubris crash and burn.

rip Square Pictures

Overview: The year is 2065. Semi-corporeal aliens called "Phantoms" have been invading Earth for 34 years, and most of the planet lies barren and lifeless. Humanity survives in shielded cities, made possible through the brilliance of Dr. Sid.

Dr. Sid's (assistant? daughter? pupil?) Dr. Aki Ross works with Dr. Sid on his research to find an energy wave that can wipe out the Phantoms once and for all. This involves heading out of the safe areas of the cities to search out plant and animal life, which are special for reasons that are never really explained. She's supported in her mission by the heroic Captain Edwards and his squad. Meanwhile, Captain Edwards' superiors plot to discredit Dr. Sid and use a giant space laser cannon to kill all the aliens, collateral damage be damned.


Notable moments/quotes: Neil, Edwards' mechanic and pilot, to female squadmate: "Looks like you've gained some weight."
G.I. Jane: "It's called upper body strength, Neil. Get a girlfriend."
Neil, with a creepy stare made worse by the uncanny valley: "I'm working on it."

After a mission, the Captain gets infected by the Phantoms. Aki rushes to operate... with a LASER that fires through the Captain's body to destroy the alien infection. Say what you will about this movie, but it has some metal moments.

Life is Strange, no, stahp

Dr. Sid, as he burns a great deal of his research notes: "Remember what happened to Gallileo? They threw him in jail for saying the Earth wasn't the center of the universe. That could happen to us."

Our protagonist, trying to seem edgy: "Doctor, there's a war going on. No one's young anymore."

"Particularly not me with my dead, dead eyes."

Aki, to Capt. Edwards as they're stuck in an elevator: "I don't know how much time I have left."
The Cap'n, softly: "Who does?" They lean in for a kiss, and then the elevator cockblocks him by starting up again, jolting them out of the moment.

Eventually, Edwards is tasked to spy on Aki and detain her if it appears she's being manipulated into working for the enemy. After he leaves from receiving this assignment, the evil General Hein assigns some other men to watch the Captain as though Edwards' reluctance was expected.

"Fuck efficiency. I just want to mess with people."

Sid, before he operates on a deteriorating Aki: "Aki needs a sympathetic spirit to hold her in this world, and I can think of none better than yours, Captain."
Captain Generic: "I don't understand."
"You don't have to."
Edwards lies down next to Aki on the operating table, and then enters her dreams for reasons that are never really explained.

General Hein enacts a plot to sabotage New York's shield to spur the civilian leaders into giving him the keys to the death ray. As his underlings look uneasy about leaving civilians to die, the general offers this calming reassurance: "Relax, Major. When this night's over, you're going to be a hero!"

Intercom, on repeat as NYC gets invaded: "Proceed to the nearest evacuation facility."
Neil: "I think we should proceed to the nearest evacuation facility."

Neil, to a wounded comrade: "Talk to me, Sarge!"
Sarge: "Ouch."

Captain Edwards, before sacrificing himself to saaave the worllllld: "You've been trying to tell me death isn't the end. Don't back out on me now."

My thoughts: I actually hesitated doing a Movie Russian Roulette on this movie. Sure, it barely made back 60% of its 137 million dollar budget worldwide, but there are a lot of things to like about this movie. Although the characters can occasionally look a little derpy, the background work is fantastic, and working entirely in CGI means that it doesn't stick out as ill-fitting the way it might when used for effects in realistic footage.

Seriously, unlike Foodfight! you can SEE where the budget went

The aliens also look appropriately otherworldly and monstrous, and in general the movie is actually kind of beautiful visually. The action scenes take full advantage of this, but the characters aren't doing ridiculous, Dragon Ball Z-esque fighting moves; instead, they move naturally, enhancing a sense of immersion in the film's world and its characters. Backing up that immersion is the all-star celebrity voice cast Square assembled for this movie. Seriously, you've got Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Steve Buscemi... the list goes on. Unfortunately, a few of the less experience cast stand out for subpar performances next to this much star power, but mostly all is well.

So why is this movie on the blog, you might well ask?

Well, this movie just set itself up for failure. First of all, the budget was truly astronomical, and the box office return, while superb, was nowhere near what they needed. From what I understand, Square was hoping to reuse some of the characters and assets, particularly Aki, from this movie in later films. This concept of a "digital actor" had a little bit of a following among creators around this time, most notably in the D series of video games, so this wasn't unheard of. Presumably later films would have been cheaper to produce if they could repurpose old assets, but this film pretty much destroyed Square's film division.

Second, the critical reaction was devastating. As a young lad around this time, I was a fan of the Final Fantasy video games, and so when I heard a Final Fantasy movie was coming out, I had to see it. However, when I did finally see it, I was disappointed because my expectations were set very high by the Final Fantasy name, and from what I've heard, this was a common reaction. Now, to enlighten those who didn't waste years on RPGs, this movie has almost nothing to do with the video games. While it's true that most people think of fantasy settings and magic when it comes to Final Fantasy, the series has branched into a slightly more futuristic or sci-fi setting before, most notably in the series' seventh, eighth, and thirteenth installments in the main series, so this film being sci-fi wouldn't have been too unusual then (as we were only on #9 at the time). So, upon release, you had film critics blasting the movie for being unapproachable to those unfamiliar with the video games, and gamers tearing it apart for being Final Fantasy in name only. They just couldn't win.

Third, the story is dumb. At this time, Square was used to video game storytelling (in a genre that generally focuses on story above all else), but film is very, very different. In video games, you can have a story unfold over 40+ hours. In a movie, not so much, and I could plainly see sections where the story struggles to get its footing in the 106 minutes it has. In particular, the movie makes mention of the Earth having a "spirit" called Gaia,

No, Captain Planet, go home

but this spirit's involvement or status is never really clear. The movie shows it exists, but waffles on if this being is a deity, a representation of the planet's health, or some kind of afterlife plane... thing. There is also a Gaia for the aliens that shows up for like two minutes and gets no explanation at all. The whole story element feels disjointed and confused, like the filmmakers were scrambling to include something "deeper" than "girl scientist defeats aliens through pacifism" at the last possible minute.

"Aw, forget about that, look at the pretty colors!"

However, ultimately, this movie is not bad, but in my opinion comes in at just slightly above average. Unfortunately, that was enough to doom it and its movie studio before they could learn their lessons from this to make another, better animated film. I think that's a damn shame, because there's promise here, but like so many of the films I watch to rant at y'all about, it tries to do something new but doesn't quite succeed at doing it well.

I give this movie a Nicolas Cage Delivers a Rousing Toast out of five. Give me suggestions for movies to watch on Facebook and help me keep my ramen supply alive on Patreon.

And if you're already giving on Patreon, thank you. I don't say that nearly enough. You've all been great at both giving me a little boost through this unemployment hellscape and fending off depression by continuing to motivate me to work on the blog rather than sitting around staring at the ceiling, wondering where everything went wrong.