| . |
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
(Reviewed June 28, 2001, by James Dawson)
-
Absolutely amazing computer animation makes up for some incomprehensible plot elements and slow pacing in this surprisingly dark and adult SF tale. Earth has been overrun with genuinely creepy aliens known as "Phantoms," which the military and a team of research scientists are trying to vanquish using diametrically opposed methods. The military wants to keep blasting and bombing, which has not worked so far. The research team is on a loopy new-age quest to tap into the spirit of the Earth itself for protection by going on a bio scavenger hunt. It doesn't make much sense, but there's so much terrific stuff to see that you won't care.
For example, the head researcher's field agent is a stunningly beautiful brunette-Bridget-Fonda lookalike named Aki. You won't be able to take your eyes off of her. Although the animation techniques that bring her and the movie's other "human" characters to life are not yet perfect, it's still fascinating to see how good the technology really is. Aki's hair is composed of individual strands. The cloth of her form-fitting jumpsuit has realistic texture. She has a fantastic body, but it's a fantastic body of believably realistic proportions. (For example, she has soft-looking B-cup breasts, instead of Lara Croft's bizarre, medicine-ball-sized Double-D's. And Lara wasn't even animated!).
The action scenes of ethereal aliens attacking and killing are the stuff of nightmares. (This definitely is NOT a movie for small kids, unless you want them to wet the bed for weeks to come.) There may be a lot of silly story elements, but the movie's tone is dead serious throughout; none of the (many) deaths are played for laughs, and some of them are almost moving.
All in all, a really admirable effort because, even with the dull patches, it's one heck of a lot better than I expected it would be--and lots better than it had to be. And compared to something like last year's perfectly dreadful "Titan A.E.," which was "Final Fantasy"'s most recent predecessor in the animated-SF category, it's a friggin' masterpiece.
Back Row Grade: B-
(Return to index by closing this window)
|
. |