Viking Night - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
By Bruce Hall
January 21, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Someone actually said yes to this, and even assembled some rather notable voice talent. It was a huge project, spearheaded by the franchise creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi. No expense was spared, and no technical stone was left unturned during the production of Final Fantasy, except for one. Despite the controversial limitations of CGI at the time, this movie is an absolutely mind blowing sensory experience - in every way except the one that’s most important. Forget what you’ve heard about the dead-eyed doll faces, because it’s really not (entirely) true. In my opinion there’s one simple reason Final Fantasy was received - over all - about as well as a dirty diaper full of sauerkraut.
The story sucks. I mean it’s bad. Really bad. But before I get to the suck, let me tell you what I DID like.
It’s 2065, and the earth has been conquered by alien life forms called Phantoms, who can…eat our souls…or something…when they touch us. The point is, they can kill us a lot easier and faster than we can kill them, so soon after they show up, it’s pretty much game over. Humans retreat to giant, domed habitats while the phantoms float around the rest of the planet, doing whatever it is phantoms do when they’re not killing humans. Luckily there is a plan B. Two of them, actually. The conventional route is covered by the openly diabolical General Hein (James Woods), who is trying to convince what’s left of the world government to let him use a Big Ass Space Cannon to destroy what he believes to be the source of the Phantoms’ power.
The not-so-conventional route is represented by a scientist named Aki Ross (Ming-Na) and her mentor-slash-father-figure Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland). Aki and Sid believe that they have a way to defeat the Phantoms, and it involves collecting eight “spirits” from around the world, and combining them into one much bigger spirit, and then…well, I’m still a little fuzzy on that. So is the Council apparently, because they’re split on what to do. Personally, I think there’s no reason to HAVE a Big Ass Space Cannon if you’re not going to use it at a time like this. But Aki and Sid suggest that the planet itself has a spirit, called “Gaia”, and the B.A.S.C. would do Mother Earth more harm than good.
Needless to say, everyone is skeptical. But apparently Dr. Sid is the Dr. Phil of his time, so no matter what he says, he’ll always have a job. So after a series of beautifully rendered but emotionally inert events, Aki joins forces with an old flame called Gray Edwards (Alec Baldwin) and his plucky, conspicuously multi-racial squad of elite Space Marines. But while they’re out in the field looking for “spirits”, the General manages to dig up enough dirt on Aki to force the council’s hand and take matters into his own sinister, black-leather-gloved hands.
Now, that should be all we need for a great movie. You’ve got an alien invasion, and to fight it off you have a strong and competent, totally non-sexualized female lead. You’ve got Alec Baldwin leading a plucky, conspicuously multi-racial squad of elite Space Marines. James Woods is playing one of those cool villains who dresses like someone who eats kittens for breakfast, but he also has surprisingly legitimate point of view. And ladies, allow me to reiterate the Big Ass Space Cannon, along with Alec Baldwin’s buttery smooth voice. It must be so cool to be him.
All you need now is the requisite action beats – two reluctant heroes join forces with a fatherly scientist to fight aliens. A sympathetic villain tries to murder everyone while Space Marines open fire on anything that’s not human. Throw in a little betrayal, a big turning point, someone dies, there’s a climactic battle, planets explode, and if time permits, maybe there’s even a little computer generated people-making-out action in there, too. In fact, every one of those things is in Final Fantasy. But two things all but ruin the film anyway, at least from a narrative standpoint. One is the clunky, dispassionate way the story unfolds. The other is the culturally tone deaf nature of the subject matter. And unfortunately, both issues feed into each other.
Plenty of cultures believe that the earth itself has a “spirit” of some kind, and that’s okay. The problem is that this movie was specifically made for and marketed to an American audience. But the central concept here - that we’re killing the spirit of the earth - is something about as accessible to Americans as pickled squid. And the film’s attempt to break through that barrier absolutely crushes the pacing of the story, making it confusing AND frustrating. That’s two annoying fatal flaws at once - in the most negative way possible, this is a brutally efficient movie. I think an opportunity was missed, because the general setting of the story (a near-future post-apocalyptic alien invasion space marine explosion salad) is an excellent place to start. And the look of the movie – holy God, 13 years later, it still looks absolutely astonishing.
Put an asterisk by that, though. The biggest criticism of Final Fantasy’s motion capture animation has been the supposed lack of facial expression, which most people find unsettling. I can’t say there are no dead-eyed doll faces to be found but for the most part, it’s not quite “Polar Express” weird. Still, Final Fantasy looked and felt so realistic I occasionally forgot that it wasn’t - until someone’s face went dead. It’s as though the technology that makes CGI people emote only works about 60 percent of the time. Right in the middle of a conversation, characters’ facial expressions and physical mannerisms realistically respond to conversational nuance, and everything looks utterly convincing. And then Lieutenant Blankface walks in and makes it weird.
This I can forgive though, because what ultimately breaks this movie is a cornball story executed with dull, workmanlike precision. If only Final Fantasy were as dazzling on the inside as it is on the outside. If only the story were as engaging and accessible as the visuals. If only the movie left you wanting more, instead of wondering what the hell the point was. All the dead-eyed doll faces in the world couldn’t keep me away from a movie like that.