I would agree with that completely... in fact, outside of FF fandom, I've noticed that the people who have actually seen this film and AC, like this one a lot more, mainly due to the fact taht it has a coherent story, even for those with no knowledge of anything before it.

One of AC's flaws was that you had to know everything about FF7 before viewing it, and even then, the story telling took a back seat to the action.

That said, the action was amazing, but it still left most non-fanboys in a "WTF?" kinda haze come credits' role. Spirits Within didn't do that, and is often praised by non fans as a great film... and always superior to AC.

Regardless what your opinion, though, there is something that ahs to be said about voice acting... now I'm not exactly knocking on AC's English voice cast (I mean, Steven Blum is one of my favorite voice actors of all time, and he did a great job with Vincent), but anyone with a pair of ears should be able to see that SW had a far superior cast... not just recognizable (with Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods, Steve Buscemi, and Ming Na), but they just had more emotion in their voice... that lack of emotion, or rather misplaced emotion, in many of the scenes in AC detracted alot from that film, and when you are already wading in a pool of bad story-telling and deliberate fan service... a flawed dubbing simply drops the film a few more pegs.

Now, admittedly, I've kinda brought this down to a comparison with AC... but truth be told, what else is there to compare it to? You can't compare it to the games becasue its a defferent medium... and you can't really compare it with the anime titles... but AC is a full on film, and so is SW... thus comparisons are goign to happen... thus it is.

Anyway... yes... I will give you the fact taht AC had better action and SW could've benifitted from having a more hands on approach to the action, but at least SW's story didn't suffer from it... and its not like its non-existant.

Anyway... I think I'm getting lsot in a ramble... back to the point of why this film is Final Fantasy... well... becasue it is. It has simialr story elements... it has similar emotional elements... it has Cid, and it has the Lifestream... it is Final Fantasy... more so than its not.

Really just comes back down to the same thing... no swords and magic makes FF fanboys cringe... but try watching it again... like its a movie... unrelated to any other FF title... becasue thats what it is... and you'll likely enjoy it much more than you did before... becasue its not a bad movie... its jsut not quite what we fans think about when we think Final Fantasy... but its still good... and thats why I defend it.

Now... where was I? Oh yes... pie...

I simply think that they tried too hard, I hated the movie. Scenes and even dialogue were stolen from "Aliens". That still didn't stop me from watching it twice at the cinema and buying the dvd though (im such a fanboy). But really, with the best will in the world, it's dreadful.

Egh... to each their own, I suppose.
Everyone has their own opinions.

i really didnt understand this film at all it had nothing to do with final fantasy at all except for its name :S i dont know why but this film reminded me much more of the matrix than final fantasy

Power to the people! Yes I defend it too, often the criticism is unfounded.

The only Matrix similarity I could pick out of TSW was that Humans were a trapped minority fighting a seemingly superior enemy, but how many movies have that as a basic plot line?

I think it was a good movie, and it was worthy of the Final Fantasy name. As Takk said,

Many of the Final Fantasy games themselves had little to do with each other. Similar story elements, lifestream or something similar, similar emotional elements, Cid, swords and magic, and maybe similar creatures.
Spirits Within had many of the elements that make something Final Fantasy.
Don't be blinded by the ignorant fanboy/fangirl in you.