So I agree with the general consensus that Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within should not have had the first part of its title (maybe instead something like "The Spirits Within - From the makers of Final Fantasy") but setting that aside, I actually found the film to be extremely good, and I think it has gotten better with age. As time has gone on, certain elements have been added to various FF games that resemble things seen in TSW, making it as a whole more relevant to the series than at its launch. The storyline wasn't perfect, but FF creators aren't used to packing a story into such a short time frame, and I think they did a decent job considering that fact. It's definitely a better storyline than Advent Children. The music was great, the graphics were great. More than a decade later they still occasionally wow me with their realism, and I read a while back about a test that was done which demonstrated that TSW models are still fairly complex to render on modern hardware. They didn't completely nail the photorealism, but even the worst looking things in the movie still look very good, and the best looking things in it will make you wipe your eyes and take a second glance before you are sure what you're looking at isn't real.
Plus, get this: back in the late 90s, someone makes a movie with killer graphics and it is the worst bomb in hollywood history. Back in the late 00s, someone makes a movie with killer graphics that mimics many aspects of TSW and it makes billions. Yes, I'm referring to Avatar. Seriously, take the two movies and compare them side by side. Numerous shots from Avatar and the overall pacing of the plot are identical to that of TSW, right down to the backdrop for the credits being a flyover of the 3D landscape. The villains in both films are even strikingly similar in their "do whatever it takes to get the job done" mentality that ends up being their own destruction.
If you ask me, TSW suffered from being too far ahead of its time, not from low production values. In a strange way, it really defined the 90s for me even though I didn't first see the movie until just a few years ago. I saw the trailers on the TV though, and remember feeling excited from them because it made me feel like I was living in the middle of a huge technological boom--and I was. And even now, the movie has a distinct 90s feel to it despite the up-to-date visuals.
So yeah...I actually liked The Spirits Within. Anyone else out there in the same boat?
Plus, get this: back in the late 90s, someone makes a movie with killer graphics and it is the worst bomb in hollywood history. Back in the late 00s, someone makes a movie with killer graphics that mimics many aspects of TSW and it makes billions. Yes, I'm referring to Avatar. Seriously, take the two movies and compare them side by side. Numerous shots from Avatar and the overall pacing of the plot are identical to that of TSW, right down to the backdrop for the credits being a flyover of the 3D landscape. The villains in both films are even strikingly similar in their "do whatever it takes to get the job done" mentality that ends up being their own destruction.
If you ask me, TSW suffered from being too far ahead of its time, not from low production values. In a strange way, it really defined the 90s for me even though I didn't first see the movie until just a few years ago. I saw the trailers on the TV though, and remember feeling excited from them because it made me feel like I was living in the middle of a huge technological boom--and I was. And even now, the movie has a distinct 90s feel to it despite the up-to-date visuals.
So yeah...I actually liked The Spirits Within. Anyone else out there in the same boat?