The Spirits Within [The Spirits Within] So who else wants to pretend this film never existed?

Well, I can understand - as a FF - how it failed to appeal to the majority of fans out there. But, for me, I found it pretty decent. The story wasn't exactly related or connected to the other FFs in any way, but the CG was amazing and the characters were - while not exactly rounded - pretty likeable, nonetheless.
 
I actually didn't think it was THAT bad, if I can be honest. As CGI does, it got bad over time. But the storyline was pretty unique and the line of actors involved were amazing.

I actually really enjoyed all of the characters, too. So... when I hear people say this type of thing... I gotta jus' ask "why?" it's still better than a lot of movies out there. Twilight series... to name one.
 
Admittedly I've never seen the film before, but there shouldn't really be a reason to pretend that it never existed. I can't say I've heard reports that said the film was absolutely diabolical in any way, just that it was such a radical departure from the conventional sense of Final Fantasy that it was hardly recognisable anymore. I do think that if they knocked off the "Final Fantasy" part of the name may have been apt. It was a very bold move on Squaresoft's part, though unfortunately a bit of a bad one considering they made quite a large loss. Whether this was purely because this was the most un-Final Fantasy thing ever seen yet at the time or other reasons I'm not fully sure.
 
I can see why people dislike it, but I personally do not. True, it did not feel like Final Fantasy at all. The only parallel with FF franchise it had was the whole planet having a soul idea, equivalent to FF7's lifestream. But other than that it wasn't anything like the series. Still though, in my opinion as a movie it wasn't bad. Why?

The story was good enough. It had a solid sci-fi idea and it didn't reveal everything straight away, and hence some of the things the characters discover later do capture some interest from the audience.

The graphics were fantastic. I've read that a lot of budget went onto making those, and I have to congratulate the makers of the film on that. The characters look truly like the real people. Every little detail was captured.

The action was fun. Sure it was predictable and you knew who was going to die and when, but that does not stop the action scenes from being entertaining.
 
I kind of thought it was some poor excuse to use the same ideals of final fantasy VII minus cloud, and all the magic. And Tifa('s boobs). I was disappointed with it, but I don't say to forget about it. You're supposed to learn from your mistakes no? :)
 
I remember I saw it when I was home sick with the flu...I thought it was eh ok not great not bad the only real beef I had with it was the charecters looked to americanized,"animation" wise...I didnt care for that at all.Im not a fan of charecters looking like actual people its a nitpicky thing of mine I like my fantasy FANTASY..If they had have given her some blue hair I probably would have liked it more.
Otherwise I thought the story premise was...pleasent I just didnt like the "animation" of it all.
 
I liked this film, you have to watch is a couple times to get the actually story and all, but other than that I liked the fresh Characters and celebrity voices they got in there to play 'em.

I think the CGI was pretty damn amazing for its time as well, I still vaguely get the story line but thats cool, there are nice monster and kick ass actions scenes.
 
Hey guys sorry if I'm bringing up dead posts, they weren't in the graveyard so I thought let's bring it up.
ill be honest, even though I didn't like the movie that much. The graphics were nice and I ended up buying the Seiko Watch that was connected to this movie.

One very important point I missed in this topic is that this movie was both a disaster and one of the best things that happened to them at the same time.
why? Well though I don't really have the 100% info I know for a fact that Square ( not SE that wasn't until later ) spent a bunch of money on this film. So much even that when it failed it put them in a serious money problem. Square wanted to work together with Enix, but due to plummeting nr in stock partially if not mainly due to this movie. Enix wouldn't have anything with it. Whether Square sought Enix help because of bad nrs or that it was already planned, to begin with i don't know. I believe it's due to a small crises. Some months later Enix wasn't doing all too well either, it was at this point that Square made a massive comeback with some really good games which one was FF10 and Kingdom Hearts. At this point, Square confronted Enix again about a possible collaboration. Some MAGIX happened and down the road, we ended up with Square Enix.

Square was dissolved Enix would live on to be named Square Enix.

Square was good, but Imo SE is better. So the film contributed a lot to this indirectly. so when people ask me what I think of the movie. I tell the shorter version of this movie and tell them I'm glad they made it. who knows what would happen if it were never released.

Some of this info can be found in the link below as well. It's worth reading for the FF Fans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Enix
 
The graphics were nice and I ended up buying the Seiko Watch that was connected to this movie.
I wasn't actually aware of this tie-in. I suppose the Audi in Kingsglaive was nothing new then! That's cool that you bought the watch.

One very important point I missed in this topic is that this movie was both a disaster and one of the best things that happened to them at the same time.
why? Well though I don't really have the 100% info I know for a fact that Square ( not SE that wasn't until later ) spent a bunch of money on this film. So much even that when it failed it put them in a serious money problem. Square wanted to work together with Enix, but due to plummeting nr in stock partially if not mainly due to this movie. Enix wouldn't have anything with it. Whether Square sought Enix help because of bad nrs or that it was already planned, to begin with i don't know. I believe it's due to a small crises. Some months later Enix wasn't doing all too well either, it was at this point that Square made a massive comeback with some really good games which one was FF10 and Kingdom Hearts. At this point, Square confronted Enix again about a possible collaboration. Some MAGIX happened and down the road, we ended up with Square Enix.

Square was dissolved Enix would live on to be named Square Enix.

Square was good, but Imo SE is better. So the film contributed a lot to this indirectly. so when people ask me what I think of the movie. I tell the shorter version of this movie and tell them I'm glad they made it. who knows what would happen if it were never released.

Some of this info can be found in the link below as well. It's worth reading for the FF Fans.
I agree. The merger with Enix was a bit of a mixed bag. Although my personal favourite Final Fantasy games predate it (Final Fantasies IV-IX), the merger has mostly been pretty good. Square Enix rose like a phoenix! I am so grateful that Square didn't completely fold and stop producing Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy XIV, in particular, is phenomenal.

I do regret that some of the ambitions that Square had for Final Fantasy will never be realised, such as really building up what we might now call an 'expanded universe' for the franchise, with multiple films and such with the Square Pictures studio (which I believe still exists, but has shifted emphasis and changed its name- I'm not certain). Spirits Within was just the start. That said, Square Enix did continue along these lines with Advent Children and, more recently, Kingsglaive but I do sometimes wonder what else might have been achieved, particularly with the Hawaiian branch of Square (where Hironobu and at least some portion of the core team was based during the production of FFIX and Spirits Within and I believe Hironobu has now moved to Hawaii permanently). This alternate reality might not have been much different, or it could have been worse than what we ended up with, but I do wonder sometimes.

While we talk about Hironobu, he has a great sense of humour about the impact of Spirits Within on the company, even cameoing in a sketch with the joke that he wanted to stop working on Final Fantasy a long time ago but the games kept performing well, despite his best efforts... So Spirits Within was the get-out card he'd been waiting for. It's a fun watch!


A few of us on this forum recently watched Spirits Within together as part of our Discord 'Film Friends Forever' group and then wrote some reviews about the film. And with the film's contribution to the franchise's own interpretation of Gaia and the 'Gaia Hypothesis', I will certainly defend its value to the franchise. I certainly do not want to forget this film. It matters more than some people think it does.
 
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