Final Fantasy (2001)

Final Fantasy has been given much scrutiny by the 'Net movie fans since its inception, mostly because of its revolutionary CGI animation. As soon as the project was announced, sci-fi and animation fanboys alike jumped all over it, hoping that it would become their war cry to usher in the next millennium of film making. To those people I say, "It's just a movie. See if it entertains you." The reason I must make this proclamation is because this is the kind of movie, similar to "Episode One" in some respects, where the 'Net critics almost WANT it to be of poor quality so that they can complain about it. Why they eagerly desire to complain, I will never know. Unfortunately, they seem to enjoy complaining, and as I've learned over the years, the more I listen to them, the more they ruin the movie experience for me.

Final Fantasy offered me something I've never experienced before…the opportunity to watch a heavily Internet-scrutinized movie on opening day at the earliest time available with a bunch of sci-fi 'Net movie fanboys. What an interesting experience THAT was, let me tell you. We started it off by seeing a preview of Spider-Man, (a trailer that, in my opinion, was perfect in every way a trailer is supposed to be) in which the movie-holics whooped and hollered at the realization of what they were watching. Then, when the movie finally started, as seems to be typical these days, the image was off-center on the screen, thus causing outrage in the theatre, and likely also in small villages in the Netherlands, by the ruckus that the avid film-seekers were making. Loud cries of "Refund!" and "My Final Fantasy experience is ruined!" echoed throughout, even though the film was repaired in a matter of two minutes and all they had missed were the opening credits. Sigh…

And finally, we were underway. I must point out that I had to view this movie, much like Titan A.E., on two separate levels, largely because of the Internet having altered my movie-going experience. The first level is of course the CGI animation. The second is obviously the actual story being told.

1) The Animation - Quite simply, it is the best we've ever seen and I was amazed beyond amazement. To even consider where animation has come from, from the old days of Walt Disney and stop-motion animation, the portrait and landscape presented in Final Fantasy is unrivaled. I found myself on multiple occasions having to actually stop watching what was going on in terms of the story and simply marvel at the technology I was viewing. The backdrop and landscape was, as far as I could tell, flawless. At not point in time did I cease to believe that what I was looking at was not reality. Then, watching the characters interact with that landscape was amazing to behold. The aliens were creepy and scary, a marvelous combination of Aliens and The Abyss.

Of course the real issue, as it always is in animation, was the characters. The movie essentially revolves around four characters: Aki, Captain Grey, Dr. Sid, and General Hein. I watched each of them closely, looking to detect flaws in their construction. What I came to conclude was that the animators succeeded in one area and failed in another. The area that they wildly succeeded was in character movement. The one illusive component to watching animated humans move has been in their balance and walking cycle. Constructing a walking or running gate that is consistent with peoples' centers of balance was never really scored a success until this picture. I could tell right away that the animators had studied human movement extensively and captured this component in a way that previous films have not. The area that they failed was, once again, in human facial expression. In this point I draw evidence from plastic-surgery-patient-extraordinaire Denise Richards. The reason she seems so sub-human is because her face never moves. Whether she is happy, sad, upset, or pissed off, the same expression always prevails. Likewise, the expressions on our characters' faces are lifeless, other than lip and eye movement. After studying them, I believe that the missing component lies in the area around the cheekbones and lips. I never realized how much information we convey through subtle movements in these facial regions until I saw otherwise flawless animated humans who were lacking them. Even in CGI animated triumph, this one flaw still makes itself known.

2) The Story- All the greatest animation in the world will not help a doomed story. Final Fantasy already has one strike against it, since it is theoretically based on a video game. However, by all accounts the game and movie are similar in name only, so I will not condemn it thusly on such merit. The real question is after we take away all the cool animation and graphics and what not, do we have an interesting and logically connected story? The success here is mixed. I am not a sci-fi purist, so I do not hold the genre in as high regard or scrutiny as others. I just don't want gaping holes in logic that make my brain hurt from the sheer stupidity of it all (Hello, Supernova). In retrospect I can find many problems with the overall story. The dialogue was often contrived. Actions were sometimes laughable. Logic in plot was questionable at times.

That said, I found nothing stabbing me in the face as truly bad. If I compare it to recent sci-fi such as Titan A.E. and Mission to Mars, I see nothing that is neither better nor worse when it comes to the integrity of the plot. Truthfully, any sci-fi film, looked at closely enough, is going to crumple in our inquisitive little hands. That is why things like discussing the need for subcontractors to rebuild the Death Star are so funny; pure logic and internal consistency will never prevail in any sci-fi film. So, held up against its peers, Final Fantasy does quite nicely.

Once again, I feel like my increased inquisitiveness of the movie making profession and Internet access to the inside scoop has been a mixed blessing. On the one hand I have greater appreciation for what has been accomplished, but now it must be inseparably linked to what is often harsh judgment and criticism of the movie. All I can say is that Final Fantasy is truly revolutionary and, criticisms aside, it's a pretty good movie. I enjoyed the experience and I think many more will too. Just don't let preconceived notions about what animation is supposed to be ruin the fun.

- Dogburt