2001 was a breakthrough year for the motion picture industry; this was due to an easily overlooked and arguably misunderstood movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
Arguably ahead of its time and unparalleled in its flawless beauty and depth of detail, Final Fantasy produced a sensational and deceptively realistic appearance. To the credit of its engineering and painstaking artistry, once you are able to pick your jaw up from the floor, you can settle into the relatively entertaining storyline itself. As you would expect from the imagination of the makers behind the cult games of the same title (Square), there are quite a few twists to this story, which allows the viewer to share empathy with both heroes and villains alike.
From the mysterious dream sequence opening and dream recording technology (which, despite being fantasy, is not entirely beyond belief), you swiftly start asking the question of who this heroine is and what it is we're seeing through her eyes? However, it also brings to mind the equally important question; do we care?
The atmospheric scenes where the main character, Doctor Aki Ross (voiced by Ming-Na) explores the haunting and post apocalyptic streets of Old New York City armed with little more than a flare gun, torch with eyepiece (worthy of the band Orbital) and a bizarre holographic compass are reminiscent of many current computer games (e.g. Gears of War). Even now, the first glows of the alien looking 'phantoms' as they become visible in the flares illumination still send tingles of fear down the spine. Thankfully, these semi-transparent beasts, which seem attracted to Dr Aki, are swiftly dispatched by the specialist team headed by Captain Gray Edwards (voiced by Alec Baldwin) in a typical, if not Hollywood style of 'shoot first, ask questions later'. It soon becomes apparent there's a bit of a thing between the good Doctor and Captain - needless to say there's a 'will they won't they' tension created and no, I won't spoil it for you!
At the time I first watched this film in the cinema, I couldn't help but see the similarities between these 'blue eye' suits and the ones used in Warhammer gaming. Unfortunately, this distracted me at the time from exactly what these 'spirits' are that they keep talking about and jeopardising their lives for. I understand that there has to be bit of heroism mixed in with a good dose of stupidity and a dash of humour combined with a touch of love and a mad, mad, mad bad guy (and none quite do this any better than James Woods who plays the nasty General Hein), but it all just seems a bit formulaic and fortunate how easy it is to find these 'spirits' all of a sudden!
Comments
