It would seem that computer animators have cleared the major hurdles in the way of creating wholly credible human characters and now are in the home stretch toward achieving it. In what will prove most threatening to flesh-and-blood actors, the virtual figures here are sufficiently real-looking to evoke virtually emotional (and virtually erotic) responses. Style is dubbed “hyperRealism” by its makers, a term that seems as good as any, since it very narrowly walks the line between photographic realism and ultra-vivid painterly detail backgrounds are close to the sort of lifelike representations of otherworldly settings that have graced the covers of sci-fi novels over the years. But this doesn’t matter much, since one is absorbed during the opening stretch simply beholding the physical look of this new artistic universe. In terms of narrative, which involves Aki and some friendly soldiers shooting at elusive light forms in the ruined streets of the city and later being scanned for contagion, initial action is fairly confusing. Aki Ross is introduced on an exploratory mission to Old New York City in 2065. A cool, composed, dark-haired beauty who resembles a blend of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Bridget Fonda, Dr. Film boasts enough action and incident to hold the attention over the relatively brisk running time, but it’s a calm, polite sort of attention, one without compelling involvement or resonance.Ĭuriously, then, for a film that’s both animated and a sci-fier, most of the interest stems from the appeal of its principal character. The phantoms - opaque, dragon-like creatures that appear, float about and vanish like ghosts - that represent the ostensible evil here aren’t particularly effective villains, so there is a fundamental lack of visceral engagement in the central conflict. On the other hand, all the highfalutin talk about wave theory, spirit signatures, dream visions and energy forces - much of it from the mouth of a resident bald sage - will more readily remind many viewers of “Star Trek,” which is both a good and a bad thing. In tone and attitude, “Final Fantasy” is much closer to the modern Japanese animated classic “Princess Mononoke,” which dealt with disruptions in the overarching harmoniousness of the natural world order, than to the kick-butt mindset one normally expects in the computer game arena. Al Reinert, who co-wrote the script with Jeff Vintar, was born in Japan and more than earned his space-travel stripes as producer-director of the docu “For All Mankind” and co-writer of “Apollo 13.”Īlthough it treads such familiar movie and sci-fi territory as a decimated planet Earth (New York City takes it on the chin again), aliens that can get up inside you and intense battles in which a few stalwart humans try to keep the savage hordes at bay, pic is marked by an Eastern, one-world spiritual and philosophical approach quite different from the gung-ho action mentality found in most Western futuristic epics. Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has controlled the game every step of the way and maintained a total grip on the film as well in his capacities as story writer, producer and director (co-director Motonori Sakakibara has worked with him as an animator and director since 1995). The “Final Fantasy” game first appeared in 1987 and reached a crescendo of popularity with the release of the eighth and ninth installments over the past two years.
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