Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

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Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

PG-13

2001

1h 46m

Fantasy

Adventure

Sci-Fi

Animation

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

44%

Tomatometer

144 Reviews

48%

Popcornmeter

100,000+ Ratings

Blurring the lines between reality and computer animation, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is the first feature-length motion picture that brings vivid photoRealism to computer-generated, human characters. The thrilling, futuristic action-adventure pits the earth and its people against the ultimate enemy - mysterious aliens that steal the energy from all living things on the planet.

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Critics Consensus

The movie raises the bar for computer animated movies, but the story is dull and emotionally removed.

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Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

First computer animated movie to "star" actors.

Rated: 2/5

Dec 24, 2010

Full Review

Lisa Alspector

Chicago Reader

I never stopped marveling at the thousands of individually delineated pores and hair strands of the heroine, but the thin story covering her acquisition of one wave after another while narrowly escaping death time and again is strictly for player one.

Apr 12, 2010

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Todd McCarthy

Variety

This bigscreen adaptation of the long-popular interactive computer game is visually impressive if not dramatically cool, and is marked by "acting" that is no worse than that found in the majority of sci-fi films.

Sep 9, 2008

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Michael D. Reid

Victoria Times Colonist (B.C., Canada)

A strangely exhilarating and mesmerizing experience as it breaks new ground in the never-ending technological revolution.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 30, 2024

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Dan DiNicola

The Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY)

The storytelling here is inane, but the first major release to highlight a complete cast of computer-generated characters is a breakthrough of ominous proportions.

Rated: C

Apr 30, 2024

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Tony Black

Cultural Conversation

A thuddingly joyless experience that feels twice as long, with a leaden pace, an awful script & phoned in performances.

Rated: 2/5

Feb 16, 2021

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Rachel W

This film was harmed by a massive budget, a terrible release schedual, and a bias against CGI films. In reality it was a breakthough film that pushed the boundries of what was possible in 2000, it had a good story, a ton of heart and emotion, and really felt tied to the Final Fantasy franchise. It may get panned by critics and people who didn't see it in 2000 when it was the pinicle of CGI. But honestly the failure wasn't the film but the complicated studio agreements and terrible marketing and distrubution. It was the film that nearly killed Square Soft and force them to merge with Enix, which was for the best IMO. But it wasn't the films fualt but the US film studios. If you like Final Fantasy, and can enjoy early 2ks CGI it's like watching a great Final Fantasy game play out as a film. I would love for Square-Enix to revisit this setting, or story one day.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/22/25

Full Review

Korra N

Although fairly confusing and jumbled, The Spirits Within is nonetheless an epic, gorgeous and rousing sci-fi story with to-this-day phenomenal CGI and voice performances.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

08/30/25

Full Review

Deepest Bluest Suede Darius Dick Stinger Apini Emanuel Grouch Nukem III AKA The Rumble AKA Jennyanyany McPoopface Bridgerton AKA The Count of Monte Fisto

Like a video game but if you took the game out of it, which makes it just that much more obvious as to how awful the story/acting is.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

04/12/25

Full Review

Benjamin F

This movie is pretty see through, chasing alien ghost things that make no sense, and then to totally ruin it, after the they spent all that cash on that peice of crap movie it ends in love, the most stupidest ending of all movies, when the people that wrote it didn't even know what the end is, love it just ruins good movies

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/16/25

Full Review

Liam D

It has great animation but the writing and especially the voice acting are on auto pilot

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

08/22/24

Full Review

Alex M

The problem this movie had was it had "Final Fantasy" in the name, and that came with a lot of expectations from fans of a certain game franchise, of which this had nothing to do with. When you subtract that one thing out, what you are left with is a very good science fiction movie, expertly crafted for it's year, and engaging in it's story too.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

06/18/24

Full Review

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Hironobu Sakaguchi

Director

Ming-Na Wen

Doctor Aki Ross

Alec Baldwin

Captain Gray Edwards

Ving Rhames

Ryan

Steve Buscemi

Neil

Peri Gilpin

Jane

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - The Mega Phantom

2:57

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - We're Surrounded

3:22

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Synopsis

Blurring the lines between reality and computer animation, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is the first feature-length motion picture that brings vivid photoRealism to computer-generated, human characters. The thrilling, futuristic action-adventure pits the earth and its people against the ultimate enemy - mysterious aliens that steal the energy from all living things on the planet.

Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Producer: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Jun Aida, Chris Lee
Screenwriter: Al Reinert, Jeff Vintar, Hironobu Sakaguchi
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Square Company, Chris Lee Productions
Rating: PG-13 (Sci-Fi Violence|Sci-Fi Action)
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Animation
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 11, 2001, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 9, 2010
Box Office (Gross USA): $32.1M
Runtime: 1h 46m
Sound Mix: Dolby SR, DTS, Dolby Stereo, Surround, SDDS, Dolby A, Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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