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Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Play trailer Poster for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within PG-13 Released Jul 11, 2001 1h 46m Fantasy Adventure Sci-Fi Animation Play Trailer Watchlist
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44% Tomatometer 145 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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Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

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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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Critics Reviews

View All (145) Critics Reviews
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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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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 James B i saw this film on hulu i had not seen it in a while. the plot has nothing to do with the games but the animation and voice acting is fantastic see this film for the visuals only. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 11/16/23 Full Review jason l Having recently played FF7 I was super excited to see this when it came out. Then I watched it. It is not FF. It is a decent sci-fi movie that could have had any title, but putting the Final Fantasy name on it created expectations. No mages, no magic, and no sword wielding hero. Square should never have agreed to this. If they had gone the way D&D went with its movie it would have been better. You say Final Fantasy and people expect Bahamut, Shiva, and Thundaga. So, if you go in with no expectations it's an ok sci-fi flick, but Final Fantasy it's not. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 10/13/23 Full Review Dinos K Boring plot and soulless CGI faces, some battle scenes was good and the voice acting took place by great actors Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 09/29/23 Full Review Red T Okay so the thing is there is technically nothing fundamentally wrong with this story. It's a pretty standard Sci-Fi movie plot in that regard. It's the execution that's where the issues show up. For starters the acting is just ok, it's that classic 2000's style acting for 80% of time of just talking in an unemotional unfunny way while explaining plot instead of explaining character. This movie has a nasty habit of explaining the world and plot rather than showing it. The voices are ok but given no character behind them. The cinematography is also a big letdown. Yes the CGI on its own is don't bad but nothing pops in this. It's all metallic dull grey and dark lighting. This could've almost been live action mainly because I don't see any reason this had to be CGI fully aside from marching the game series graphics. Nothing visually is memorable aside from a few cool scenes but that's it. Same with the music, FF is known for memorable soundtracks but this is just boring and forgettable the entire way. The editing is decent and pretty focused on the main girl the entire way but again it just is full of scenes that explain plot and not character. This leads to a passable pacing as this isn't that long. Honestly I can't really recommend this to anyone. It's so forgettable. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 08/09/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

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Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - The Mega Phantom Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - The Mega Phantom 2:57 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - We're Surrounded Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - We're Surrounded 3:22 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Captain Gray's Sacrifice Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Captain Gray's Sacrifice 2:58 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Alien Doomsday Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Alien Doomsday 2:11 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Spectral Impalement Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Spectral Impalement 1:48 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Phantom Death Ride Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Phantom Death Ride 3:16 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - The Final Spirit Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - The Final Spirit 3:28 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - The Space Cannon Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - The Space Cannon 2:36 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Space Laser Explosion Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Space Laser Explosion 1:56 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Soul-Eaters Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: Official Clip - Soul-Eaters 1:53 View more videos
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Movie Info

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
Chris Lee Productions, Square Company
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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