Final Fantasy
Some folks believe that eventually all human actors will be replaced by computer graphics. Final Fantasy provides a good example of why it will never happen.
The earth is under attack by ghostly creatures that kill humans by sucking their souls out of their bodies. Evidently they have attacked the movie as well - the soul was sucked out of it somewhere along the way. Akia, the heroine, must aid in capturing spirits which will somehow solve the problem. Once she gets all eight spirits everything will be fine and dandy.
The animation is impressive in spots. A great deal of time has been spent on Akia's hair; each strand sways in the breeze and moves every time she turns her head. Unfortunately, they didn't do the hair correctly in the zero gravity scenes - it should have floated around much more than it did. After perfecting Akia's hair, the animators cop out on everyone else's, either by giving them short hair or ponytails. The faces look great, but everyone's hands look like they're made of plastic, and in several scenes they don't correctly line up with what they're supposed to be gripping.
There are about three characters in this film. All the rest of the "actors" are pretty much cut and paste characters, animated Colorforms® stuck into the picture where needed. The strong animation, while impressive, just isn't enough to carry an entire film. It might be worth a rental, just to check out the animation, but if you'd prefer animation with a story, rent Shrek instead.
© 2002 Dave Hitt
