Looking back on The Spirits Within

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Anyone seen Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within recently? I saw it when it first came out, and don't remember anything about it except thinking the CGI was so good back then. I also remember it being a commercial flop.

I'd like to watch it again at some point and see what I think of it now.

There's been a recent insurgence of people insisting it's good as long as you drop the desire for it to mimic the games. Any thoughts on it being a good scifi film if you don't associate it with the expectations of the franchise?

[Wolf Kanno]

I worked in a movie theater at the time of this films release, so I actually got to watch it a day sooner than most folks.

I feel in hindsight, its the best film Square/SE have released from a story standpoint. It actually spends more time and care in developing its plot and cast than either Advent Children or Kingsglaive did. Its probably not as visually interesting as those two films are, but if you want a decent sci-fi flick, its actually pretty good. I still feel part of its issue from the fan side of things was placing too many expectations on it despite what the trailers were showing. Though I would also say that Square had no business making a movie on their own in the first place.

I feel its a much better flick than people give it credit, and it had a pretty kicking soundtrack and good voice talent as well.

hTSIn73AOIs

1XC0evYinRo

For me, the most amusing thing about the film is that it holds onto a lot of themes from VII and IX, so I always get in the mood to play both of them after I watch it.

[Lord Golbez]

Yeah. I always felt like the movie was almost an alternate version of FF7 so I never really got people saying it was nothing like the game. Ok, sure, there are no black mages , swords, or chocobos, but look to a little lower layer, mates.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

You can never go wrong with L'arc en Ciel on your soundtrack.

[Aulayna]

As far as Japanese Sci-Fi goes it's a very solid movie and I think it might have been ahead of its time when it came to global audiences. Thanks to the likes of Netflix, Crunch Roll, etc. a much more wider audience has exposure to Asian style narratives and cinematography compared to the early 2000s. If this film wasn't released until today (with fitting visuals), sans-the Final Fantasy moniker, I think it would have launched to a far better reception to what it did back then.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Seeing the various responses here and elsewhere makes me eager to watch it again.

They released a fresh blu-ray, or at least re-released the movie when Kingsglaive came out. I saw that one when XV came out and really enjoyed it. I'll try to pick up a copy of both.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I really liked it when I saw it in theaters as a kid, and I was pretty wowed by the cgi at the time. I watched it again a couple years ago, and I thought it held up real well. It’s a solid sci-fi movie. It didn’t feel like final fantasy necessarily, but it did have some fun nods and similarities to aspects of some the games.

[DMKA]

It's a solid sci-fi film that was truly a technical achievement for its time. No CGI aiming for realism came anywhere close to looking as good as The Spirits Within when it came out, and it remained that way for years afterward.

I've always felt that what caused its failure is, ironically, the fact that they titled it Final Fantasy. It has nothing in it connecting it to the games, and it's not a fantasy film. Had they given it some other completely unrelated ominous sounding name and marketed the hell out of it outside of video game circles, I have no doubt it would have been a modest success.

[Jiro]

The Spirits Within was definitely a Moment in Time. I remember reading that Sakaguchi wanted the 'characters' to be digital actors; I think everyone involved saw the possibility of shit like lil miquela (https://www.instagram.com/lilmiquela/?hl=en), kizuna ai (https://kizunaai.com/), and even vocaloids before those things really became in vogue. Speaking of vogue, it's clear that the dream never died considering Final Fantasy XIII's Lightning modelled Louis Vuitton (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/final-fantasy-character-lightning-on-starring-in-louis-vuitton-c/) a few years ago.

I've watched a lot of like B-grade sci-fi flicks in the past 10 years and The Spirits Within sits among them as perfectly serviceable, enjoyable flicks that don't require too much effort to consume. I liked it enough to have watched it a few times and recommended it to some people who had similar tastes, but it certainly wasn't the kind of big hit that Square wanted. Can't fault them for having a crack, though.