Why did it fail?

[Vyk]

I agree. People would have wondered what Square did that wasn't FF related and went in with a lot more open mind, and critically forgiving. As it stood they had something to base their critique on considering the name it was carrying and its lack of simmilarity toward that name. It failed to hold up the name for what it stood for. The movie on its own wasn't bad. But it wasn't Final Fantasy in anyway. I was disappointed myself

[Discord]

Actually, this was the first FF product I "consumed" and to say the truth, I really liked it. I went to cinema quite a bit that summer and it was definitely the film I liked the most. That was the same summer when they've ran Pearl Harbour in the theatres.

Anyway, for me FF was a totally new term so I didn't get distracted by it. The problem which the FF fans might have had was the lack of FFiness, but to say the truth, if you added things like Biggs, Wedge and the classic FF characters like Wakka or Zell, the film would have lost its entire atmosphere.

Quite a few FF feature a tragedy scenarios, e.g. FFX, FFVII, however this is the first one to be 100% tragic. There's no scene where you get Aki Ross playing blitzball in a bikini or anything similar. It was about death, death and again death. So... I don't really think that chocobos and phoenix downs would really do any good. If you want that plot, you have to take away the FFness of it.

As for the other viewers, SE needed something to attract the masses. Obviously the fact that it takes place on Earth, not in Delling City, and does not feature moogles was a plus in that area. However, the story was a little bit too high-end for an average viewer. For somebody who cheered with Cloud and Squal, it's a normal plot; however, not too many people can start something with Gaia, spirits and so forth. As somebody said already, it was a bit too foreign.

So what we got in the end was a FF plot in a non-FF setting aimed with 16+ rating and huge production costs. Obviously, it didn't work. I still loved the film.

PS: I doubt that anybody will disagree if I say that it was quite a bit better than AC.

[Bolivar]

it's a shame that it did fail, because the series would most likely be at a very different point than it is now. In effect, it caused Sakaguchi to lose his series.

I thought it was pretty good when I saw it. Alot of my friends didn't because it had nothing to do w/ FF, but I thought it was very deep, and it had alot of the same themes as VII.

Not to mention it pretty much owned any other CG animated movie up to that point. The word "Impressive" does not do justice to how ahead of its time that was. I remember at some points being shocked at how real they really looked.

[Laddy]

Too many deaths, too futuristic, just felt empty.

[Roto13]

PS: I doubt that anybody will disagree if I say that it was quite a bit better than AC.:p

I would. At least AC had nice action scenes. TSW had nothing.