Quote Originally Posted by SoulTaker*
It cost Square 200 million to make Spirits, way to put all your eggs in one basket, I wonder if they thought that people were just gonna die over this movie like it was even close to the epics Star Wars and Lord of the Rings were, Square would still be Square Soft instead of Square Enix if it wasnt for this movie. And for what, the characters looked like dolls, their facial expressions were unrealistic, their body movements outside of the commando armor were stiff, and lack of tone and defromation in the skin and tissue when they went to grab something was weird also, and they expected an american audience to eat this up, it just made most people uneasy. The overreliance on special effects, and the cliche characters and storyline evil monsters appear; a way is found to stop evil monsters; catastrophic disaster occurs; heroes acquire an airship; heroes try to stop evil monsters by collecting a set of items; evil empire gets in the way. Compared to great Sci Fi movies like Alien, Aliens, Blade Runner, Independance day, and even its eastern counterparts like GITC,Akira, and Metropolis its easily forgettable. Square gets one fish slap to the face.
FF:SW was the first Final Fantasy I've actually came in contact with. That was when it was released in the cinemas. I though it was finely crafted, the sounds, the music and the video. The story was deep, as well as the characters, who developed through out the film.

Unlike the most popular Sci-Fi, i.e. Star Wars, etc, FF:SW is a stand-alone film. It doesn't come in series or trilogies and thus didn't have any image apart from FINAL FANTASY, when it came out. Most people however, do not know what FFs are about and thus the image of Star Wars, is a more popular one.

Last but not least, FF:SW is not meant to be an adventure film with good Jedi and evil Sith, where the good wins in the end and everyone is happy. The film can be clearly categorised as a tragedy. The Earth gets destroyed and the only survivors live restricted in the safe areas.

Apart from the catastrophe-film atmosphere, like that of The Day After Tomorrow, FF:SW kills most of its characters. The life of Aki starts balancing up in the 3rd/4 of the film, when she, Grey and Doc leave the planet. Tough the whole of New York gets killed, she survives and falls in love with Grey. If the film would end at this point, we'd have a happy end, however, as well all know, Grey heroically offers his life to save Aki in the very end of the film. The entirely happy end becomes impossible and Aki's life seams to be destroyed, however, the eagle in the end of the film once again reverses this idea. The life returns and a new beginning softens the tragical run of the whole story.

Personally, I think it's a masterpiece. Though the basis and the twists, like the General firing the Zeus Cannon, stay conventional, the dramatic themes become nicely developed and give enough fuel for further thinking. For those who are not much in the idea, the film still presents nice graphical and audio effects, however, it is clear that the morality remain the main theme of the film and thus a comparison with films like Alien, Star Wars and co. are not appropriate due to the difference in style and main points of the subjects.