Being in some way the first of its kind, "Final Fantasy" might take a peculiar place in film history. The only domain in which it can score is, however, its technical merit. Although the digital actors in "Final Fantasy" are by no means a convincing replacement for real life actors and the whole movie in fact looks like a computer game, it is the state of the art and makes it clear that, as technique will progress, the complete digital illusion will soon be feasible and provide directors with complete freedom to realize even their wildest ideas - provided they have some.
Unfortunately, as was to be feared, the creators of "Final Fantasy" are intellectual low riders with not the slightest idea of what a credible, well-narrated story should be. Apart from the technical perfection, there isn't anything in the movie you haven't seen thousands of times in other movies or computer games. The story is extremely meager and just plain silly (shooting at ghosts, he?). It might have been sufficient to get a computer action game going, but as the basis of a full length feature film it is simply a bad joke.
The movie starts out as an interesting albeit routine adventure story with captivating visuals but step by step degenerates into a complete mess, until at the end there remains nothing but awful kitsch and just noise - both acoustic and optical. If this movie makes any impression on you, it will be a headache.
Well, the new techniques are there, awaiting somebody to make proper use of them. "Final Fantasy" definitely provided them with the worst possible start.
Unfortunately, as was to be feared, the creators of "Final Fantasy" are intellectual low riders with not the slightest idea of what a credible, well-narrated story should be. Apart from the technical perfection, there isn't anything in the movie you haven't seen thousands of times in other movies or computer games. The story is extremely meager and just plain silly (shooting at ghosts, he?). It might have been sufficient to get a computer action game going, but as the basis of a full length feature film it is simply a bad joke.
The movie starts out as an interesting albeit routine adventure story with captivating visuals but step by step degenerates into a complete mess, until at the end there remains nothing but awful kitsch and just noise - both acoustic and optical. If this movie makes any impression on you, it will be a headache.
Well, the new techniques are there, awaiting somebody to make proper use of them. "Final Fantasy" definitely provided them with the worst possible start.
