Barnes & Noble

Inspired by the immensely popular Final Fantasy video game series, The Spirits Within is one of the most ambitious computer-generated features to date, a creative landmark that may be too eye-poppingly cool for its own good. Eschewing the cartoon approach of Pixar's Toy Story and A Bug's Life, Final Fantasy's creators render characters so realistically that one can't help but marvel. Ming-Na Wen, Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Donald Sutherland, and James Woods loan their voices to these screen presences, adding emotional depth to the digital facsimiles. The setting is a postapocalyptic Earth -- the result of an alien invasion rather than our own calamitous missteps. The enemies are phantomlike, able to shuffle loose human spirits from their mortal coils. All seems lost until the beautiful Dr. Aki Ross (Wen) and her mentor, Dr. Sid (Sutherland), discover that the energy behind eight significant Earth spirits is capable of restoring order. While fans may not find the story as epic as those in the game series, Final Fantasy still lives up to its hype and visually tops its interactive brethren. As a pure treat for the senses, it scores with intensely accurate detail, down to a gentle breeze ruffling a character's hair. R.J. Wafer

All Movie Guide

The first feature-length motion picture to use computer-generated imagery to create not only effects, props, and environments but also the human cast members themselves, this lavish science-fiction adventure follows closely on the heels of another video game-based film, Tomb Raider (2001). Ming-Na provides the voice of Dr. Aki Ross, a female scientist in the year 2065, a time when Earth has been overrun by extraterrestrial phantoms borne of a crashed meteor. Humans have been pushed back to cities protected by barriers that keep the marauding space monsters away, but time is running out. Fatally infected by one of the ghostly beasts, Ross seeks information about their purpose and physiology, assisted by her mentor Dr. Sid (voice of Donald Sutherland) and the Deep Eyes military squad of courageous Captain Gray Edwards (voice of Alec Baldwin). Tension develops between Aki's quest to stop the alien onslaught through study and the more extreme solution favored by the vengeful, saber-rattling General Hein (voice of James Woods), who would destroy both the aliens and the Earth itself. Aki ultimately comes to realize that the key to unlocking the mystery of the invaders lies within her own dreams. Karl Williams

Chicago Sun-Times

The film tells a story that would have seemed traditional in the golden age of Asimov, van Vogt and Heinlein. But science fiction fans of that era would have wept with joy at the visuals.... Is there a future for this kind of expensive filmmaking ($140 million, I've heard)? I hope so, because I want to see more movies like this, and see how much further they can push the technology. Roger Ebert

Product Details

• UPC: 043396169326
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: ABC
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English, Français, Korean, Español, Portugais, Thai
• Time: 1:46:00
• Sales Rank: 18,860

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Kaena: the Prophecy & Final Fantasy

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