A lesson in dumbfoundedness... because that's how you'll find yourself when you see this movie.

Dumbfounded... you will be. You... will be. I've personally been following the production of this movie since I first heard about it rumored on the Internet, back in 1997. It was announced on the heels of the landmark video game Final Fantasy 7... and the rumor was so far fetched that it took over a year and a half before any solid evidence of this movie's existence even began to be circulated. And it wasn't officially confirmed until sometime in 1999.

I remember, sitting in line waiting to go in to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace on it's opening night, and I remember telling Joe "Man, just think, in just 2 more years man, we're going to be right back here, waiting in line for the premier of the Final Fantasy Movie... God! If ANY movie is going to give Episode 2 a run for it's money that summer, it'll be Final Fantasy." Well... as chance would have it, Episode 2 has been delayed until next year... so now, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within can reign free of opposition... and instead of waiting in line for the premier, we got to wait in line for a sneak preview... which, of course is how I'm able to bring you this review... 2 days early.

Oh sure, there's other good movies this Summer... but nothing will wow you like Final Fantasy. I once thought, "If nothing else, the movie will be awesome, solely on the merit of it's CGI" But I always knew that Square would pull this off, and pull it off right. I'm very happy to say that they did just that.

Now, a couple things to keep in mind... if you're not a fan of the video games... GREAT! You won't have any preconceived prejudices towards this movie. Lately, all I've been reading about on message boards, and newsgroups is people griping that Nubou Uematsu didn't compose the music, or there's no swords, or this, or that, or... blah blah blah. A few things to keep in mind... yes, Nubou is a wonderful composer... he's composed the soundtracks for every single Final Fantasy video game... 10 of them... as well as numerous other projects. But this movie was made for American audiences... the games, as superb as they are, are tailored to a Japanese audience, and then translated for us... for every copy of a Final Fantasy game here in America, there are at least 10 copies sold in Japan. Let's face it, RPG's are simply not as popular here, as over there... though slowly, that is starting to change. And VGM (Video Game Music) Soundtracks are even less popular over here... as superb as they are. To offer as much wide appeal for an American audience for this movie, Nubou Uematsu was not the composer. But fear not... Square is not the devil, originally Nubou was chosen to compose the soundtrack... but he too realized this, and declined the offer... opting to busy himself with the massive Final Fantasy 8, and 9 soundtracks, and also beginning on the Final Fantasy 10 soundtrack. VGM Soundtracks are very popular in Japan... that is where they get the widest release... movie soundtracks get the widest release over here. Would I have liked him to be the composer, of course! But Elliot Goldenthal, in my opinion, did an excellent job. As far as no swords, or no Chocobos (an Ostrich like bird), no Moogles (a small furry animal, looks like a teddy bear), etc... there was no place for them. Yes, they've been mainstay's of the video games for quite some time... but the story of the movie didn't call for them... and to add them just to please the minority of Final Fantasy Fanatics (myself included), would only detract from the movie... and it would be "Just another video game to movie adaptation"

What they did for this movie, is take the core formula for all the Final Fantasy games... borrowing some aspects from the games, for the recognition factor, but not just thrown in there just because. There's an underlying love story, as in the games, and the adventure is grand. Fans of the video games will certainly catch the subtle references to the video games... General Hein (James Woods) looks very reminiscent of Seifer from Final Fantasy 8... the heroes are jailed, the main character is somehow the key to the mystery, the main villain isn't necessarily evil... his actions are just in opposition to the protagonists, and some elements seem pulled directly from Final Fantasy 7... two major parts, one being the explanation of the spirits, the other... well you'll just have to go see the movie, now won't you? And a myriad other, minor parts.

Put your fears to rest about this movie being all show, and no story. If you've played any of the Final Fantasy games, you know how enthralling their stories are... even if they generally follow the same formula, you're still drawn in, every time. Prior to Final Fantasy 7, and the advent of CGI movies being put into these games to further the story, Final Fantasy 6 had one of the most commanding story lines of any video game, and is revered to this day by most fans of the series to be simply the crowning glory of Final Fantasies. Some of the story writers for 6 were brought over for 7... and not surprisingly since this movie began its life right around then, they were also commissioned to write the story for The Spirits Within. From the beginning, I knew this movie would have a strong story.

They did pull off a majority of their lofty goals for the shear detail of the CGI in this movie. Though not 100% perfect, it's as perfect as is technologically possible at this time. Many, many times throughout this movie, I caught myself forgetting that EVERY aspect is computer generated... NOTHING is real. The land, the sky, the buildings, the vehicles, the characters, the monsters... everything is completely computer generated. And ... it ... is ... breathtaking! Never before has an all CGI movie attempted to bring anywhere near this level of detail, and realism. If you thought Toy Story was groundbreaking... it's child's play compared to The Spirits Within. This movie truly has to be seen to be believed.

Really, this movie deserves a perfect 5, in all respects. But there were only minor flaws in some of the CG that, most likely due to my education in Computer Animation, I was able to spot... but others may not. It has nothing to do with body movement, or the lip movements (which is the single hardest part of the human anatomy to accurately reproduce in any medium), those I can overlook unless they're horrendously bad... no, these flaws had more to do with the most subtle details. Maybe I'm just being a hardass and because I've been fervently following this movie since 1997, I'm being all the more picky about it.

That's about all, really... go see this movie... go see it often, because the response that it gets over here, will directly determine if Square Pictures continues to produce other movies. In the companies entire history, only this past year have they EVER reported a financial loss... and it was due largely on the shear amount of resources that went into this movie. It's well worth the effort, and it's certainly worthy of multiple viewings. In fact, I'm going to be seeing it again on Wednesday, and I'm sure even more through it's theatrical run... and I'm most definitely getting the DVD when it's released.