![]() It's a weird kind of litmus test: If the illusion always worked, how would we know they weren't really human actors, and some joker had just told us they were computer generated? They could drop Ben Affleck into this film, and no one would know the difference.Aki Ross is a fictional character created by Hironobu Sakaguchi for Square Pictures under Square, for the purpose of use in their debut film The Spirits Within. The photo-realism of the humans doesn't always work, and frankly that is a relief. The soul on several occasions is seen leaving the body. ![]() There is a touching moment when certain unexpected spirits are revealed as lost, confused and angry. Aki's dreams are a link to the phantom world of the aliens. "Final Fantasy," taking its Earth-is-alive philosophy on its own terms, has its moments. The demonstration of the photo-realism technique is impressive, but sooner or later, viewers have to ask themselves: If they were to do this film with live actors, would it be worth seeing? Visually, this is one of the most fascinating films of the summer that does not mean it's one of the most involving. There even is a noble wounded soldier who insists on being left behind. While the look of the film is state of the art, the dramaturgy can sometimes be resoundingly old-fashioned, straight out of '40s war films, but with no saving hint of self-awareness. Nonetheless, these virtual characters look more like human robots than Haley Joel Osment does in "A.I." Virtual characters have already appeared in mainstream films - remember Jar Jar Binks in "Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace"? Here, ordinary movement of the characters around a chamber becomes a matter of extraordinary fascination. Most impressive of all are the close-ups of the faces, sometimes radiantly lit, frequently wan. They are interrupted by Aki's dreams, surrealistic landscapes invaded by loping, clanking creatures. Scenes of the post- apocalyptic Earth are monotone grays, dark blues and browns. The look of the film varies in impressive ways. Peri Gilpin of "Frasier," on the other hand, is refreshing as Jane, in what I came to think of as the gutsy Carrie-Anne Moss role. Sid, who periodically must unload tons of gobbledygook exposition and keep the audience up to date. Donald Sutherland, for instance, is tiresome as the tiresome old Dr. The rest of the vocal lineup is impressive in exact proportion to the characters they play. "Final Fantasy" is nothing if not a sincere production - the motto, "The Spirits Within," is no mere catchphrase. All this is admirable but tends to be lugubrious. Jimmy Doolittle: Both go on suicide missions.Īki, whose voice is provided by Ming-Na ("The Joy Luck Club"), is everything a millennial female protagonist must be: smart, effective, plain in a beautiful way, spiritual but with a fatal flaw, which she handles bravely. This virtual-reality role, curiously, is a little like the real character Baldwin plays in "Pearl Harbor," Lt. Edwards removes his helmet, we half expect to see Baldwin and are a little disappointed we don't. We hear Baldwin's voice before we see him, and when Capt. ![]() ![]() Here, it's the patrol captain Gray Edwards, who has a history with Aki but probably no future. It's attached to his real body in "Pearl Harbor." In "Cats & Dogs," it comes out of a German shepherd called Butch. This summer, Alec Baldwin's voice is everywhere. Sakaguchi apparently has not come up with a way to create virtual voices, and thus was forced to hire real actors. For one thing, in "Tomb Raider," Jolie showed us she could wrap those lips around an English accent. There's more than one good reason to take the real-life Angelina Jolie over the virtual Aki any time. The early manifestations that we see look like transparent specimens on a microscope slide. In "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," Earth has been invaded by aliens who infect humans like a virus. The imagination of tough-minded Stanley Kubrick in "A.I.," before tender- minded Steven Spielberg got his hands on it. There is no convincing reason to believe that the human race will continue to survive. Is this some kind of sick joke, or at least an in- joke? A virtual human plays one of the few real humans left. In this dystopian fantasy of the near future, "Old New York City" is a high- rise ruin, most of Earth is a wasteland and only a few humans remain. ![]() Like Lara Croft, Aki goes into this summer's film version with a built-in audience of gamers. "Final Fantasy" is the creation of Hironobu Sakaguchi and his impressive Hawaiian computer-graphics team, who have already sold 33 million units of the "Final Fantasy" computer game. ![]()
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