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Nyphous
Reviews
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Forget the critics and enjoy a Japanese film for once...
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is simply breathtaking visually and there is no surprise there. After all, Square have been responsible for the most visually brilliant games in history.
That is besides the point however. A lot of people complained about how this film's plot line was thin and how the characters were more 2-D than 3-D. This seems to be a recurring nightmare with animation of the 3-D variety, especially Japanese ones.
****Possible Spoilers******
You see, unfortunately for mister average Westerner the story is a tad depressing as most of the characters wind up dying. It's a tragedy and a damn fine one at that. Also this whole idea of Gaia and spirits is common in Japan, but not in the US or the UK. This seems to have caused problems as many people cannot wrap their heads around the whole idea.
The voice acting is not the best in the world, but you must remember that it has been dubbed into English and not purposefully shot into it. Alec Baldwin, Ming-Na and company do there best and there are some great moments, especially from the character Neil.
Overall, this is a triumph of animation that people should not be afraid to see. It's not the end of REAL people, because you can never replace them, so overcome that fear that's been instilled by the American movies companys and buy it on video.
10/10
Fainaru fantajî VIII (1999)
Best RPG ever.
Quite simply the best RPG ever developed by Squaresoft. Amazing visuals, brilliant story of love, hate and war, plus believable characters. It surpasses Final Fantasy VII by a long shot. Squall Leonheart has been called an 'unlikeable character' but he has issues we can all relate with. Rinoa is simply beautiful and a great heroine. A great cast of back up characters adds to the brilliant depth of the story. Well done Squaresoft.