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Rating:
This thrilling and visionary fantasy -- with a high budget that included the cost of creating its new motion-capture technology -- was D.O.A. at the box office, proving once again that mainstream America is not ready for what it deems to be video game geekery. But this is hardly a film of limited appeal. While it does recall its more obscure anime roots in some of its spiritual themes, it has the grandiosity of the great sci-fi epics (comparisons have been made as high up the ladder as Star Wars), and the mind-blowing visuals alone are worth the price of admission. Not only are the photo-realistic humans a sight to behold, but the other details of this post-apocalyptic Earth are rendered with a fine-tipped brush, both natural and invitingly dreamy at the same time. The story has its share of underexplained moments, and it requires viewers to accept hokey concepts like "gaia" (the Earth's vital spiritual entity). But to extend the parallel with Star Wars, the Force was never too hard to swallow, and it gave that film the requisite mysticism to rise to the level of classic. Furthermore, Aki Ross is a heroine ten times more intelligent and worthy of worship than Lara Croft, the other prominent video game transplant from the summer of 2001. Ming-Na brings her compassionately to life, and the character's deadly affliction adds an extra gravitas to their earnest mission. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a romantic adventure that doesn't cheapen either of those categories; in spite of its box-office failure, it can teach a lesson to the star-driven flops that studios churn out with none of the passion of this wondrous ghost story. Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

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