Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A computer-generated story of earthlings battling wraithlike alien invaders. It's 2065; lithe scientist Dr Aki Ross (voiced by Ming-Na) is trying to harness the spiritual power of near extinct plants and animals to overcome the extra-terrestrials' grip on the planet. Protecting her are square-jawed trooper Gary Edwards (Baldwin) and his assault team, but the project faces an uncertain future: hawkish General Hein (Woods) favours a space-launched raygun aimed at the aliens' nerve centre - putting the Earth itself at risk. It's hard not to be impressed by writer/director Sakaguchi's visualisation of military hardware and squishy monsters. The human figure, however, remains a challenge to current CGI technology, since the detailing of hair and freckles, for instance, proves rather more credible than the marionette-like impression created by cold eyes and oddly unconvincing body movements.Author: TJ
Cast & crew
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Producer: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Jun Aida, Chris Lee
Cast: Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods, J ean Simmons full cast
Genre(s): Science Fiction
Duration: 120 mins
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.

What do you think?
Post your review now