This is the question. If the Final Fantasy film was not labled with Final Fantasy, would you still want to see it?

Heck, I don't really want to see it even though it does have the words Final Fantasy in front of it. The entire Final Fantasy franchise has gotten so far away from its roots in *fantasy* that it's not funny. I don't think the change was for the better.

I wanna see it! It looks great! Why do so many people use this Grapevine for NOTHING but harping on movies? What, youg guys think anyone who does is inferior to you or something?

Eh? I don't believe I use it for that purpose. Sorry if my opinion's different from yours, but I don't think it merits such a harsh generalization.

I want to see it just to see what they can do with the CGI, although I will say that the trailer doesn't get the adrenalen (sp) pumping or have sense of wonder that one for a fantasey adventure should do.

While viewing a Trailer for this movie, I realized something. While the people are certainly the most realistic looking ever done, apart from the real thing of course, I'm not sure that they can do convincing facial animation. If you look at the trailers, you'll notice that they rarley actually show any character speaking. They sho the eyes, but that's about it. Now we humans know ourselves very well, so unconvincing animation of the face could ruin the illusion, big time. I think that "the creators" (now where did I get that expression? ;) ) know this, and that they are trying to hide it. Or, and I hope this is true, the facial animation is COMPLETELY convincing and they want it to be a big suprise. So I'm going just to see what they've been able to accomplish.

I was just wondering. I mean without Final Fantasy, the film is just "Titan AE without the hideuos fingerprints of Don Bluth all over it." What was that guy ever thinking. All Disney films for 20 years before the Litle Mermaid were garbage like the Rescuer's or Oliver and Company. Why ever does he think he was part of that "success." Sorry, anti Don Bluth Rant. I would proberly be awed by the optics, but would be turned off by the Starship Troppers story. I'll see it anyways, on the grounds I want to see at least one good video game film before I die. Yes I am 19, That is an event that hasn't happened in my lifetime yet. But any case, JP 3 comes out the next week, so I'm hoping a Raptor kills Tea Leoni.

I thought the movie looked cool, and i never got into final fantasy, so i'm gonna go see it.

I think that in the end the Final Fantasy tag could actually do more harm than good.

Earth? EARTH!? This movie mentions EARTH?!?!?! Earth has never been in the Final Fantasy universe. The games have always taken place on other, fantasy worlds. As for the game having left its fantasy roots, I refer you to FFIX, which, IMHO, is the best game since FFII.

I always assumed the planet was "Earth" just not ours. Look at Sephiroth's Supernova attack. Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus are all either destroyed or severely damaged. Unless this is the Magna Roma System, or the Onlies system, it would have to be "Earth"

Though, from what I understand, the games have better stories than the film. Hopefully, they will do a Screen Adapation of seven someday.

Each game takes place on a different "Earth." For example, in Final Fantasy V, there is a sister planet very close to "Earth" that supports life. However, the planets are not supposed to be "Earth." My point was that unless the Earth in the movie has a very different landscape and history than ours (like in the games) then it is a major change.

The trailer looks cool (at least on TV) but the characters' movements (human and alien) are still a bit stiff, but I still want to see it.

Taken from my post over at the Spider-man board

"I enjoyed it, as a longtime (since the original) fan of the Final Fantasy games. It's not high art or anything like that, but if you're a fan of most of the FF games, you'll probably like the movie. It's like a condensed version of the video game plots. It's got that happy-cheesy quality that exists in a lot of the final fantasy games, so if you go in expecting it to be anything more than that, you'll be kinda disappointed. If not, I think you'll find it pretty enjoyable. "

Thanks, Spornan. I was hoping that it wouldn't be a dour, depressing movie. That was one of the things that I didn't like about 7 and 8. They were just too serious.

Are the game graphics done in anime style?

They have anime conventions, (big hair big eyes) but resemble a lower grade version of the film.

I saw this film a few weeks ago and I was very impressed with the visuals. The human movements were a bit stiff, but that didn't distract me from enjoying the entire film. I also thought that the Doctor (forgot his name) was about the most realistic looking character, or rather that his mouth moved better while speaking than the others. That Aki sure is a looker, though, ain't she? And ironically she's less fake than Pam Anderson and Britney Spears.

This movie was entertaining, I suppose, but had a bit of a hackneyed story. It had a pretty typical conflict between good-guy scientists and military grunts versus bad-guy military higher-ups and politicians. Also, they did not establish what was so special about those seven spirits. Why them? Was it just an excuse for the main characters to wander around and get into fights?
I do have an interesting question to pose. What if Aki was wrong about the Phantoms? What if they really were trying to conquer Earth? After all, she based her idea on how we think, assuming they'd do or not do the same things as us. However, who's to say that aliens would think just like us? Perhaps they planned to conquer Earth quickly and make it more like their own world by bringing wild animals from there. When the invasion did not succeed so quickly, they were stuck with the things roaming around, and switched tactics, letting the beasties roam and distract the humans. Perhaps they always planned to use those wild creatures as distractions to draw fire from themselves. Perhaps they have no reason for it humans would understand.

I really didn't like this movie very much. It was missing the vast majority of things that make "Final Fantasy" "Final Fantasy". I can forgive them for much, but not having Nobuo Uematsu do the music was unforgivable. One thing that was just frustrating is that they spelled "Cid" (who has appeared in some form in every game since at least Final Fantasy IV) "Sid."

I fell asleep during this movie. The best part of it was that it was where you could first see the trailer for Spider-Man.

I think anyone who was expecting a story as huge and as complex as one of the better FF games was quite frankly delusional. I think, if you look at this movie as just a movie, and not a part of the Final Fantasy saga, it has quite a leg to stand on, and certainly dispels certain myths about voice acting (it's worth noting that most animated movies with the exception of non-Pixar Disney flicks that came out after The Spirits Within actually give the actors major billing on the poster, Shrek for example).

It's still a bad movie, regardless of whether one compares it to the games.

I actually liked it. The degree of realism the CGI characters imparted, plus the voice acting made it a very good movie. I have never played any of the Final Fantasy games so I didnt have that bias dragging me down going into it. The storyline was interesting backing the visuals up.

I thought the rendering of the characters faces and their expressions was just plain awful. They looked like stiff, CGI mannequins.

Josh: No, it's only a bad movie, in YOUR opinion. I liked it, I own the DVD, I've watched several times since I first saw it in theatres (caviat: Luigi, are you refferring to the Spidey trailer that was taken out after 9-11? I loved that one too, and wish they'd included it in the DVD).

I do believe that was the one, Brian. I believe that was the very first one. And yeah, I'm pretty sure Josh meant for his statement to be taken as his opinion. Nothing in what he said sounded like he thought he was stating fact.

It's still a bad movie, regardless of whether one compares it to the games.

Luigi, that was verbatim the post that provoked my response. Now, if we were talking about a flick where there was a rare NitCentral consensus (i.e. we ALL hated Battlefield: Earth), I'd just let that one slip because I would agree with it.

Of course it's my opinion - I feel no particular need to inform everyone to this effect.

But here's *why* FF:TSW is a bad film:

Poorly defined and developed characters.
Big plot holes (many discussed above).
Choppy pacing.
A by-the-numbers finale with a vague New Agey message.

Of course, it's been a while since I saw the movie. Perhaps I'll watch it again so I can provide a more effective critique.

Well as to how the characters looked, I have seen live action actors who have emoted less (ie seagull, vandummy, and shwazzenegger) than the ones in this movie. The story wasnt too bad. I admit it did jump straight into things and didnt dwell too much on the personalities and such of the characters as well as having some rather large plot holes. BUt many other movies that seem to be rather popular have as large or larger plot holes as well.

Yes, this might have been a decent, if deeply flawed, movie if it wasn't labeled Final Fantasy. The trouble is, it WAS labeled Final Fantasy, and its lack of most of what made FF great was what helped make it so bad. I can't stress enough how much it hurt them not to have Nobuo Uematsu compose the music.

When I saw this movie, I kept thinking that it would have been FAR more effective if they'd used the story for a game rather than trying to cram it into a movie. It really hit me when Aki told everyone her theory on the Phantom's origins. If this had been a game, I'd probobly have been playing it and thinking of the Phantoms as invaders for the better part of a week (I take my time when I play RPGs) and this twist would have seemed HUGE. Instead, I'd only been introduced to they things about an hour before, so I just ddn't care anywhere near as much.

Though, from what I understand, the games have better stories than the film. Hopefully, they will do a Screen Adapation of seven someday.
This game already is sort of an adaption of FFVII with the orbital gun taking the place of the Mako cannon, Gaia replacing the Lifestream etc... I remember an early blurb mentioning how humanity was changed when a scientist discovered some sort of 'energy' that all humans possessed and how a story about a massive technological society discovering magic and the reprecussions of that would have made for a far more interesting story than FFVII-lite. Fortunately, we've got Advent Children now which worked a whole lot better (sure, the plot's thin but we already know the characters and setting so it's just a fun romp).