Final Fantasy Review
by Tim Wick
Have I stated that I love animation often enough? No? OK, I love
animation.
I love the fact that it allows the creator to do things a live action film
would never allow.
That said, animation is no replacement for live actors. The makers of
Final
Fantasy have stated they believe the technology developed for their film
could one day allow for human actors to be replaced by animated ones. I'm
sure the appeal is obvious. You don't need to find stunt doubles that look
like the actor because the actor can do all their own stunts. Not only
that,
but they can perform stunts physically impossible with a human actor.
Having seen Final Fantasy, I would have to say that the replacement of
human actors is nowhere near a reasonable reality.
Final Fantasy isn't a bad film. But the problem is that it is also not a
particularly good one. The story could have been appealing, but it relies a
great deal on the emotional intensity of it's actors. Animation allows
actors to be emotionally intense, no question. Shrek is a great example.
As is Toy Story, Pinocchio, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. One could
assume that with photo realistic depiction's of humans, it would be possible
to heighten the emotional intensity of the characters.
But that is not what happens in this film. Though the film provides many
pictures that are impressive to look at, all emotional depth is delivered
only through character voices. The animators worked so hard at making the
faces real, they forgot to give them even simple facial expressions. They
didn't even give the characters tears when they were crying, for heavens
sake!
Because of that, I could never really get emotionally involved. I was
always
feeling pushed away by the flat faces of the main characters. The star of
the movie, Aki, had more expression in her meticulously crafted hair than
she
did in her meticulously crafted face.
The design of the "enemy" in this picture is actually pretty good. They are
the sorts of things that could easily give children nightmares, so leave the
kids at home. I don't know about anyone else, but when I found out what
they
were, I was impressed with the concept.
But ultimately, I couldn't get past the flat, emotionless animation. At one
point a bird flies across the screen. The creators of this film took the
time to make the bird's individual feathers look incredibly real. They
didn't take the time to make the bird flap it's wings as a real bird would.
That, in a nutshell, is what is wrong with Final Fantasy - the animators
were concerned with all the wrong details.
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Final Fantasy
Three
Beakers
(out of five)
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Based on his belief that people coming to this site give a rip about his
opinion, you have probably guessed that Tim Wick has a pretty big ego.
Despite having no experience as a critic, he insists on writing these boorish
reviews of movies in a vain attempt to feel more important. Since it allows
us to put up new material on the site and keep you all coming back for more,
we go ahead and humor him.
We don't know anything about Tim's past. We assume that he just walked out
of the west like Cain in Kung Fu, but we don't really care. He is a member
of the board of directors for MISFITS and runs the read the book/see the
movie club.
Or so he claims...
You can also read Tim's A.I.
Review.
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