By Guy Wheatley
The Texarkana Gazette

The premise of Final Fantasy is that alien invaders come to earth and steal the energy from living things.  The characters in the film should be quite safe, as they are obviously not living. This film is as much about the state of computer graphic imaging as it is about aliens. It points out the promise of this new art form as well as how much is left to do. It is photo realistic enough to avoid being a cartoon, but doesnít bridge the gap to live action. The landscapes are real enough to pass without a second glance, except when they are used for visually stunning effects. It is the human element that is missing.
Writers Al Reinert,  and Jeff Vintar bring us a story about the struggle within the human spirit. Sadness and cynicism vie against hope and optimism to deal with a world ending threat. The success or failure of such a film depends on the actorís ability to convey the emotional development of the story to the audience. We have to empathize with their fear and hope in order to share their triumph. This is where Final fantasy falls short.
In numerous scenes we hear lines that should evoke an emotional response, but fail to do so. The virtual actors are unable to reach out and touch the audience. The interaction between the characters is unemotional and artificial. In an early scene, Dr. Aki Ross, voice of Ming-Na Wen, tells captain Gray Edwards, voice of Alec Baldwin, about the death of a small girl. We hear the sadness in Wenís emotional tones, but donít see it in Akiís face or body language. Even the action sequences lack emotional impact because we donít believe the characters are really under stress. There are none of the subtle visual clues that humans use to communicate with each other. In a scene, reminiscent of the APC scene from Aliens, the good guys have just been extracted from a hostile situation. They are nervously joking with each other to relieve stress. Visually, they could be reading an encyclopedia.
The plot is typical space fantasy, epic in scale, sophomoric in execution. The high tech world of space ships and weaponry is intermingled with mysticism. Aki Ross and Dr Sid, voice of Donald Sutherland, come across more as priests than as scientists. General Hein, voice of James Woods, is a two dimensional, predictable character. His lack of depth and moral fiber is symbolic of the military element in the film. He is not evil, but brainless and reactionary. He is so firmly entrenched in a militaristic perspective that he is unable to see the obvious, and is ultimately destroyed by his own hatred.
This film will be an important landmark in the development of computer generated films. Creativity and art are the coinage of good cinema. A lot of both went into elements of this movie, but it is the areas lacking them that are most memorable. The next step for computer film makers is to bring the talent of real actors into the digital world. For the foreseeable future, this process will start with real actors. Will we ever be able to turn the emotional presence of a Robin Williams into the 1ís and 0ís of computer code? While it is hard to imagine, just a few years ago the photo realism of Final Fantasy was hard to imagine. Final Fantasy has come a long way from Toy Story released in November of 1995. There were those then who said computers would never be able to generate a photo realistic film. For those who now say that we will never build emotion and talent from silicon, take a clue from the title of a James Bond film. "Never say Never Again."
 

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