![]() ![]() ![]() Sid (Donald Sutherland) are then forced by Hein to work with Grey Edwards (Alec Baldwin) and his ragtag team of soldiers. Aki (Ming Na) is on a hunt to find eight "spirits" that, when brought together (bear with me on this one), will create an "inverted waveform that will negate the life force of the alien intruders." Not so keen on this idea is General Hein (James Woods) who believes that a pragmatic military counteroffensive is the best solution - not a bunch of spiritual mumbo-jumbo. Al Gore, where were you when Sony needed you?Īs the film opens, it's 2046 and Earth has been invaded by aliens (known as "The Phantoms") who steal people's souls. Among its many issues are a convoluted plot, flat voice performances, and an environmentally-themed storyline that - looking back - seems to be ahead of its time. Indeed, it's hard to argue that 'The Spirits Within' didn't succeed on a technical level - the film is often amazing to watch - but it just didn't engage critics or audiences on an emotional level. Worse, this hoped-for franchise starter never got out of neutral, as 'The Spirits Within' was quickly (and mercifully) forgotten.īased on one of the most popular video games series in history, 'Final Fantasy' was certainly a groundbreaking attempt at creating photo-realistic human beings in the context of a narrative, feature-length animated film. With a production budget reported at $140 million, its final domestic tally of $32 million was beyond dismal - it was a money sucker of epic proportions for Sony. 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within' was, if not the biggest bomb in recent Hollywood history, certainly one of the costliest. ![]() Accordingly, in the summer of 2001, all eyes were on Sony's mega-budget 'Final Fantasy' and DreamWorks' 'Shrek' (which came out within a couple of months of each other) - together, the two films were supposed to be the test case to determine the future of CGI at the box office. Sure, Pixar had scored with several big hits, but the major studios were still debating whether computer-generated animation could be a commercially viable medium equal to classic hand-drawn animation. When 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within' first unspooled in theaters, entirely CGI-animated films were still an unproven commodity at the box office. ![]()
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