I don't care how much money Final Fantasy makes.

[Darth23]

I thought it was a GREAT. The animation of the characters wasn't quite as good as it should have been (thought it was really good), but I thought the STORY was excellent.

Some idiot reviewer I read on RT.com asked "if this wasn't a computer animated movie, would you still see it?"

For me the answer is "Hell yeah!" I'm going to see it again tomorrow.

I really believe that the reviewers go[t] hung on the whole 'does it look REALLY real' question, or they couldn't follow what I thought was a pretty interesting and compelling plot.

I'd give it 9/10. (mostly for the story).

[JonathanLB]

Really?! Sweet!

I see every movie opening day, basically, but I went to see Final Fantasy and had a problem with the print 40 minutes through, so my friends and I just left along with about 30 other people in the theater and asked for refunds. I was absolutely ticked, they didn't even give us a free ticket or anything, no apologies, just a refund, and even then I had to go BACK into the theater and find my ticket stub, which didn't happen, so I had to ask someone else for theirs.

Up until the point where we had to leave, I thought it was pretty awesome. I was really impressed by the animation, actually, I thought it was the best I have ever seen. The humans are incredibly real, but more than that, many of the scenes without humans were actually PHOTO realistic! For instance, the craft coming back into the city near the beginning, when that was landing, it looked just as good as anything you'd expect to see in a Star Wars movie if they used CG to do the craft, etc. It was incredible. Perfect to the last detail.

I was blown away by the animation. Anyway, it wasn't meant to be totally perfect I don't think, otherwise it might as well have been actually filmed, but I think they were just going for a higher degree of realism than has been previously seen.

I will go back and see FF soon...

[Darth23]

There are a lot of elements of the movie that we've seen before, in Aliens, Starship Troopers, and even Terminator 2, but I was really impressed with they way they were handled in this movie. I've never played the games, but I've heard enough about them to see how the movie relates to them.

[RHJediKnight]

Yes! Right on, Darth23! I'm a huge fan of the Final Fantasy games, and while I haven't played them all (I've only played 5-9), I love them all and know the basic themes behind them all. For anyone not sure about this movie because it looks like it has nothing to do with Final Fantasy, do not worry! It is well worth your time and money, go see it! :)

[Jedi Master Carr]

I am glad that you liked it but it still looks like a video movie for me. The story just doesn't interest me and I have never played the games so I have no interests in seeing it. If I was going to the movies this weekend I would see also rather see some real actors in the Score which looks like a great movie especially the acting. By the way I am not sure if it really means anything but FF only made 2.61 for Thursday barly beating out Cats and Dogs. Its hard to say what it means for the Weekend but I think it will debut in the low 20's still winning the weekend but it won't do better because it will have hard time winning over the majority of the movie going public.

[Darth23]

Dood, you have to see this movie in the theaters. Even if it's during the matinee or at the discount theaters. You don't have to know anything about the video games (I knwo very little). There are some VERY familiar elements (Aliens, T2, Starship Troopers, even ANH and Star Trek), but the overall stoy was pretty well done.

After seeing mediocre crap like A Knights Tale and The Mummy Returns thsi summer, I'm glad I finally saw a movie that didn't disappoint me. I think that either it's going to have really good word of mouth, or it will be a 'wedge' movie and people will either love it or hate it, but it will eventually become at least a cult classic.

[jjwr]

This'll definetly be a video/HBO movie for me. The story didn't look like anything all that spectacular and while the visual look cool its not worth a ticket to me.

The big problem I have with the movie is its being sold on its animation and not the story. I think the question if this was live action would people see it is a good one. And the answer is probably no, it looks like a lot of those(and I could be wrong, will admit that now) fairly standard Sci-Fi movies, does the fact that its got incredible animation make it anything special?

Final fantasy is cool but I still feel the best FF games were the early ones, the later ones weren't as good to me. Does the story in this really relate to the last few games?

[JonathanLB]

The later FF games are still excellent. I loved the first one, I loved the second and third too and they are totally classic, maybe even the best, but VII was still awesome! I've heard many people who think IX is the best.

Plus, JJWR you haven't even seen the movie and Darth23 has and he says it DOES have a great story, so shouldn't you at least either not comment or give it a chance? You cannot say a movie you've never seen has a bad story when other people here say it actually has a very strong story.

I for one am tempted to see any movie that Darth23 thinks is good because he seems like such a harsh critic. Many of the movies I enjoyed, Darth23 didn't think much of, so if the movie impressed him, wow, it must be good! :)

[Darth23]

I've never played the games, and I dont' really care about the animation - what I liked was the way the story was executed.

[jjwr]

Ok so he says its good....what about all the other people I've heard from who say the plot is only so-so? I've heard enough about it I'm not gonna waste the money for theatre, it looks interesting, theres no doubt about that, just not good enough to see in the theatre.

[Darth23]

Ok so he says its good....what about all the other people I've heard from who say the plot is only so-so?

What can I say? They're wrong and I'm right. :D

Or maybe we just have different tastes. This isn't an election. If I like a movie, I don't care how many people DON'T like it. To tell you the truth, I don't think you'd 'get it'. The movie has a lot of similarities to many recent big sci-fi action movies, but it works on a different level. I was mostly expecting a pretty generic sci-fi movie, and I was surprised that the story kept moving well and kept me interested and engaged.

[SPOILERS!!!]
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The ending is somewhat similar to movies like the 5th Element, The Abyss or even Mission to Mars and Close Encounters, but I thought that this movie succeeded where those other movies kind of failed.
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[/End Spoilers]

Many of the reviews I've seen talk about how much money they film cost (who cares?), or whether or not the characters look exactly like real people (they don't, it's an animated movie). Many of the 'pros' didn't seem to like the plot, or couldnt follow it. I really don't think they went into the movie with an open mind. Part of this could be Sony/Columbia's fault, who seemed to waste a lot of time and effort hyping the technology rather than just selling the movie. Also, there are a lot of people who aren't going to understand or aren't going to like the more philosophical/ spirtual aspects of the movie.




Just so you know, Yahoo users rate it 4/5 stars, It's got a 7.3 at IMDB - 32% give it a 10, 62% give it an 8 or above. (1377 voters). (AI has a 7.2 rating right now) It's definitley the kind of movie that some people will hate, especially if they get hung up on critiquing what the characters look like, or don't bother actually following the story.

[DaBoSsNaStY]

well it goes to show, people like to bitch about anything but the polt:)

I just watch it today, and thought it was one of the best movies this summer. Anybody that says it does not have a plot, could not follow the film very well. Like to talk more about it, but I have to collect my thoughts about it first.

[Jedi Master Kyle]

I was overwhelmed by the quality of the animation, but less than impressed with the story. What was the story with those phantoms? What the hell did they want? That's where my problem was mainly. But Aki is one hot broad, so it makes up for it!

[Darth23]

They didn't

[Jedi Master Kyle]

huh?

[Darth23]

I had this long message about the phantoms and what they wanted - I think my parent's computer ate it. I'll post again when I get back home.

[JonathanLB]

I still have not seen FF fully, Darth, but I'd like to comment on it when I do. I am waiting for a friend who is out of town and he hasn't had the chance to see it, so I thought I'd go see it with him later.

I am glad you guys say it is so good because I'm still excited about seeing it. I think I would like it and I was enjoying it through 40 minutes, when the film cut out. Personally, I was blown away by the CG! Ok so the humans do not look exactly like humans, but DANG! The realism was still amazing. The audience opening day (which was full) was very impressed with that, I could tell, because at the start people were all "ooing" and "ahing" over it, haha. I was most impressed probably by the fact that any non-human element of the movie looked basically photorealistic, if not totally photorealistic.

I really wish FF had enjoyed more success. It's sad.