Certainly an interesting movie for its novelty value, if nothing else. The first feature film in history to make a credible attempt at fully computer generated, realistic looking human characters. On that count, it sort of succeeds. Sort of.

There are some shots where the people are quite convincing. Most of the time, and to varying degrees, they look more like plastic. Animated mannequins. In Toy Story, this look worked, for the obvious reason that toys are made of plastic. In Shrek, it worked because the movie was supposed to have a fairy tale atmosphere. In Final Fantasy, the almost--but-not-quite-there realness was more of a distraction. Still, a valiant effort by the digital artists, which marks another technological step forward in the world of CG effects.

As for the plot, I never thought I'd say this: The storytelling suffers mainly because it is too much like Final Fantasy. This is its blessing, and its curse. The sequences of scenes, the dialog that fills them, and even the plot premise itself feel like a big artificial contrivance. The only motivation to move from one plot point to the next is that the story itself demands it. When such a narrative is heavily interspersed with raising levels, fighting monsters, and exploring the game world, it works very well. When you do nothing but sit and passively stare at it for nearly 2 solid hours, the effect becomes numbing.

On the plus side, the story is told like a typical Final Fantasy game. (Am I contradicting myself?) From the beginning, the viewer is thrust into this alter-world, with very little direct explanation or exposition, and left to figure out mostly through inference the situation and setting. Goodie. Besides that, a lot of the story ideas are really interesting, even if the execution gets to be a bit stale.

This leads me right into the acting department. Normally, when I review an animation, which is technically what this is, I consider "acting" to be merely the voice talent. In this case though, it's hard not to also take into account the movements, gestures, and facial expressions of the characters, even if they are a complete fabrication.

Assuming that we do grade on the false assumption that these are real people, and pit them against real live competent film actors, the acting feels quite wooden and amateurish. On the other hand, that statement might be taken as a complement, because the very fact that they warrant any consideration whatsoever within the league of real people is a high accomplishment, for someone that doesn't even exist.

If we were to do the standard thing, and grade on voice acting alone (which was done by real people), I would say that the acting is fine, but nothing extraordinary.

So, to summarize: Substance-wise, the film had good ideas, but ultimately felt hollow. Technology-wise, it was a most impressive feat, but not quite enough to draw me in.

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Can a person who does not exist be sexy? You decide. Shortly after Aki's publicity photo hit the press, another image not endorsed by official sources started to circulate. (WARNING: Contains either a fake-real or real-fake depiction of nudity. In either case, viewing at work would be inadvisable.) The debate rages on as to whether the second one is actually an "authentic" leak. Oh, and for any females or other types of people who happen to be into this sort of thing, I'm sure you're already aware of the rendering of Grey that's been going around. Now THAT is disturbing, no matter how you look at it.
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