“Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” was one of the most expensive animated films ever made ($137 million) and hoped to usher in an age of digital actors and actresses with its use of photo-realistic character animation. The movie bombed at the box-office and it’s a shame because this is one of the most visually stunning animated movies.

I have never played any of the “Final Fantasy” videogames but from what I have read, this film has very little to do with any of them and it seems to be far more science-fiction than fantasy. Anyway, the film takes place in the future where alien phantoms have crash-landed on Earth and threaten to destroy humanity. Doctor Aki Ross believes she may have discovered the key to defeating the aliens and will need the help of a ragtag team of soldiers to save the planet.

Aki was destined to become the first digital actress with hopes of having her in many different movies (even some alongside real actors) but the failure of this film brought that plan to an abrupt end. The voice acting from Alec Baldwin (“Beetlejuice”) and Donald Sutherland (“The Hunger Games”) was good but I found the performance from James Woods (“Casino”) a little irritating. The photo-realistic characters look absolutely breath-taking. The alien creatures look incredible too.

“Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” might just be the best movie based on videogame ever made but I guess it cheats a little by actually looking more like a videogame cutscene than any other film out there. The technology used to animate this film is truly impressive and it is a shame that it did not succeed at the box-office. It is terrific to look at but I did find the plot a little confusing at points and there were a few dull moments. However, I still have to recommend this movie.