Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within

Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within had special effects which were hailed as “revolutionary” when it was released in 2001. France in 1793 was pretty revolutionary as well, but that doesn’t mean you’d want to have anything to do with it. The newly-developed “photorealistic” CGI effects gave the characters the creepy, blank faces of pod people (the so-called uncanny valley effect). The villain, General Hein, was a clichéd evil Patton wannabe who would make General Grievous from Star Wars look three-dimensional by comparison. Even worse, don’t start looking for Sephiroth or Cloud in this movie, because it had jack to do with any Final Fantasy game ever released. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within lost about $82 million worldwide and essentially led to the collapse of Square Studios, the company that released it. Nice work.