Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a cross-genre blend of sci-fi and computer animation, more Japanese anime than cuddly Disney. Check out the flood of Japanese names in the end-credits. Released in 2001, it was one of the first attempts at photo-realistic animation, and in that respect, at least, was startlingly successful. While you'll never confuse the images here with those of real people, they're as close to it as anyone has come, either before or since. Unlike the more recent Polar Express, the characters here don't have creepy, zombie-like eyes.

But the film was not a box office success. It had the potential to appeal to science fiction fans, but if the animation didn't turn them off (many sci-fans are young men who wouldn't go to an animated film if you paid them), the word-of-mouth about its weird, muddled plot did.

An uneasy mix of post-apocalyptic fantasy, sci-fi action, and Druidic mysticism, the story has mankind holed-up in protected, domed cities. There they seek refuge from strange, ghost-like aliens who have occupied the rest of Earth.

As odd as it is, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is well worth a look. It's enormously creative visually, and as presented here on Blu-ray disc provides two hours of stunning eye- and ear-candy. The images are consistently and compelling sharp and crisp, with excellent shadow detail (a lot of the film is very dark, in more ways than one). The colors are subdued, but that's deliberate.

The audio is even more astonishing. This film always offered first-class demo-quality surround sound even on DVD, but as heard here in 5.1-channel uncompressed PCM it's of unquestionable reference quality.

Picture: 10….Sound: 10….Film: 7.0

(Reviewed on an InFocus IN82 1080p projector and Stewart Studiotek 130, 78" wide, 16:9 screen, with a Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray player, an Onkyo TX-SR875 Surround Sound Receiver (used as a pre-pro) and an Anthem Statement P5 power amplifier. Also a Revel B15 subwoofer with Revel Ultima Studio2, Voice2, and Gem2 speakers.)