I’m a huge fan of synthesizer music. There was a time, though, when many believed synthetic music lacked soul. Now it’s common to hear some element of synthesized sound in almost every musical style. The same goes for films containing CGI (Computer Graphics Imaging). What started as cheesy backdrops on films like Tron, now give life to dinosaurs, annoying frog-like sidekicks, and more recently some extremely life-like cyber-humans.

Borrowing its name from the popular video game, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within paints an exceedingly bleak picture of the Earth some 60 years in the future. After aliens crash land in Tucson, Arizona, humans are forced to retreat to barrier-protected cities or face extinction. Struggling to find a solution are doctors Ross and Sid, who believe the alien phantoms are actually disembodied spirits drawn to the Earth’s own life force. Their plan entails collecting eight spirits scattered about the planet and using their combined force to drive the alien phantoms away. In direct opposition to this strategy stands General Hein. Embittered by the loss of his family, Hein intends on destroying the creatures with his Zeus Cannon, but doesn’t heed Dr. Sid’s warning that doing so could harm the Earth. The story builds from there into a race against time as aliens manage to break through New York’s barrier, while Ross, Sid, and an elite military battalion search for the remaining spirits.

While the first hour of this film is captivating, the last act bored me to death. The affect of groundbreaking animation, truly epic imagery, and a killer soundtrack wears off and allows the narrative’s lethargic pacing and melodrama to show. I also found that while each of the characters did have their flaws, these CGI-programmed traits revealed little of the soul to make them truly human.

From a purely technical standpoint, the production values in Final Fantasy are fantastic. Some decidedly flat visual elements, inconsistency between the surfaces and movements of each human character, and some hard lighting were the only flaws in otherwise excellent images. Digitally transferred animation frames have rich but muted colors and nice depth of field. In particular, wide-open landscapes and daylight conditions looked stunning, while some low-light and key lighting on characters faces such as those with General Hein, belie their organic aspirations.

Life-like foley and sound effects along with concussive bass make Final Fantasy’s visuals come to life. Elliot Goldenthal’s score, while borrowing a few cues from his Alien 3 effort, does a good job adding to the dramatic ebb of the film. In many cases the score and sound are far better than the gradually weakening plot deserves.

Final Fantasy’s wealth of extras put such two-disc films like Snatch to shame. Three commentaries, an isolated score, storyboards with optional commentary, and nifty subtitled facts are included on the first disc, while a "Making Of" documentary, DVD-ROM tour of the film, and filmmaking workshop populate the second disc. Overall, I found the extras to be excellent, though not as outstanding as those found on Seven (which had four documentaries and less of a Hollywood sheen about it).