25 Years Later, We Need To Recognize How Groundbreaking This Sci-Fi Flop Really Was

The world has generally come around on Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars: Episode I, if only because George Lucas and actor Ahmed Best were able to successfully create the first fully computer-generated character in a live-action movie. Without Jar Jar, you might not have Gollum a few years later, or Michael Bay’s Transformers, or any of the Marvel characters from any Marvel movie (Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t even wear the armor most of the time!). And if we’re giving Jar Jar the credit he deserves, then there’s a much, much bigger critical and commercial flop that should be getting more credit: 2001’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Directed by famed video game designer Hironobu Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is very loosely based on the video game series it shares a name with (also created by Sakaguchi), but that doesn’t necessarily mean much. The Final Fantasy games generally have no connection to each other beyond thematic similarities (and the recurring use of the name “Cid”), so this could’ve been released without the famous branding… but then it likely would’ve made even less money at the box office. With a 44 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, The Spirits Within cost $137 million and only made $85 million worldwide. But that doesn’t mean the movie doesn’t have an important legacy.

‘Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within’ Was a Groundbreaking Work of CGI

The reason Jar Jar is relevant to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is that, while he was the first fully-CG character in a live-action movie, The Spirits Within is the first fully-CG movie that is trying to emulate live-action. Unlike, say, Toy Story, this movie is approaching something like photorealism. That makes The Spirits Within an important steppingstone on the way to movies like Avatar, showing that a feature-length film that was entirely/heavily dependent on CGI was totally feasible.

Of course, more divisive movies like The Polar Express were also part of that journey, but seeing some of the first movies with color was probably weird, and movies where the characters could actually talk to each other probably took some getting used to as well. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within looks dated now, but it was genuinely impressive and groundbreaking at the time, especially with main protagonist Aki Ross — who clearly got a little more attention in the development process than every other thing in the movie. Even if it doesn't necessarily look great now, it's easy to believe that it did look good at some point.

What Is ‘Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within’ About?

Set in 2065, after alien ghost things called Phantoms have invaded the Earth, the survivors live in shielded cities that the Phantoms can’t enter. The Phantoms kill anyone they touch, but Aki Ross (played by Ming-Na Wen) lives through an encounter and discovers a way to wipe out all of the Phantoms by collecting eight distinct spirits from other lifeforms. That may sound like a video game premise, but, just to be clear, this is a movie. A movie called Final Fantasy. Directed by a guy who worked on the Final Fantasy video games.

Aki meets some soldiers (played by Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, and Peri Gilpin) who help her on her quest, and also there’s a bad military guy played by James Woods who just wants to kill all of the Phantoms with a space gun even though that could harm the spirit that lives in the Earth. That’s all pretty bonkers, but it makes sense for the first feature-length movie made entirely with photorealistic (ish) CGI to swing for the fences. There’s a gotta be a reason the movie was made with such advanced (at the time) technology, and it would be a waste if this were a restrained drama that took place in one location and didn’t have any space ghosts.

Sony, which distributed Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, has been somewhat ashamed of it for a long time, so it’s generally easy to see for free. As of right now, you can watch The Spirits Within for free on The Roku Channel.