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Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within |
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Based on a popular video game series,
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
combines state-of-the-art technology with
Neo-Pagan theology for a summer sci-fi hit
that’s part escapist fun, part spiritual
counterfeit.
This spectral cousin of Aliens and
Alien3 finds a remnant
of humanity staving off voracious ghosts that
feed on their victims’ spirits. A reckless
general wants to wipe out the invaders with a
weapon of mass destruction. Scientists Aki
Ross and Dr. Sid prefer a more
environmentally friendly approach based on a
wave of spiritual energy. But time’s running
out. Especially for Ms. Ross, who has been
inhabited by phantom goo. A brave team of
commandos joins the fight, blasting
translucent beasts while shuttling the
scientists on their search for missing spirits
(located in fish, deer, plants, etc.).
Will teens want to see Final
Fantasy? Absolutely—if only to witness the
most realistic computer-generated humans
ever put on the big screen (an amazing feat).
But what else awaits young viewers in
the year 2065?
The film’s action violence and
horror/fantasy elements are intense, but not
over the top. There’s also some profanity. The
biggest concern relates to the story’s
metaphysical underpinnings in
"Gaia," an actual worldview named
for a Greek Earth goddess. It holds that the
planet and all living things are part of "god" and can be injured or destroyed. Gaia is the
impersonal force made up of all organic and
inorganic matter. The Bible exists in
director Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Fantasy
(there’s an allusion to Noah’s Ark), but it’s impotent and irrelevant. Instead we
get the slickest presentation of eco-pantheism
since Pocahontas.
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