5) Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Production Budget: $137 million
Worldwide Box Office Total: $85,131,830
What succeeds in one medium may flail helplessly in another. Essentially, that was the story for Columbia Pictures’ brave, and ultimately futile adaption of the Final Fantasy series in 2001. Entitled Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the film represented the first time that the popular video game franchise had transcended onto the grand silver screen, although in hindsight, some fans wish it had remained in the realm of pixelated chocobos.
You see, the problem with the movie was that it failed to appeal to any demographic in particular. Instead it was too concerned with boasting its use of photorealistic technology which, for the uninitiated, resulted in the motion picture resembling a video game in terms of visual aesthetic, and therefore passed the mainstream audience by.
What’s more, even though the film was directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi – the mind behind the Final Fantasy series – Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within lacked the fundamental components that make the source material so engaging – even a quasi-Yuna protagonist from Final Fantasy X failed to salvage the production.
A bland narrative with paper thin characters encapsulated Sakaguchi’s directorial debut, and while the film was nominated for its soundtrack and groundbreaking character animation models, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within ultimately and ironically, given the plot, lacked a soul. And when a feature film’s poor reception forces its studio – Square Studios – to shut up shop, you know you’ve got a resounding dud on your hands.
