Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within had its good points

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

I remember hearing about, then reading about this movie and was very excited - and couldn't wait to see it.  I'm embarrassed to say that, while I knew about Final Fantasy, I hadn't played the games at the time of the movie's release).  So when I did see the movie at the cinema, I was totally blown away!  It was the most amazing movie I had ever seen ... at times this incredible new CGI technology looked more like real actors.  It's no wonder Hollywood was in a panic, saying this film was going to be the end of live actors.

Fortunately for Hollywood, and unfortunately for Square, the movie failed at the box office.  It wasn't because of the technology, for even today (a decade later) the movie can still hold up against modern CGI films.  The fact that it was a Final Fantasy motion picture with very little to do with the franchise, was what really hurt it.  It did have a Final Fantasy-style theme song, and the elements of spirits and Gaia - but t wasn't a Final Fantasy-type story.  And it's that which turned away the fans of the series in droves - effectively killing any chance the movie had of success.  

If Square had made the film with a Final Fantasy story, it would have done well enough to make a profit - and who knows, there could have been a series of Final Fantasy movies by now.  Imagine if they had turned Final Fantasy VII (the most successful game in the series, selling over 10.5 million copies) into that movie, it would most likely have broken box office records.

I have since played completed 8 of the 13 console-released Final Fantasy games, and can easily see how the movie failed to appeal to fans.  Hopefully Square (now Square-Enix) have learnt from their mistake -now that they have finally green-lit the remake of Final Fantasy VII, and every fan (including this one) will be hoping they do it properly.  The expected time to remake this game is estimated at between 3-5 years.