Do you know when you get that hair standing up on the back of your neck when you sit in awe of the opening movie to the latest videogame? Those films last about 2-4 minutes and you wish so hard that the movie would keep going. Well when you see Final Fantasy, the film, the hair is there and by god this is the whole story.

Mulan’s Ming Na stars as the voice to the curious and beautiful Dr. Aki Ross, a scientist bound to find out the secret of an alien race which has forced man into a huge almost apocalyptic battle for the survival of the Earth. On a survey mission, Aki discovers one of the keys to man’s survival, the so-called sixth spirit. Aki and her mentor Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland) believe that finding all eight spirits will cure the Earth. Standing in Aki’s way is the vicious General Hein (James Woods) who believes extermination and eradication of the alien menace is the best way to save mankind.

Columbia Pictures isn’t wrong in saying that this is the closest thing to actual human representation in animation. The photo-realistic detail will surely make you do a double take. From the dramatic effortless blowing of Aki’s incredible hair to the sneer of the evil General Hein, there is timeless feeling shown in the creation of these characters. The animation itself is utterly unbelievable eye candy that will challenge other studios to take the next step in animation along with Columbia.

I loved how the animators would do the subtlest and smallest of detail to bring these characters to life. The liver spots on Dr. Sid, the veins in clenching hands or the passing of smoke through a background. This style of animation is unmistakably unbelievable. It is basically something you will have to witness to believe.

The smallest flaws in Final Fantasy are a couple of the story problems. For instance, what or who are the 8 Spirits? What is their significance to these people’s lives? Lastly, why do these aliens ingest human souls? Because of these confusing plot elements you can almost see General Hein’s viewpoint. Because the plot is a little foreign it maybe safe to say that this is “anime come to life”.

Once I got past those plot elements I found myself really wrapped up the human struggle. The mind-boggling dream sequences allow us to get deeper into the head of Aki Ross and thus uncovering more of who the aliens are. I liked how the film would deliver raw emotion into the characters as they would react to their environment not matter how harsh. In a lot of animated films today characters just gingerly walk through landscapes but these characters actually react and interact with their environments.

The action scenes, which are frequent, reminded me a lot of films like Predator, Aliens and Pitch Black. I liked how some of those sequences paid homage to the films instead of directly ripping them off. Seeing those kinds of battle scenes in CGI and how close they seemed to real-life brought a smile to my face.

The whole film does beg the question, how close to human mimicry are we going to get? If this is the first step, please by all means bring on the next. This is one small step for Aki Ross and one giant leap for animation kind.

(4 of 5) So Says the Soothsayer.