2001-07-30 - 6:46 p.m.
Note to self: Want to play Max Payne. But can't. Must wait one month over US release date to play Max Payne. Nrgh. Can't wait. Must have cinematic shooter now! Must have bullet time gun fights now! Machine can now render it smooth as silk.... Yeeeeeesssss.... Must play substitute in waiting. Argh! No! Multiplayer only! Must set up LAN of some kind and have raging gun battles with flips 'n rolls 'n double pistols with infinite ammo. Waaaaaaaaah.... So sad. @_@ Must stop speaking like foreign hick with no education.
Well, I finally got to see the most hyped up game movie this Saturday along with several other AAC members. It was actually, pretty good. I mean, of COURSE the graphics and detail of animation was amazing; but the storyline too has this vaguely "final fantasy"-ish game feel and is rife with Japanese sensibilities. Of course, both of these have their share of problems; but at the end of the film, one feels that this film quite effectively bridges the gap between what are considered "game movies" (i.e. mostly crap or B-grade efforts) and "good movies" (i.e. not "game movies"). It's not quite there yet, but considering how many other films based on a game series have failed utterly, this was actually pretty good.
Hmmmmm.... I think I've scared off a few people now by putting the movie title and possible spoilers into this entry (I know of one who definitely won't be reading this entry until much later. ;-)). I believe I shall make fun of them, yes. For they are not reading this, so I may insult them with total impunity! So here goes: Ahem. Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries. There, that should do. Anyway, moving on. While I could devote this entire entry to taking apart the FF movie and examining all its shiny insides for what made it tick, I think I shall also sum up the events leading up to that and make this entry doubly long. Including why we had to wait 6 hours for a film session at 11PM on a Saturday. O.o
First up for the morning was a small meeting at Chris' place for the official showing of Chopper Chicks in Zombietown and meeting up with Chris (of course), EB and Michael. The movie fulfilled all the requirements for b-grade movie fun; including black leather clad biker chicks, small town under siege by zombies, mad scientist type person (who refuses to die.... a lot), an undertaker assistant midget and best of all: a bus full of blind kids with a semi-automatic weapon. Classic stuff that. Best line of the movie: "Okay dad, as long as you don't eat anybody I don't think anyone will notice (that you're a zombie)." The next movie shown was Raiders of the Living Dead, which unfortunately was a bit too slow to be a true B-grade movie. But it did feature a kid who built a laser gun out of an LD player and zapped his hamster by accident. The only real highlight of the movie unfortunately. Everything else seemed like the editor was out for the day, so they included every conceivable shot they had taken into the film to try and fill one and a half hours. After that we watched a bit of The Matrix (specifically: lobby scene all the way up to the point where Neo kicks Agent Priscilla-- I mean, Smith booty) and then it was off to the city to meet other AAC people at 5PM and catch the next showing of the Final Fantasy movie.
But it was destined not to be.... Or at least, properly. For when we arrived in Queen Street, Auckland city, and went up to the cinema to check the times: The 6PM session had sold out. Which we expected more or less, since it was a Saturday. But more damningly was the sold out state of the 8PM session as well. In fact, the only session we could go to was the 11PM session, which seemed to be a bit late to say the least. Once the entire group for the evening had gathered at the meeting place (Amy, Fergus and his brother and Kunfei [who now has a journal. hurrah!]) we made a decision upon what we should do in regards of seeing the movie. After a couple of enquiries about the availability of seats in other theatres (with no success) we decided to stay in town for the next couple of hours for the 11PM showing, and bought a ten pack of tickets. Well, I bought the tickets. And made the enquiries. And was the one who was coerced by Fergus into organising (in the loosest sense of the word) this outing in the first place. As compensation for my unwilling sacrifice (or so I would have put it if anyone contested my will), I took the extra 3 tickets leftover from the ten pack people contributed money towards to buy (since EB wasn't going). Now I can visit any Village 8 cinema thrice in the next year and watch any movie I want! Well, more or less.
After getting the tickets we wandered the city in search of excitement. Most of it came from visiting arcades and playing DDR or some other variant with hands instead of feet. We even accidentally met up with Josh, Nick and some other guy (who looks familiar) at one point. O.o Total coincidence we met up in town, really. And thanks to the trend started by Fergus, most of the group also decided to get a couple of photocards (from those cute Japanese booth thingymajigs).... Myself included. The results varied from hilarious to rather disturbing; and viewing the results of other photo people was a lot of fun. Had a small dinner at Wendys where EB parted ways with us to catch a bus ride home. Once we had out fill of food and random arcades, we leisurely made our way back to the theatres at about 10:40PM where we were first in line to the next thing. Lucky thing too, cause just as soon as we got to the head of the line there instantly WAS. A line that is. It's like people suddenly appeared out of nowhere and got behind us. Freaky. @_@
Okay, so we got into the theatre and noted that the number of asian people coming in greatly outnumbered people of other nations and cities. Also freaky. And so the lights dimmed and we all eagerly awaiting the Columbia Pictures and Square Studios logo.... But first we were betrayed by having to watch the Spiderman movie trailer. And it was pretty damn terrible, and looks like it's going to be one of THOSE superhero films (e.g. the Batman movies after Tim Burton and Michael Keaton left).... But maybe they're not going to use a poorly rendered CG Spiderman for the real film. Maybe. Spidey sense.... Tingling!
And now for the film itself. I shall attempt to avoid spoilers beyond what has been showed countless numbers of times in the trailers, but be warned: You should really see this movie first cause none of my comments will probably make sense until you do. The film was good, like I said before. It felt like an extremely stripped down version of a Final Fantasy game (if it had been made a game first, then this movie would have the best cutscenes stuffed into it, including prerendered stuff, dialogues and.... mini games?) but considering the games themselves are good, this really isn't a problem.
What IS a problem however, is that because of this, the films story seems both rushed and slightly modular. The rushed feeling comes from squishing a long game into a (relatively) short movie. The modular feeling comes from a strange sense that certain bits are meant to be.... Playable. If you've played a Final Fantasy game (or RPGs in general) you know how you're supposed to complete long stretches of dungeons and kill enemies before reaching the next story point? Well, the movie feels like a long list of story points back to back to one another, and as such feel like there's meant to be a longer period in between each scene so as to maintain a slower, more relaxed pace. The movie's story is still good in spite of that, but the pacing seems thrown all out of whack; and certain elements (like the romance) don't work out so well because of the speeded nature.
Also, the story is quite Japanese in its mindset.... With the concepts of spiritual energy bandied about as easily as the technobabble in Star Trek. Sure the difference between the two may be slight if one were to really think about it (I subscribe to Arthur C. Clarkes school of thought that states "Science, advanced to a certain degree, is indistinguishable from magic"), but the concept of magic and "Gaia" in what looks like a science fiction film would be.... different for mainstream audiences. I kinda like that. It's like showing anime in major theatres, only no one really notices. Well, people will notice the dialogue that sounds too stilted to NOT have shades of "literally translated", but that's only for a few scenes.
But enough about the story. I'm sure the main reason why most people will go see this (apart from the name itself) is to see the pretty photorealistic graphics and character models. Which just aren't QUITE there yet. I mean, there were plenty of times I would not have been able to distinguish the animation I saw on screen from real human actors on real sets.... But then again, there were plenty of OTHER times when I could. It really becomes noticeable when the characters are not so much talking to one another as they are "at" one another. Eye contact is a little bit off as are the mannerisms when they speak; not enough to annoy, but just so that we notice that these characters aren't as real as they could be. Either that, or they went through the Keanu Reeves school of acting: learning how to maintain a rather blank expression no matter what the situation.
Only two characters really seemed to shine as being more "almost human" than the other members of the cast: the dastardly evil General and Dr. Cid *sniggers*. They both just act a lot more human than the others; with the general able to be sarcastic and angry, and the doctor having eyes that actually seem to convey a sense of emotion. It's just the little things that seem to make it all the more natural.... Like little hand gestures, or capturing the right kind of pose for a sigh or a smile. They felt a little bit more complete in facial movements in general as well; especially Cid in scenes where he looks frustrated and his eyebrows and forehead furrows realistically. It's probably something the animators will have to tweak overall for the next Final Fantasy movie. But barring the facial area, the actors move BEAUTIFULLY, able to run, walk, climb and do all sorts of physical motions as a normal human would do. And I won't go on about the hair, which blow quite naturally in the wind; or have stubble that looks like stubble and not black dots on a chin.
As for the in-jokes.... Well, unfortunately I couldn't catch many of them. There IS a Cid in the movie, but no Biggs or Wedge (though they COULD have been two random extra soldiers who were on the team) and I couldn't find the two hidden chocobos in the movie, goshdarnit. @_@ The story reminded me somewhat about FF7 (about spirits, lifestream and all that jazz) and the general bears more than a slight resemblance to a palette swapped Seifer from FF8: down to his arrogant attitude, even. But apart from what could be just coincidence, there really isn't much for FF enthusiasts to look for as a "wink of the eye" to fans. There isn't even the Prelude or Bridge themes from the games, and most of the music doesn't really feel like Nobuo Uematsu stuff. A little bit disappointing in this area, but hey! The rest is pretty good so I'm not complaining. ^_^
Overall, it's a good film. It'll probably be praised more for its graphics than it will be for its storyline, but the story has just the right elements of magic and mystery to keep the audiences rooted to their seats. In fact, this is one of the few cinema goings I've ever been to where the theatre is entirely full, and everyone is dead silent for the dyration (except for scenes of comic relief when everyone guffaws, of course). Course, it could be that everyone was at a low energy threshold period due to the time (the movie finished at 1AM!) but I prefer to think everyone was enthralled with the pretty graphics. And bits of the story. ^_^ And after all that it was time to head our seperate ways and go on home.... Where I stayed up until 5AM in the morning talking to Kunfei about anime and games in general. But after THAT I got meself some sleep. O.o Ahhhh.... If all my weekends were that busy.... I'd probably be dead. But if SOME of them were that busy, I'd be happy. And tomorrow night there's another AAC meet down in ACE! And next week I'm planning to hold an AAC meet at my place! The fun never stops! I think I'm using too many exclamation marks! Wai!
