Logic and common sense have nothing to do with the impact of art.

Why expect a grand, occasionally magnificent space opera from the film
version of an interactive game, complete with a convoluted story about a
science-fiction cataclysm, spirits and redemption, all acted (splendidly)
by animated characters? Logic, even common sense, would say:  in a pig's
eye.  But that's not what happens here.

Hironobu Sakaguchi's "Final Fantasy:  The Spirits Within" is a
surprisingly, strangely engrossing movie, a visual orgy - combination
"Forbidden Planet," "Blade Runner," Hieronymus Bosch and an erotic
pyromaniac's fantasy - transformed into a flawed but frequently
overwhelming grand opera.  It is a milestone in the ever-peaking career
of composer Elliot Goldenthal.

The flaws are obvious, painfully so at the end when Goldenthal abruptly
switches from a gloriously effective grand vocabulary - of Berlioz, Wagner
and Schoenberg of the early 1900s - to a coy pop sound, even worse than
Bernstein's "Simple Song" cheapening his Mass.  That is obvious and just as
idiotic as the image of a bird flying over the burned-out planet, but what
is virtually hidden, what you have to listen for is the good stuff, when
Goldenthal writes magnificent passages, perfectly matching Sakaguchi's
stunning visions.

The music, of course, should NOT call attention to itself; after all, this
is a film score.  Goldenthal maintains the right balance, collaboration
with the director, just as he did in "Titus," "The Butcher Boy," "Sphere,"
many others.  And yet, at the same time, you can hear his theatrical voice
as well, the one I've been following with interest since his 1988 "Juan
Darien" collaboration with Julie Taymor.  Goldenthal's incidental music for
numerous Shakespeare productions, score for musical theater pieces, such as
"The Transposed Heads," "The Green Bird" and, especially, his score for the
ABT/San Francisco Ballet "Othello" - this and much more have been pointing
to what eventually came true in "Final Fantasy."

A great bonus, at least at the preview screening I saw tonight:  acceptable
sound levels, the audience not blasted out of the seats.  I' d like to
believe that's how the film was produced, composer and director fighting
against the usually painfully experience of portraying large-scale action
by multiples of decibels, rather than the quality of the composition.  Or,
perhaps, it was the caring, operatically-inclined hand of the producer.
His name is Jun Aida.

Janos Gereben/SF
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