My second major problem with movies is that I generally fall prey to the most obvious thing I should NOT fall prey to: I expect too much. The fallacy of expectation, as I call it. I expected a lot from Wing Commander (hey, that’s one of my favourite games of all time!). They blew it (to put it civilly). I expected a lot from Star Wars. It was too kiddie and happy-happy. I expected nothing from Tomb Raider. Turns out that was still too much. I expected Charlie’s Angels to suck. Boy, was I in for a surprise. Notice that downward expectations trend – that just goes to show that, at least for this one humble moviegoer, most current movies suck.

But I had a lot of expectations for Final Fantasy, contrary to my previous experience. I told myself – “Hey, it’s Square, I’m sure they’ll pull some mad moves and get this sucka up good, it’s goin’ to be kickin’!”

Well, I was in for a surprise.

I settled down in the movie theatre, with my extra-large Pepsi (stupid place doesn’t sell Coke), and thought, “okay, this should be fun. I worry it might suck just like most other movies with high budgets and high expectations, but please, Oh Ye God of Movies, make this one count.”

Lights switch off. We get to the mandatory previews section. They show previews for some movies I don’t even remember now (one was Spiderman, though, which was cool – way to go putting comic characters on the big screen, thumbs up for that). Strangely, there were eerily few previews – usually, we are privy to a good half-dozen, if not more. Not this time.

Then the screen faded to the words “FEATURE PRESENTATION”. “Okay,” thought I, “it’s now or never.”

Fade in a close-up of Aki Ross, the protagonist. Spin camera around, slowly rising above an immense desolate landscape of an alien planet. Notice her drop something. Pan camera below her, turns out she is standing on water, and you are looking up through the water onto her.

Shock. I could not believe my eyes. Okay, I know I read much about the animation and all that, but this first scene made me forget I was drinking something, and I just stared at the screen, slack-jawed.

Aki wakes up. She looks over and starts using a computer console with some strange motion-sensing control mechanisms, which were all so damn well-animated that I could barely believe my eyes.

Once the initial shock over the animation passed, I started getting a bit more into the story and the actual happenings. I’m not going to go into details on it, but I noticed an interesting detail about animated vs non-animated movies: it seems to me like we’re generally a bit more lenient towards stories in animated movies as opposed to live-action ones. We can let slide a slightly more cliché story in an animated feature, which the Final Fantasy one is – after all, the main character is saving the Earth! But after seeing the movie, I have to say: I saw some distinct parallels with the Final Fantasy series of games, especially certain elements of the movie and certain elements of the plot. I expected it to have absolutely nothing to do with the game, but it seems like it has nothing to do with the games save just a little (which is already better than the games – which have nothing to do with each other, period). I regret not hearing any music from Final Fantasy, though. It would’ve been extremely cool to just hear a clip of Aeris’ theme somewhere, or the opening theme of Final Fantasy VII. Ah well. The soundtrack is not bad at all, though, and quite in line with music expected from Final Fantasy.

Speaking of the sounds, even besides the incredible lip-sync animation that makes the characters look 100% human, the other sounds in the game are so incredibly synced with the animation that it makes the movie seem eerily realistic. Explosions, equipment clanking sounds, footsteps, “computer” sounds – everything was like, wow. I really don’t have a less colloquial expression for that. Really, “like, wow” describes it most graphically.

The movie had everything I had hoped for, and more, though. I have a particular fascination with post-apocalyptic landscapes (I seem to like the whole glum, radiation-swamped districts with abandoned buildings, cars, and a general omni-present sense of despair and destruction). The movie has plenty of those, and they are so Fallout’y in nature that I felt a wave of nostalgia sweeping over me. I have waited for this movie for a long time, just like I have waited for every Final Fantasy title I’ve seen. The movie delivered everything I wanted, and way more than that. I rarely come out of a movie with my drink unfinished (I paid a goddamn $3 for a tiny glass, I better finish it!) – but my glass was full after this one, because I forgot I had it. All I can say is “Go watch it”.

Oh, and, for the record, I think that while Aki Ross is fairly good-looking for a computer-rendered character, I think that Maxim putting it on the top 100 sexiest women around is just a little bit too much. My two cents. But don’t let that distract you. Go watch the movie!

For more information about it, check out the official website, http://www.finalfantasy.com - and make sure you see the clips, if this lowly review didn’t make you want to see it.