In the year 2065, a meteor has crashed onto Earth unleashing an invading race of millions of strange phantom-like alien creatures who roam the earth, decimating field and city alike, threatening to extinguish life itself. But when a brilliant young female scientist, Dr. Aki Ross makes a last stand on Earth with the help of a ragtag team of soldiers against an invasion of alien phantoms. She seeks information about their purpose and physiology, assisted by her mentor Dr. Sid and the Deep Eyes military squad of courageous Captain Gray Edwards Aki’s old friend. Tension develops between Aki’s quest to stop the alien onslaught through study and the more extreme solution favored by the vengeful, saber-rattling General Hein, who would destroy both the aliens and the Earth itself! —IMDb
Honestly, I loved it and I still do. It has that "special feeling" about it. I guess the great amounts of criticism came from those who still think that Final Fantasy is still FF VII. This is a movie, not a game. And it had also the purpose to develop new technics for the rest of the games to follow. In 2001, it was way ahead of what Pixar was doing. True story.
If you can't see the recurring themes from the video games in this Final Fantasy movie, I don't think you were really paying attention in the first place. The ideas of Gaia/, environmentalism, planet destruction by mankind, spirits,... it's totally FF. It hasn't aged well but still looks gorgeous,
This whole movie bothers me and I really dislike it. Perhaps there is some negative bias there because I'm as big a gamer as much as I am a cinephile, and that includes being a big Final Fantasy fan. Hironobu Sakaguchi does not know how to write or direct a story that fits in the medium of cinema. None of the characters have emotions. Plus the sci-fi element has been done before. The only good thing are the visuals.
I still envision the "Old New York" scene for my inner eye over and over, and over again in my mind. Amazing work!