Story Synopsis:
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within takes place in the year 2065. A meteor has crashed onto the Earth, unleashing millions of alien creatures who threaten life itself. Yet the spirit of humankind is resilient and embodied in the brilliant and beautiful Dr. Aki Ross (Ming-Na), Earth's last hope for defeating the alien predators. With the guidance of her scientific mentor, Dr. Sid (Sutherland), and the courageous Capt. Gray Edwards (Baldwin), Aki races to save both the planet and herself.

DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85:1 DVD picture is simply superb. Images appear lifelike, while at the same time remaining true to the video game. The human characters are incredibly real, from highlights across their faces and in their hair, to detail in their clothing. The picture can be appropriately dark, but “shadow delineation” is excellent. Colors are nicely balanced-at times subdued, and other times rich. Blacks are deep and solid. Viewing in a completely blackened room is recommended to fully enjoy all that this DVD picture has to offer. Some noise is noticed, but otherwise the picture is solid. (Suzanne Hodges)

Soundtrack:
The Dolby® Digital 5.1 audio has excellent fidelity, and tonality sounds natural and very nicely balanced. The dimensional scope of this sound mix is absolutely worthy of commendation, and the end result is a soundstage that is open, wide, spacious and convincingly holosonic. The sense of a seamless, 360-degree soundstage is uncanny and unmatched by many other films that simply seem to deliver detached frontal and surround soundfields. This is particularly evident with scenes involving subtle spaciousness, and also the distribution of music around the listener. The use of back surround decoding also helps to heighten the sense of spaciousness behind you, and the POV scenes within Dr. Aki Ross’ viewfinder seem to benefit from the extracted back surround channel as well. The music recording is superlative, as well as its seamless integration into the multidimensional soundstage. Another noteworthy aspect of this sonic presentation are the creative recording and selection of sound effects, many of which have particular character, and impart certain visceral attributes to on-screen objects and events. Also, the surrounds are engaged to various degrees of activity, from subtle to aggressive, along with pinpoint directivity. Furthermore, the utilization of dynamic range seems very effective at times, often serving the purpose of heightening emotion and poignancy. The dialogue is an excellent production, with voices sounding very natural, and spatial integration that is very convincing. Last but definitely not least, low-end delivery is superlative. Deep bass rumbles and impact are executed cleanly and with very low extension, below 25 Hz in the main channels (more so from the screen), as well as substantial .1 LFE engagement. Sometimes the low-end can be powerful enough to pose a challenge to your system. The only minor drawback with this soundtrack is that overall volume level seems a bit subdued. Nonetheless, this is an excellent creative outing from Skywalker Sound, and a definite recommendation for all surround sound fans. (Perry Sun)

This Disc Contains The Following WSR-Rated Superb Qualities:
Reference Quality
Collector Edition
Superb Special Visual Effects Quality