10 Movies That Literally Had To Reinvent Filmmaking
3. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Bombs BUT Changes The Photorealism Game (2001)
Some reinventions provide instant successes, while some do not. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was not a success, and is regarded as a box office bomb.
The movie was an adaptation of the popular video game series, Final Fantasy. This demanded similarities between the film and the video game series, which required very expensive technology. This led to the creation of the first computer-animated movie that focused on photorealism and motion capture for all characters.
Despite the movie being an overall flop, one of the positive outcomes was the realism of their characters, through their digital processing. In particular, the detail of the character Aki Ross appeared almost lifelike in the movie, as the photorealism and motion capture was taken to another level.
It's crazy to think that a movie which bombed at the box office would also be a milestone in film history, but Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within managed to achieve that contrast. This led to even greater realism of fictional characters in movies, such as Avatar and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.