Just when you think you've seen every computer trick and gimmick that can possibly stick to a screen, along comes a new advance that puts the “special” back in special effects.

        This summer's something is Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, based on a popular video game series developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, who also directed this film.

MOVIE REVIEW

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within    3 stars    (PG-13; sci-fi action violence) Voices of Alec Baldwin, Ming Na, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin, Ving Rhames, Donald Sutherland. Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi. National Amusements, Danbarry Middletown, Great Escape 14, Cinema 10

        Working with a small army of artist/technicians, he has created characters that rank as the closest digital approximation of real people ever seen.

        In extreme close-up, their skin texture, their hair, the tiny lines around their eyes, even their eyelashes, look almost like photographs of living people.

        The illusion is so striking that there are moments when it is possible to forget you are looking at an animated picture.

        The story is a respectable, generic sci-fi staple, with stock characters racing around trying to unlock a mysterious power that will save the Earth from infestation by aliens, called phantoms.

        The aliens are mighty cool effects themselves; they look like monster versions of what you see through a microscope in a drop of pond water.

        The humans are all straight out of the sci-fi stock room: a wise old scientist (voice of Donald Sutherland); a beautiful young scientist (voice of Ming Na); a brawny military officer (voice of Alec Baldwin); a tough African-American sergeant (voice of Ving Rhames); an even tougher female soldier (voice of Peri Gilpin); and a wise-cracking pilot (voice of Steve Buscemi).

        Aside from the see-through invaders who feed on human spirits, the heroes' chief nemesis is a bitter general (voice of James Woods) who wants to battle the phantoms with major firepower that could destroy what's left of the Earth. The scientists are lobbying for a more spiritual approach.

        Director Sakaguchi and company spin a surprisingly convincing and suspenseful yarn from familiar threads, helped immensely by the jaw-dropping quality of the animation.

        Realistic as they are, the digital characters are not as interesting as their voices. They move stiffly, and sport the bland good looks and wooden expressions of wallet-picture models.

        Quibbles notwithstanding, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within rates as the coolest geek-culture movie of the summer.
       

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