Great example of a failure in branding.  This movie (which I rewatched for the first time in a long while last night) is a surprisingly coherent, well voiced, interesting movie.  Midway through the movie it’s difficult to remember that you’re watching CGI at all, and the plot itself is well done, the writing mostly tight and the characterization spot on.  Compare this movie to DOOM and you’ll see how good it actually is.

Here’s the problem — it’s not a video game movie.  Sure, a Final Fantasy fan will recognize things like Spirits, and Cid, but for the most part, it’s a stand-alone sci-fi movie, and a good one at that.  The failure of this movie (which lost $125m or so and sunk the burgeoning studio) is that it should never have been branded as a Final Fantasy product.  FF fans ended up feeling gypped (wow, the spelling really is that explicit, nice) and non-FF fans figured why show up to Advent Children part III.

A perfect example of a failure to understand when to harness the power of branding.