Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children (Two-Disc Special Edition)

I saw Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within a long, long time ago. I don't remember much about it but I do remember that I enjoyed it and was particularly blown away by the beauty of the CGI. There was no need to play the game and I thought that this would be pretty much the same.

The only place I was wrong was that this movie would have made a lot more sense, and had a lot more meaning, if I had actually played the games or followed the storyline. Because I hadn't there were a lot of references that I missed and I had a tough time following who the good guys and the bad guys were. But by the middle of the movie I seemed to be following things pretty well with an occasional shock here and there.

So if you haven't played the game, take it from me, this movie is still worth picking up. The action is pretty intense, the voice characters are pretty good, and the graphics could not be done any better. The storyline seems epic in proportion but if you pay attention I think anybody can get a basic understanding of the overall storyline and plot.

It makes me want to pick up the game and storyline sometime.

Absolutely amazing. Beautiful graphics and and even better storyline. If you are a HUGE FF7 fan like me, you'll love it! c:

Great movie if you're a fan of FFVII saga. I picked this up to supplement my Crisis Core experience. Loved em both. Good service too.

Final Fantasy 7:Advent Children looks very good. Better than The Spirits Within, and that's saying something. It's got action, vast cityscapes, and people with hair that moves. And it's got monsters and motorbikes, and more action...and yet more action. In fact, there's so much action everything else falls by the wayside, and here lies one of the films biggest failings.

First, it has to be said that if you haven't seen Final Fantasy 7 and know a far bit about the world that this adventure takes place in, you're going to be totally lost here, because the movie is a direct sequel to that video game. So, as far as the movie going public goes, that's got to be a pretty small audience, even for a game like this, which was a massive world seller. But that's still not going to get as many bums on seats as your usual futuristic blockbuster. Still, let's assume that you're a bit of an FF fan and you've taken your chances and sat down, looking forward to seeing all your favourite characters come to life, so lets see what you get.

Well, here's what the game gets pretty much right. There they all are, Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie, Barrett, etc and they look fantastic. The animation is superb, everyone moves, walks and gestures like a real person. The city (Midgar?) looks authentic and the feeling of familiarity is spot on. This was definitely a labour of love. They've even included some of the same musical themes.

Now that you've got over the thrill of the characters coming to life, we can move onto the plot. Oh dear...Erm...well, three silver-haired punks turn up claiming that they want to reunite with Mother and take revenge on the planet. To do that they need to find some left-over cells from the original Jenova project that was behind the trouble in the game. Can our heroes stop them? Well yes, of course, is the answer, and to do so, the film starts with jaw dropping action sequences, and never takes a breath for 90 minutes. Now that might sound great but without any character or plot development in between, the action seems to have as much depth as a vintage side scrolling beat `em up. All that happens in this film, is fight after fight, after fight, after fight! The silver haired baddies come to town and our heroes fight them. And that really is it. Oh they also summon some big bug-like monsters, but just the one type - how cheap is that? I wanted to see classic FF creatures, especially a few summons like Ifrit or Shiva but these generic beasts are nothing I recognised, and they don't even do much. Anyway, Cloud and the gang rip through everything anyway, just pausing momentarily to utter deep and meaningful platitudes about life, destiny and friendship before they get back to leaping on motorbikes or dashing vertically up the outside of tall buildings (like you do) to have a go at the baddies. The action is so outrageously over the top that in a few places you might actually be laughing, but I think such a reaction would not upset the makers, as it is not called "fantasy" for nothing. There's one standout sequence of a battle against a particularly large flying dragon type thing (the only different monster to the previously mentioned bug things) which has some quite breathtaking shots (if only we could really jump upwards with enough momentum to go that high!), but the rest of the film badly needs some time out from all the excitement to make you care about what's going on.

The film is SO unavoidably for fans only that it's impossible for anyone new to the story to get anything out of it. And even someone who knows the original like I do needs a bit more meat on the story than this. I played it twice but still get lost when I try and unravel the plot, and this movie just glosses over everything, which, when you are referencing a game that had about 100 hours of interactive detail, that's a lot of glossing!! You couldn't just walk into this and get it, because the hugely important plot details about Mako, Materia, Jenova, Lifestream, Soldier, Sephiroth and Aeris are not explained in detail at all. All in all, the film is a fans dream, but an under developed one, because it's all your favourite characters in one very long and drawn out fight from beginning to end, and all in the same place and at the same breakneck speed. Its also seemingly shot in a palette of mostly grey, black and silver, which doesn't lend much to variety either. Quite exhausting, but ultimately very throwaway.

This is a goog movie for fans of the Final Fantasy video game series. I wouldn't recomend it for those who are not a fan of the series. The quallity of the animation is great.