Eye candy... and brain rotting.

Anyone thinking of buying this might want to save their cash for a Sephiroth poster, because eye-candy is about all you'll get out of Advent Children. (And if you're a fan of anyone but Cloud, Tifa or the Turks, not even much of THAT.)

I'm an FF fan, but I have to admit there was not much to this but the graphics. And that you could get on a poster or your computer wallpaper. My biggest problems with it was depth (or lack thereof) and more importantly, the fact that while fighting moves you'd see in a low-budget foreign kung fu film can be fudged over to look nice in a viedo game, they look as crummy (and will make you cringe as much) as those low-budget kung fu films when it's in a movie. (And even for low-budget kung fu films it'd be pushing it.)

Other than than the nice visuals, this video comes off like a bad Shinra scheme to raise cash that'd have Hiddegar laughing hysterically all the way to Midgar bank. I bought the Japanese version for upside of $40 I was so excited about it, and now I strongly recommend you save your $14.

A Dazzling Spectacle With Zero Substance

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is the first in wave of brand new Final Fantasy VII related sequels called The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII Project. I say its Square-Enix's attempt at milking the cash-cow that is their first blockbuster game until its poor utter bleeds. This movie is pure fan gratification for the people that remain in love with game even though it is quickly approaching its tenth year anniversary. Granted, its not even good fan gratification.
I'll preface why I think Advent Children is a poor tribute to hard-core fans, casual fans, and newcomers alike, by stating my game credentials. Final Fantasy VII annoyed me. It was a good game. I liked it when it came out, but I place it in the middle-lower end of series' quality spectrum. The part that annoys me is that for the last ten years, I've had to listen to the Final Fantasy VII fanboys, most of which have never really played an RPG before or after this one, blow the game completely out of proportion. Now, thanks to this movie, I'm sure this will continue for ten more years since this brainless, empty little affair is getting such high praise.
Final Fantasy newcomers, avoid this movie, because what little of the plot makes sense only makes sense if you have played the game. The DVD has a retrospective from the game that is meant to help you out, but it is about twenty-minutes of still screen-shots from the game and it doesn't really cover much other than a few key scenes. It's pretty to look at, but it isn't pretty enough to find yourself awash in two hours worth of dreck.

Now onto why Advent Children is a poor tribute for all the fans, casual and hard-core alike. For years, those fans have been begging Square-Enix to remake the game with state-of-the-art technology because the blocky 3D graphics of the early playstation days are really looking ugly. That is about the only thing Advent Children does: it looks pretty. Character models are gorgeous and as close to photorealistic as I've ever seen. When the camera isn't zipping around during fight scenes and people aren't doing ridiculous acrobatic combat, its easy to forget that everything you see is all computer generated. When it shifts into its numerous fight scenes, the audience is treated to frantic and cool-looking battles, at least in the first quarter of the movie. As the film approaches its climax, the combat becomes more and more ridiculous. People jump higher than superman. Two men engage in a fifteen minute sword fight while airborne the entire time. A motorcycle chase doesn't even try to adhere to the laws of physics. It becomes too much. Which brings me to my first point. The overall style of this movie is more suited to a game like Devil May Cry than any of the Final Fantasy series. I'll honestly say that if combat in the movie resembled the way it looks in the game, it would have been lame, but then again I ever imagined Cloud Strife as having the same moves as Neo from the Matrix.
Point number Two is: The plot is a mess and the characterization is poor. This thing is so amateurishly written its sad, considering the plot/character progression is what so many people adored about the game. First, you must forget that misanthropic ending that implied that saving the world caused the extinction of the humans. In Advent Children, everyone is alive, but not so well. A strange sickness is spreading throughout the population called Geo-Stigma. Three white-haired men show up looking for the head of Jenova. It's up the heroes of Final Fantasy VII to stop their evil plot, but main character Cloud Strife is too busy being a sad little emo-kid who feels useless and refuses to fight. Cloud spends most of the movie moping about over issues I thought he had already resolved in the game, which gives the other characters time to make cameo appearances. Everyone outside of Cloud feels extraneous in this movie. Being that it is so Cloud-centric, its Surprising that Cloud doesn't have the best scenes. The most amusing and enjoyable scenes belong to the characters affiliated with the Shinra Corporation and they weren't even playable characters in the game. Everything culminates to a climax in which the dead villain Sephiroth comes back from the dead for one last duel with Cloud. I wonder what preteen fan fiction writer Square Enix found to write this plot, because that is exactly what it amounts to.
To be honest, I don't know what I was expecting from this movie. I think I was at least hoping not to dislike it, but that's exactly what happened. The idea of watching this a second time is almost unbearable. If this is a taste of future videogames from Square will look like, we are lucky in did, but we all need to hope that Square keeps their future endeavors in the realm of videogames.

It's not easy to create something that retains such a strong following a decade after its release. Final Fantasy VII fans deserved better after a decade of support

We call this GOOD Fan-Service

You've all heard it before, "I loved Final Fantasy VII" and all that stuff, of course I do. If I didn't, I wouldn't have invested in this. Of course, I almost didn't, for obvious reasons. As grand as Final Fatnasy VII Advent Children is, it's nothing more than fan service. So if you're a Final Fantasy VII Fanboy/girl then nothing anyone can say will persuade you not to get this. It's worth a peak, at least, but there are a few things about the movie as a whole that annoy me. They're little things mostly, but they do start to add up.

We all know the story of Final Fantasy VII. Considered by many fans to be the best in the series (not by me, however, I'm a pure old school gamer, and so Final Fantasy VI still feels a lot better). It had a fantastic story, beautiful cinematics. The graphic quality of the game can't hold up to anything today, but Final Fantasy VII has slowly evolved into it's own standing. In other words, you don't have to say Final Fantasy VII to let someone know you're talking about Cloud, Tifa, Aeris, Sephiroth. You don't even have to play the game to know them. Even more, Aeris's death isn't considered a spoiler to the videogame world anymore. Everyone knows. And if you don't, you must've been living under a rock.

Advent Children takes off two years after the conclusion of Final Fantasy VII. There's a disease going around called Geostigma and most of the victims of this disease happen to be children. Most of them orphans. There isn't a cure for the disease at all. Not only that, but there are a group of people hoping to start a reunion. These people are in search of "Mother." Better known to you as Jenova. All the while, Cloud is sulking in his own misery. His past has become a burden. Even though he and friends helped to save the planet, he spends a lot of time running from his past.

The cast of Final Fantasy VII returns. All the main characters from Cloud to Vincent are back. And it's needless to say that they all look fantastic. The CGI in this movie is brilliant. Almost lifelike. Some characters who you thought were dead even return (some of them have no explanation as to why they're alive, either).

However, along with the returning cast returns the nature of the way a lot of movies are heading these days. The characters from Final Fantasy VII return, but they get little or no development at all. That, or they're heavily out of character. Reno, for example, has been reduced to the comic relief instead of being the tough talking man he was before. Other characters, such as those who were playable in the game, have little development. Cloud is the only character who seems to get even an inch of development. All the other characters, Barret, Tifa, Red XIII, Cait Sith (pronounced Ket-shee), Yuffie, Vincent, Cid, and even Aeris, have no development to them at all. They're just... there. It's sad seeing as how all the characters, not just Cloud, were adored by fans. I don't have to tell you this, just look online. Many characters have sites dedicated just to them (especially Aeris).

There's a lot of action in the movie, and that's where it also goes awry. It looks beautiful, and they're fantastic battles. However, some of them seem pointless, and also go on for a lot longer than they should. It only takes away further from the characters. I like a little action, but not when the whole movie is nothing but action. The first hour of the movie is good. The last of the movie seems to tuck the story away and give only action, but no motivation. Mix that with the lack of character development, and a movie that otherwise should've been flawless... has flaws. The action is good, some of it just drags on for a lot longer than it has too. Especially considering how all the main characters come back to one another. It's also sad that more of the world wasn't shown.

The movie also tends to ignore plot points (very important plot points) of the game itself. Such as Cloud grieving and beating himself up over Aeris's death. This little tidbit was resolved in the game itself (and don't expect me to tell you how; play for yourself).

I will say this, however, the English voices were good. Fantastic. I didn't expect them to be but they were. Full of emotion and life. Something that very rarely happens when a japanese movie is dubbed. It worked out rather nicely. Still, nothing compares to the original japanese voices. Of course, why would the English voices be bad? The voice work in Kingdom Hearts II was fantastic, and these are the same ones.

The soundtrack is also beautiful. It's mostly just music from the game itself remixed, but if you loved Final Fantasy VII, you'll love the music regardless.

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children is a fantastic movie. But much like Final Fantasy X-2, it's just fan-service. The difference between this and FFX-2 is that this is GOOD fan-service. However, it takes a big hit in completely ignoring the complexity of all the characters in Final Fantasy VII, and it also takes a big hit in basically ignoring the plot of the game itself. It's a sequel, and it even makes several references to past events, but at the same time, it also ignores other bigger more colossol events. I can't give it a five star knowing that. I played Final Fantasy VII until my clock stopped running, I completely mastered the game. I played through it more times than any other RPG I own, and with how I fell in love with the story of the original, I can't just let this movie slide by with ignoring some of the major plot points.

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children was a good movie. Despite that it's only fan service. Fan service doesn't mean it's a bad thing. In this case, this is almost exactly what Final Fantasy VII fans want.

My only gripe with Square-Enix is simple: Why only Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X? Why not the other Final Fantasy games? If you look online, each and every Final Fantasy has its own cult following. Don't let Final Fantasy VII hog all the glory. Let the other nine Final Fantasy games in on it too. They're just as loved (some more on an indiviual basis) as Final Fantasy VII.

The Good
+Fantastic CGI
+Engrossing Story
+Fantastic Music Score
+Good English voice cast
+This is actually GOOD Fan-Service

The Bad
-The story eventually takes a backseat to action
-Some major plot points of the original game are completely ignored
-There's little, if any, character development
-Final Fantasy VII shouldn't be the only Final Fantasy to share in the glory. Why not all some of the other Final Fantasy games as well?