Ranked #201

Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children

I've never actually played FFVII. I know, blasphemy, right? But it's impossible to live on the Internet and not know these characters, and the animation looked so pretty, how could I resist?

(This review contains spoilers for the FFVII game, but not the actual movie.)

STORY - I recall looking up FFVII's backstory and plot once or twice on Wikipedia, but most of what I know is based on sniplets of casual conversation, fanart, random other things on the Internet, and the (bastardized) versions of the characters' stories in Kingdom Hearts. That said, Advent Children's story was mostly "Wait, what?" to me. Even for movies based off other media, it's always best to have enough cohesiveness for it to make sense to newcomers and strangers to the original; to that end, Advent Children definitely failed. Explanations seemed abbreviated and choppy, and characters did little to clarify their intentions or motivations. At times, it seemed like they were trying too hard to connect it to the game, as if people didn't already know what it was based off of. (Seriously, how many flashbacks of dead Aerith do we need?) And despite that, I hear from the diehards that the movie's story connected poorly to the game anyway.

The sickness is poorly presented and explained; its cure similarly so. A good number of scenes also seemed like they were there for the sole purpose of fanservice, rather than actual story progression. The same could be said for the inclusion of many of the characters -- they served no real purpose, but I'm sure all the fanboys and girls in the audience were screaming their heads off, and that's what really seems to count with a movie like this.

CHARACTER - Poorly developed, all of them! If they were even developed at all! Cloud seemed like he spoke no more than five sentences for the entire movie, and none of them were particularly insightful or informative. Why was he doing anything he was doing? Got me. Because he felt guilty? Because he felt obliged? Because he had nothing else to do? Most of his support characters were either mindlessly cheerful or vacantly stoic; none seemed to have any real depth. The children, as well, did not seem to have any substance -- they were mostly objects to be protected or to be captured and mind-controlled. They weren't people at all.

Reno and Rude provided some humorous antics and were entertaining to watch, but beyond that, it's the same thing for the most part. I suppose they have the excuse of working for an organization for their motivation, but we never really see anything beyond that simple exterior. Kadaj and his brothers were just the same -- one-dimensional characters with tunnel vision. What exactly they were trying to accomplish always remained vague, and why exactly did Kadaj manifest as Sephiroth when he came into contact with Jenova? Well, shit, I don't know, but it's probably just to give Sephy some screentime because otherwise he's dead, right? The entire movie was built around that final fight. There is no other greater purpose or story. Advent Children is a 100% fanservice movie.

ARTSTYLE & ANIMATION - Now, this is where all my harsh words end, pretty much. The animation was beautiful. Beautiful! Stunning! The details in all the renders -- backgrounds, characters, clothing, weapons... everything was gorgeous, moved smoothly, and integrated well with its surroundings. The special effects were great, too. This movie is full of so much eye candy, your brain will explode. Even the simple things, like the inverted forest, or our five minute long scene of a cell phone falling through water -- all of it looked beautiful. I mean, come on, things have to look pretty darn amazing for me to be entertained by a falling cell phone for that long.

MUSIC - Another flawless aspect of this movie is the music. From the very first track, I was completely in love with Advent Children's score. A collection of different composers did the music for the movie and each and every one of them did an absolutely amazing job with every single track on this soundtrack. Every melody fit its scene, and every scene was so much more emotional or exciting because of it. The piano thrashing for "Those Who Fight" makes me wish I could play better. The guitars in "Black Water" get me totally pumped every single time. This soundtrack is also definitely one you could listen to over and over again, independent of the movie, and I'm sure that many others who haven't even seen the movie could enjoy the music here. The vocal track, "CALLING," at the end of the movie is also pretty nice, and I thought it was a great way to conclude it all.

VOICE ACTING - I've seen both the sub and dub. The sub was amazing. All the voices fit their roles wonderfully. Kadaj and Reno in particular had very memorable performances. The dub was much better than I thought it would be; really, the only real problem with the dub is Cid's hick accent, Yuffie's annoying voice, and the fact that Tifa's "zuruzuru zuruzuru" definitely did not translate well because we silly English-speakers don't have a sound effect for "dragging." Other than that, I couldn't have wanted more from the dub. An identical voice cast was used for all the FFVII characters in Kingdom Hearts II, so the voices were familiar. This also impressed me since the same was true for the Japanese version. What impressed me further was the fact that both Reno and Axel were voiced by the same actor in Japanese, and the same is true in English (ironically for Axel, his voice is also the Human Torch). Those little similarities are what make the fangirls happy. Moving on though, Steve Blum as Vincent Valentine? Totally awesome.

OVERALL - I think it's the general consensus all across the board that no one watched this movie for its brilliant storytelling and character development. This was an eyecandy movie for fans to squeal over. Really, the best way to watch this might be in Japanese with the subtitles off. That way, you can play ignorant to the bad stuff, but you still get all the brilliance of the voice acting, all of the amazing music, and of course, all of the visual madness that is this Advent Children. Enjoy.
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There aren't many video game players that I know of who haven't heard of Final Fantasy, and there aren't any RPG maniacs that I've met that haven't heard of Final Fantasy VII. The seventh installment of the never-ending Final Fantasy series is the most famous, and for a while I had no idea why, since I had never played the game. When the sequel, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was announced, I had no idea what it was to be about, but since I was consumed with Final Fantasy X, X-2 and the Kingdom Hearts series, I decided to give the movie a shot.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children takes place two years after the events of the game. It follows Cloud, who is still mourning the death of Aerith/Aeris and a trio of mini Sephiroth clone things as they try to obtain "Mother" and wreak destruction on the entire planet. Goody.

Story -

Well, I can say that anyone who has no idea about the events of Final Fantasy VII might be confused on the events and people that are mentioned, or it could be just my mother, but it's fairly easy to keep up with, so long as you're paying attention. While I did enjoy the story, it just seemed a little like your typical villian wants to destory the world because of some personal reason and hero, or slight anti-hero in Cloud's case, goes and takes down villian for some personal reason, so that took away from the inital enjoyment.
Score - 8

Animation -

...Dude, this is Square Enix we're talking here. Square Enix the video game company. Do I have to say anything else? ....Fine, I will.

Okay, the last Final Fantasy movie, The Spirits Within, it was a flop, why? Well, I think that it looked too darn REAL, and when you're making something animated or with CGI (that's it right?), you don't want it to look real! The whole point is for it not to look real, if it's going too look real then you're better off using real actors. When AC came around they learned that you can't make them look too real. Now, while the characters can be mistaken for real people, they still hold that animated air around them (it's all in the hair). And that, my dears, makes for some awesome animation. Satisfied?

Score - 10

Sound -

Well, the background music is well. I have the feeling that some of it are different versions of the soundtrack from the game, but again, I can't be sure. The piano compositions that play at certain points of the movie are simply beautiful, particularly the one, Cloud Smiles... I think that's it's name anyway. The remixed version of One-Winged Angel, is simply awesome, and it proves that you can mix a mad rock band with a orchestra. I wasn't fond of the ending song that plays during the credits (the one with the vocals), so I seldom watch the credits because of that...

I watched the dub version, and I loved it, I thought everyone's voices suited their apparent character... Kadaj sounding like a crazy boy dude, Cloud sounding like some... well, you get it, don't you? Though my mind doesn't agree with Aerith's voice...

Score - 9

Character -

Well, I'd say the characterization for this is fairly well, particularly Cloud, since because the end while he does show some acceptance with what's happened and what he's been told over and over again, he still seems like the same...stoic Cloud. Ahm. Yeah. I'll use Kadaj as an example again, he's a good character because you see him, and when he's in your mind you can't put him out of character, unless you're some rabid fangirl... But... yeah. Since this is a movie a character can't really grow in the allowed time period (I assume the movie takes place during maybe... three or four days?), so I can't say much... Unless we're talking Cloud, and we did already.

Score - 9

Enjoyment -

...I can say with a straight face that I enjoyed this movie. After all, you're not going to watch a movie that you don't like eighty times, now are you? I liked the actions scenes, and the animation the most... And particularly Reno... Okay, moving on.

Score - 9


All In All...

Yay! - Animation, baby! Those graphics can be synonymous with... eye candy. I think they are, too.
Nay! - Story needs to be indepth, and should maybe a little easier for the... non fans to follow... Eheheh...

Overall Score - 9 read more

Final Fantasy VII, the game, will have a special place in my heart for the reason that it was the first RPG I ever completed. It holds powerful sway, so much so I've beaten it 100% many times, worked hard to raise gold chocobo's and even defeated the "unbeatable" Weapons.

Sitting down to Advent Children I came into it with mixed thoughts. On one hand I knew it would never capture the charm of the game, but since it had all the same characters it must have some good parts. Was I right? No, I was horribly wrong.

I watched this movie both subtitled with Japanese audio and in English. But never have I felt more empty and broken then when I finished this movie. The story itself is like a poorly written fanfiction compressed into a short movie. Character development is null because those characters developed DURING THE GAME. I thought perhaps I was being too critical on the game as a hardcore otaku, and so I watched it trying to pull away and look at it as "fanboy-ish" as possible.

Did it work? No, no it failed horribly. Even as a fan of the game I hated this movie, hated what they did to my favorite characters and what they did to an ending that I thought was very well done. The ONLY thing about this movie that I thought was decent was the art. But that's to be expected, animation quality nowadays is top-notch and since FF7 is a serious fanbase it's not hard to expect that the quality of the animation would be top-notch. So would I recommend this movie to anyone? No, definitely not read more

It was alright. It's nowhere near the masterpiece that I thought I was going to watch, based on my friends' excited, rather fanboy-ish reactions, but I can't say that it was a waste of my time. I definitely do recommend it, but with the following disclaimer: don't believe the hype, just enjoy the action, but don't expect anything too lasting.

The story, first off, is a trainwreck. I'm not going to regurgitate the details here since I'm not supposed to and I trust the reader has access to Wikipedia, but let's just say it's an insult to the FF7 legacy, and I'm saying that as someone who thought FF7, while a fairly good RPG, a classic for sure, isn't, say, in the top 10 of my list and likely not even top 20. The antagonist is a generic raving, cackling lunatic and almost none of the FF7 protagonists save for Cloud and Tifa get any reasonable amount of character development or even dialogue. It's just ridiculous. They basically threw characters into the movie just to placate the angry mob of fans that would be disappointed if their favorite wasn't in.

The entire movie is just an extended series of fight sequences. Very good fight sequences, actually, probably some of the best I've seen in my life, as far as CG goes. But still just fight sequences. For anyone who has not played FF7 or does not have any background in the material (not myself but a few of my friends who watched with me), none of it will make any sense whatsoever. Heck, I played the game a long time ago and so even I was occasionally confused, wondering "who the hell is that?" during the scene with Aeris and Zack [<-- didn't figure out it was him until after the movie]. They never really gave the characters a proper introduction.

The sound accompanying the animation is very good-- basically new, usually improved versions of the FF7 original soundtrack in most cases. Can't use the MIDI's, after all. So, no complaint there, as it would be improper to introduce significantly new music.

So, um, I'm not sure where that leaves me. I want to write more, but there's so little to write about. The overall content is quite shallow. They would've been better off just animating FF7's original storyline, with some cuts here or there. Instead we get a pale shadow that tries to steal all the best parts of the game, going so far as to even recreate a "new Sephiroth." Sigh.

That's not to say that there aren't any decent scenes in the movie. There's some good humor, particularly the famous scene with Tifa and the cellphone (can't spoil it). But the overarching storyline is quite weak and million dollar action scenes are no excuse.

Conclusion: great action scenes, wonderful animation. Some of it is genuinely ground breaking. A must watch for that reason. But don't believe the hype. This is not a classic, and altogether, it is a somewhat disappointing ending to Cloud's story.
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Title: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Anime(?): AC is a digitally animated film that was released in 2005 by Square-Enix (famous for the Final Fantasies, duhr!), and directed by Tetsuya Nomura (Kingdom Hearts, FFVIII, FFX, duhr!). The original version was released in Japan in 2005, and it finally made its way Stateside in April of 2006 thanks to Squenix NA and Sony.

There have been several super-deluxe ultimate editions released, as is Squenix's habit, and I'm not even going to bother covering those.

Story: I would assume that you know this, but maybe you've been hiding under a rock. Basically, it's two years after the Planet was almost destroyed by Meteor and Sephiroth, and now there's this disease called Geostigma striking the children, and Cloud's living life as a delivery man and being generally emo and such before he gets dragged back into things c/o three silver-haired men (ZOMG SEPHIROTHS?!).

In case you couldn't sense the sarcasm permeating the review up until this point, I'm not terribly impressed with this movie. The plot is very lacking, and I expect more from Squenix because I know they can deliver better than this.

No one gets any development (except Cloud, and that's only to from emo to zomgkickyourassSEPHIROTH!), which is disappointing, especially because we have the three silver-hairs who could've been developed pretty nicely, but are pretty much cardboard cutouts. This applies to the rest of the cast, too.

The plot is essentially something I could have found on Fanfiction.net, and about as well thought-out/executed, too. It boils down to Cloud emo, fight, fight, Cloud emo, silver-haired guys, fight, fight, Cloud emo, fight for the kids, fight, fight zomgsephiroth! Come on, Squenix! You've done better than this! Basically, it was very obvious that they did this simply to milk FFVII for everything that it's worth.

Art: It's Squenix, so it's guaranteed that the visuals are going to be astoundingly beautiful, which they are. The guys look prettier than the girls, for crying out loud!

I have a problem with the way they chose to cut this, though. Several people, both in the AC thread and in earlier reviews, have compared the editing to that of a music video. And it's not that far off. The cuts are very confusing, as are the angles, and it takes a few viewings to get used to it.

Music: It basically comes down to strings and choir background vocals mixed with hard rock. Not all that impressive, really. There are some good tracks ('For the Reunion', 'Aeris' Theme', whatever that one song is that plays during Tifa and Loz's fight, the AC version of One-Winged Angel), but it's not enough to save most of the soundtrack from repetition. Decent, overall.

Length: The repetition of the plot causes this to drag a little, despite how fast it moves along. The dragging is really obvious at the end, which is similar to Return of the King's in how long it takes to wrap up. Nomura admits this was originally planned as a twenty-minute short, but it just ended up expanding and expanding, and you can tell that it got a little bloated as it did.

Seiyuu: This is one of the saving graces of the film. I could watch this just for Rufus and Kadaj's seiyuu. And there are some top-tier seiyuu (Maaya Sakamoto as Aeris, most notably, and the guy who did Roy Mustang as Sephiroth) as well, and everyone else in the production carries their roles wonderfully.

Dub: However, what I said above doesn't go for the dub. The voices are amazingly bland when compared to their Japanese counterparts. Aeris and Tifa's voice actresses, most notably, deliver their lines like robots. The only ones who get close to their Japanese counterparts' performances are Kadaj and Sephiroth, and even those are pale imitations at best.

Performances like these are the reason I went to/usually stick to subs.

Overall: This was a disappointment to me, especially after I went out of my way to get a legal version. I'm hoping this doesn't carry over to the other Compilation of FFVII titles (though, from what I know thus far, Last Order didn't fare much better than this, and I've heard the same for Dirge of Cerberus, while the recently-released Crisis Core is said to be the best of the bunch). I know you're trying to get everything you can out of this, Squenix, but really, could you at least try for some quality?

Story: 6/10
Art: 8/10
Music: 8/10
Length: 6/10
Seiyuu: 10/10
Dub: 4/10

Overall: 42/60; 70% (D) read more

It REALLY helps to have played the original FF7 game in order to appriciate and understand this movie. And, no, Kingdom Hearts does not count! The plot of FF7:AC assumes you've played and picks up 2 years after the game ends. Some guy friends of mine have said they liked the movie even without playing but they were completely lost. Honestly, if you're an action fan you'll like this movie...... about 80 of the movie is raw action and jaw-dropping fight scenes.

There's little plot in the movie because you get the game plot woven in. In the first 5 minutes you get an intro into the lifestream, Jenova, and who Sephiroth is. The fight scenes are amazing and if you're not careful [fanboys: take notice] you might find your mouth hanging wide open with drool coming out. The CG animation is so unbelievable; the characters look so real that you can see freckles on the skin and strands of hair. The animation is truly some of the best I've seen.

All the popular characters from the game were in this movie: Cloud, Aeris, Yuffie, Cid, Barret, Vincent, Tifa, and Sephiroth. It was really awsome to see all the characters again after playing the game, all with new looks. Reno and Rude of the Turks were the comic relief, as they were in the game. There's no romance in this movie, but you do get some insight into how Cloud feels about Aeris. I wonder why there were no chocobos?!

Voice acting was pretty good in the dubbed..... except for Yuffie and Caith Sith, they were hard to listen too. Vincent's voice was done by Steve Blum [has also done Spike in Cowboy Bebop] who was a PERFECT choice. Blum's voice made Vincent even more sexy. But nothing tops the Japanese voices in the subbed, and this was considered importance since this was the first time these characters were given voices.

I've played the original FF7 game, played kingdom Hearts, and even cosplayed as Aeris - Because of this, I have a strong understanding and appriciation for this movie and I honestly feel it serves as a good ending to one of the best Final Fantasy games in the series! The game really should be fresh in your mind in order to understand everything in the movie. read more

There’s absolutely nothing smart, deep, or subtle to be found in this movie. Which is precisely the way it should be. Advent Children is about as clever as an unplugged blender.

This anime takes places two years after the successful 1997 game, Final Fantasy VII. So if you havent played or heard about them, do not fear for Advent doesnt require any background or even a story to make it enjoyable. And that alone is an accomplishment.

Synopsis:
*Midgar has been reduced into ruins and its people are suffering from a mysterious illness. There isn't any cure, and it brings death to those who are effected by it. Cloud is alone and he has been living with the orphans. He feels guilt of what he has done over the past couple of years. Then, one day, Cloud receives a phone call asking for help in defeating a man named Kadaj. Kadaj, a mysterious being, and the rest of his gang seek their "Mother". Soon, they prey on the orphans living with Cloud. Faced with the conflict and remembering an old friend's word, Cloud decides to stop Kadaj. And so... the battle begins.*

Lets get this out in the open, this movie is all about fan service. Many people have reprimanded this movie as somewhat pointless. It is, I know. Luckily for them, I am fond of Tetsuya Nomura, the director of this film and the genius behind Square Enix. But even as an aficionado, I am not too blinded by my loyalty to see that this is the directorial equivalent of Nomura beating his chest and waving his penis at us for a couple of hours.

However, it would be a good idea to review movies instead of moaning about what you would have preferred!

There is no denying that Advent is one of the best action movies in anime history. The effects are technically impressive, groundbreaking even. The animation will blow you away, as Square Enix always has. The action sequences are parred with real vigor. It is relentless taunting you with masterful choreography. This breathtaking visual along with the classic and magnificently brilliant music is enough to overshadow the mediocre substance. Even the movie's theme -- hollow words about victory through sacrifice -- is pitched to this constituency.I watch the whole movie with my jaw dropped and my mouth overflowing with water. You can only interpret my me in two ways, it can only mean that I am transfixed by its "epicness" or saw through the fancy facade.

But to honest ,There’s just nothing engaging about the characters themselves. There’s also very little to help a novice to tell these characters apart. The movie originally just wanted to satisfy the people who wanted Cloud and Tifa to get together, and have a movie for themselves about their life. Instead, though they got this meaningless but immediate gratifying movie. If you cant stand a movie that doesnt go anywhere, then this is not for you.

I will never know why reviewers always start off reviewing films for their face value, but then after a while spend all their time looking for some dark underlying tone to each movie, or think that it only has any real meaning if it is in black and white and in a foreign tongue. Because these same reviewers stand there telling that the script and content of so called classic anime films is the best you will ever see! This film is what it is. Fun, loud, obtuse, visually-stunning action-packed masterpiece, nothing else.... read more

This movie is what you call 'all style, no substance'.

It looks amazing, but that's it. It is totally nothing but eye candy. The story is all over the place, and if you're not familiar with the franchise, it's a total snoozefest.

It's only worth watching because it looks so darn good, everything else was unfabulous.

Firstly I’d like to make the point that I watched the recap feature on the DVD and thus that may have influenced my opinions. However it made very little, if any, sense to me, so I don’t think it would have had an impact.

I was nicely surprised by this anime. Final Fantasy is a fandom I always heard about and always thought I should watch but never had the reasoning or felt the want to. I wasn’t expecting much from this film so what I got was a pleasant surprise.

The graphics on this were lovely, having watched it after watching Appleseed (2004) I’m not sure which is better but both rock. The thing that threw me most was the body language, there was a lot of it and I really liked it.

The characters themselves could have been more developed but I understand that they have several films of back story and in a movie based on the games you are expected to a certain point to know that back story. They worked well as they were for me without the back story, I could figure things out and piece them together.

The plot ran a little thin and was hard to understand without the aid of a Final Fantasy otaku like jazzymegster by your side. But it was pretty; there were kick arse fights and good music which is always good in anime.

Downsides for me? And this will show you all how shallow I am. There was no character I fell in love with, none that made me shout ‘oh mamma I want a piece of him/her!’ Tifa was interesting, the red haired dude looked cool but that was about it.

It has sparked my interest in the Final Fantasy universe, so if anyone knows of a way for me to find out more without having to play the games give me a bell.

Overall good anime, worth the watch and worth recommending to even Final Fantasy newbies.

Nanashi Moriko *potentially a Final Fantasy fangirl but not an Advent Children one*
18/06/07

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This movie got so much hype before it was launched but of course by todays standards that means it will amount to rubbish.

I was looking forward to this as generaly FF games have an excellent story to it and I thought if it wasgoing to be in a movie it would be awsome but again, it was a dissapointment, the story was very bland with terrible lines and overal very boring. One strange thing I have noticed is how did Cloud get the virus? How did anyone get the virus?

Now to the character development....and thats it, there isn't any. You learn nothing new about the characters and the new characters are just as bad. When you devlop a dead person more than the main character you have a problem. Of course the FF7 fanboys will be saying "but you have to play VII to get the full experiance" they are talking rubbish, I have played the game and the experiance is not any different in fact it is worse because you know how the characters might react in that sort of situation.

Now on to the English VAs. To be honest I think they aare some of the worst I have heard, it is a mixture of monotoned characters and overacting. I really dont see why Tifa would have such a dull voice you would be expecting here to have a little bit of energy, Cloud mabye but I still think no, the monotoned voice does not make him sound cool.

Now on to the music and it is superb. Now this is really bad I am enjoying the music which is supposed to enhance the movie more than the actual movie. Nobou Uematsu did the music for this film and I salute him because he has created something in which I can't complain about.

Some fight scenes were good while others were just to over the top to enjoy them.

Overall it isn't really a bad thing if you this on as it should be forgotten as quickly as possible. Even if you are a FF7 fanboy you should think twice about purchasing this. read more