Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Also Known As: FF7: AC, FFVII: AC, Advent Children

Genre: Action

Format: 1 Movie

Allegiance: Square Enix

Director: Nomura Tetsuya, Nozue Takeshi

Vintage: 2005

Intelligence Agency Report by: Kuzu Ryu Sen

Two years have passed since the great conflict between AVALANCHE, Shinra, and Sephiroth concluded with the ferocious battle at the Northern Crater. Now, the world and Midgar are rebuilding under the guidance of a repentant Shinra Company. For Cloud and Tifa, who are running a delivery service and serving as mentors and older siblings to the neighbourhood orphans, life has become quite normal. Yet, there are some remnants from the struggle of two years prior, and they seek to revive old memories and force Reunion... at all costs.

Field Agent Report by: Kuzu Ryu Sen

Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio

4.50
3.50
5.00
9.75
9.50

Overall

6.00

(not an average)

Ah, Final Fantasy VII, the game that marked Square Inc. (now Square Enix) and the Sony PlayStation as big players in the US market, and created an unprecedented interest in the RPG genre. However, Square has been hard-pressed to match that success since, and the financial flop that was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within forced the company to merge with Japanese video game giant Enix. As a result, one could view Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children as an attempt to leech off the profitability of the game, while shedding any ill reputation acquired due to FF: TSW.

Of course, someone should have told Square that when you leech off of a popular franchise, that doesn't mean you have to rehash its plot with a few different characters. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children basically destroys any shred of closure in terms of characterization or plot that Final Fantasy VII achieved, only to resolve them in what is essentially the same exact manner. Naturally, characterization is resoundingly poor, with the dialogue being very close in nature to what was already said in the game. The plot, apart from having its skeleton exported from the game, features at least half a dozen serious holes, and the scene order in the first half definitely felt out of sync. The majority of secondary characters show up for all of 5 minutes, and are lucky to get a half dozen lines of dialogue. Finally, any new characters, namely the main villains, have little to no background information supplied. I guess they're there simply to give Cloud someone to cross swords with.

Mind you, the movie is very pretty, and very well animated. The backgrounds, extras, and scenery are all very detailed and well depicted. The character designs look very polished, while maintaining all the charm that they had in the game. Voice acting is done quite capably (for what few lines of dialogue there actually was), save Tifa's half-grunting, half-moaning combat noises, which marked an otherwise above-average performance from Ito Ayumi. To add to the atmosphere, Uematsu Nobuo's soundtrack, containing mainly remixed tracks from the game, lost none of the power that it had in the game. The only real issue was with the fight choreography, which was basically a cross between Dragonball-style and feudal China martial art movie-style; that is to say, long and consisting of mostly normal strikes and parries, coupled with smashing through buildings and flying twenty feet with every hit taken.

The saving grace to this film is that while it provides utterly nothing of substance, it also provides nothing particularly irksome or anger-inducing. If you're an FFVII fanboy/girl, well, you're probably not going to listen to reason anyway. For the rest of us, basically, the best way to approach a film like this is to shut off the brain and just look at the pretty feminine Japanese males. Like Rude said, "I don't know if it's powerful or not, but it certainly will be flashy."

Field Agent Report by: Phate

Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio

6.75
7.00
7.00
10.00
8.75

Overall

7.25

(not an average)

I remember playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time a few years ago and growing to like it immensely. Even now, I still look upon the game fondly. When news of Advent Children surfaced, I was ecstatic. Well, I sat through it, and the end result of Square Enix's hard work was not something I was hoping for.

Early trailers and screen caps of Advent Children made it evident that a lot of effort was being put into pleasing the eyes and ears. I can safely say, however, that this is where the creators put the most effort. In terms of eye candy, Advent Children is truly breathtaking - there is an exceptional amount of visual detail put into the movie from the expressions on the characters' faces to the backgrounds. However, the action sequences that permeate Advent Children are what especially stand out. While they won't be winning any awards for realism, they nonetheless had me in awe throughout the movie. The audio is fairly good as well, but for the most part the soundtrack is comprised of tracks from other albums. However, it also boasts a few impressive remixes, such as a new version of One Winged Angel.

There is an unfortunate consequence though, due to the amount of attention given to Advent Children's looks. The story is never really given enough time to fully develop; the potential is there, but it feels too much like a rehash of Final Fantasy VII's story, albeit of lesser quality. The same goes for the characters; while background information has been already given for the returning characters in the game, there is little explanation offered as to why some of them have come back. This isn't helped any by the fact that several of the characters act as little more than mere cameos. The lack of information is especially bad, however, for the antagonists of the movie. While they could have been great, they instead come off as cliché.

Advent Children was undoubtedly aimed to please those who are fans of the original game - or at least are familiar with the characters and story. However, because of the lack of actual substance to the movie, I couldn't help but feel disappointed since I went in wanting an actual continuation of the story. Still, if you are at least familiar with the world of Final Fantasy VII and just want to sit back and watch some pretty pictures, Advent Children should suit you well.

Field Agent Report by: Erigion

Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio

1.00
0.50
3.00
9.75
9.50

Overall

5.50

(not an average)

I'll be frank: I'm probably not the best person to be reviewing this movie because I haven't played Final Fantasy VII. But with all the hype that it received, I thought that I should take a look at the movie. I know that hype doesn't mean quality, but I hoped that Square-Enix could at least give me something enjoyable to watch. I also know that any decently written script shouldn't leave the viewer grasping at straws trying to understand the plot or characters. Square did give me something enjoyable to watch, but sadly it left me grasping at straws when it came to the plot.

The first thing you notice about Advent Children is the visual aspect: this is CGI at its best. Square-Enix spared no expense when it came to the visual aspects of Advent Children - everything is detailed, from the characters to the sky to the dirt on the ground. No visual detail is missed in this movie - the characters move smoothly, their hair is always windswept, metal shines, and sparks fly. The fight scenes are wonderfully choreographed and a joy to watch. I could probably watch this movie over and over again just for the animation alone. The second thing you notice about the movie is the impressive sound. The music just fits with the movie, from the sound effects in battle to the score used during the more dramatic moments. The voice acting was also done quite w ell considering the lack of dialog. However, it is obvious that Square-Enix blew most of the budget on the technical aspects of the movie.

Sadly, Advent Children is not well written: the plot is vaguely explained, the back-story is nearly nonexistent, the main characters receive no development at all, and completely useless side characters are introduced with little rhyme or reason. The plot, if you could call it that, was an interpretation of your reluctant hero forced to fight to defend his home and friends. Apparently, the bad guys don't even need a plausible reason to destroy the world. They just want to reunite with something that they think is their "mother" for no real reason.

When the plot is as weak as it is in Advent Children you hope that the characters would make up for it, but this was not the case. There is little background and development for the main character Cloud. We don't learn why he does not want to fight and it's not really explained as to why he ends up fighting again. There is absolutely no background and no development for the rest of the cast. In fact, most of Cloud and Tifa's friends are left unnamed, which leaves me completely clueless as to who they are and what Cloud and Tifa mean to them. While there may not be enough time in this movie to develop all of the characters, I expect that the main character would receive some reasonably explained development.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed looking at and listening to Advent Children. However, great technical aspects can only take a movie so far. You need to have some substance behind that style in order to have a good film.