Final Fantasy 7: AC (review)

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

*Caution this review my contain some spoilers.*

So I finally got to see me some FFVII: Advent Children today.

I will say that this was SO much better than Spirits Within. Not to mention that the story is much better and the graphics and action are just pretty.

Final FantasyVII: Advent Children starts with the ending of FFVII where Red XIII is running to a completely ruined Midgar. It then cuts to two years after the first game over the crater/mountain. You hear the voices of two Turk members who are obviously up to something. They report that they found "it" and Reno, who says "yo" more times then I want to hear, goes to recover it. Gunfire goes off and Reno hightails it out of there.

This seems to be the setting to Advent Children. It seems that the Turks had taken Jenova's head and the children of Sephiroth or clones or whatever wants to get it back for Reunion. I felt a bit cheated when I learned they are using the same thing all over again in the first game until I figured out that, even though they did, they did something new with it.

See children seemed to be infected with this disease (hence the name) called Geostigma. I have no idea what it does to them, but they seemed to be screwed. The story picks up from here with a lot of action and more action. In fact it doesn't even cheap out with magic because that is there as well. Bahamut is even in the freaking movie for God's sake!

In Advent Children all of your favorite characters are back (err sorta):

Cloud is back not only sporting a huge sword, but it seems to split apart into 7 or 8 different blades at once. You might think this is useless and you are correct it is, but man they use the useless SO well. Cloud seems to being going through some issues in his life. It seems that he is having trouble not being able to cope with Arieth being killed and not being able to save everyone he loves from this disease. Not even himself.

Tifa lives with Cloud at a delivery service that they both seemed to have set up. Tifa in the old game was part of a love triangle that really didn't go anywhere. From what I see from the movie as well it didn't go anywhere two years either. I guess you could say that it hinted at a relationship with Cloud and Tifa, but...ehhhh...it’s hard to say. So I really think its up to the viewers.

Barret is back sporting a new look and less of the stereotypical black guy syndrome. In fact I think Reno has that more then Barret does. His role is limited other then a few phone calls and help whomp on some Bahamut.

Vincent looks really awesome in this movie. He plays a role in this movie, but it’s so secretive and out of place that all you really care about is him whomping on someone.

Yuffie, Red XIII, and Cait Sith also show up as well minus the giant plush doll. Yuffie is the only character who hasn't grown out of her role in the first game. Red XIII has very little lines in the movie so you would forget he was there if it wasn't for Cait Sith sounding like a Japanese Gollum from Lord of the Rings. That made me laugh actually.

Cid. Yeah. Where is he? No he is in the movie...barely. He pops in and out and then pretty much out. Him being one of the most awesome characters from the game feels wasted in this movie.

The new characters are Yazoo, Loz, and Kadaj. What is the most annoying part of Advent Children is you know who they are. They are clones or...something of Sephiroth. The only problem is that they never explain where they came from. So you are only left with these guys who are causing trouble and Cloud and the party have to deal with them.

Final Fantasy: Advent Children has a problem with the lack of explaining anything to you. You either had to have played the last game or it is pretty much left for you to figure out yourself. This doesn't happen all the time I will say that, but by the time you finish the movie you will probably be left sitting there wondering what was the point.

Because there isn't. You all might debate me and flame me or say something else I don't care about, but there was <b>no reason to make this movie.</b> In the end nothing is really solved except 1 thing and I'm not going to spoil that.

What I WILL say is that I thought it was resolved in the first game, but apparently not.

So Final Fantasy: Advent Children was a pointless movie, but to only appease to the fan base and it does a really good job at that. So if you love Final Fantasy VII with all your heart and soul then this might be the best movie ever.

If you however just happen to be a casual fan of the game then you will be slightly disappointed with this average movie.

Final Fantasy: Advent Children gets a 7/10.

[Nekesu]

yes, I agree with you 100%! I did like the movie, from all the trailers i thought there would be more of a story, but the trailers gave away half of the fight scenes sadly. For the people that know nothing about the series will like how the movie looks and will like the actions scenes i guess, and not everyone will be sitting there wondering what the hell just happened, they just won't care and life will continue as normal =P

My dad even bought the Cloud collectors toy, the one on the motorcyle, cause it "looks cool". I got the Sephiroth one =P

[Citizen]

I pretty much agree, although I'd give it a 5/10 or 6/10. Limping along on the crutches of action and graphics alone does not a good movie make, especially when plot, originality, and the good characters are ignored. Flashy is mediocre if backed by nothing else, even if that's the way the movie was meant to be.

Great for fans that care for nothing but action, I guess. As well as fanatics, who care about nothing beyond the fact that it's related to FFVII. Everyone else should probably just dl or rent it.

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

I pretty much agree, although I'd give it a 5/10 or 6/10. Limping along on the crutches of action and graphics alone does not a good movie make, especially when plot, originality, and the good characters are ignored. Flashy is mediocre if backed by nothing else, even if that's the way the movie was meant to be.

Great for fans that care for nothing but action, I guess. As well as fanatics, who care about nothing beyond the fact that it's related to FFVII. Everyone else should probably just dl or rent it.

I suppose you are right, but It was hard for me to go for 6 or 7. I might of had a 6 if I bought it just for sheer chash stuff.

Anyway I gave a fair score and I'm happy with it.

I'm glad you guys were good about these. I got flamed to death on another website with people telling me "10/10 STUPID IT WAS AWESOME FAG LOLOLOLOLOL!"

I'm not kidding someone actually posted that...

*sigh*

[Daishikaze]

I pretty much agree, although I'd give it a 5/10 or 6/10. Limping along on the crutches of action and graphics alone does not a good movie make, especially when plot, originality, and the good characters are ignored. Flashy is mediocre if backed by nothing else, even if that's the way the movie was meant to be.

Great for fans that care for nothing but action, I guess. As well as fanatics, who care about nothing beyond the fact that it's related to FFVII. Everyone else should probably just dl or rent it.


quoted for truth

Same can be said about most things nowadays unfortunately.

[chgu]

I was trying not to say it until I watched it again, but it was a little lame. I had to keep pausing it, so I didn't really get into the movie like I normally would, but there wasn't much to get into. I normally get into the characters and therefore get caught up in the suspense and all that jazz. But seriously, you could see basically everything coming.

Also, as far as the graphics go, I wasn't too amazed. I've been doing 3D modeling for hours on end for the last month or two, and I know most of the tricks they used. All I could think was "Wow, it must have sucked to make those characters that were only in two scenes."

I'm not sure why I was so hyped about it, but I was really hoping for some sort of depth. I thought there would be more character development on Cloud's part, as far as Aeris goes.

All in all, I think it was a major waste to have to model all of those characters just for a small appearance here and there. But then again, if they really are remaking FF7 for PS3, they might be able to dumb them down a little bit and use them there.

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

One thing I should point out that if at one point when you are scrounging around for a story that made sense or gave you a reason to watch the movie other then "OH MAN CLOUD JUST BEAT DOWN A HUGE THING!"

Seriously, If Cloud could do the things he did in AC I would think FF7 deserves the big fan hype that it gets.

Anyway if you ARE searching for a story I guess one you can find is that Cloud is looking for something meaningful in his life. Not only is he a complete failure as a clone, but he took someone else's life right after he died. Not only was Cloud depressed about not having a real life, but he can't find a reason to forgive himself for letting Aries die. Someone could of saved her, but he and no one did.

*OMG SPOILER*

This is why at the end when Zack and Aries walk away Cloud is able to forgive himself (something he should of in the first game) for Aries dying. All the children are happy la la la.

Cue cutscene.

[Dead Sexy Vocab]

The fight scenes were sub-par, it seems like they ripped off some scenes from Dragonball Z, where all those high-super jumps and weightless falls come in place.

You'd be very, very, VERY fucking lucky to whoop "Sephiroth's" ass the way Cloud did. Looks like some sort of cliche-holyfuckingshitIgotsuperfuckingpowershiddenbeneath thisveryskinthatcantrulykickyoursorryassLOLpwnz sort of thing.

[Tenlaius]

Didn't see the movie yet, but you think cloud would have atleast attempted to hit on Tifa..you said theyhave a delivery service or something like that right? If so...cloud you lame moron..how could you resist Tifa? She's perfect..*drool*

[Wysen]

I saw this finally last night... I'm glad I could come to a place and see people feel the same way I feel about the movie. So many websites out there with the OMFG!!!1one! THIS IS THE R0X0rZ!!1! that I felt I might have missed something by watching it and feeling "meh" after watching it.

My guess is the people at Square-Enix just need to stop trying to write sequels. Seriously, they haven't a clue what the hell makes an add-on to your story work. If you need further proof from this movie, check out FFX:2. Just stay away from sharp objects, as you may want to bleed yourself after dealing with it's "plot".

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

I saw this finally last night... I'm glad I could come to a place and see people feel the same way I feel about the movie. So many websites out there with the OMFG!!!1one! THIS IS THE R0X0rZ!!1! that I felt I might have missed something by watching it and feeling "meh" after watching it.

My guess is the people at Square-Enix just need to stop trying to write sequels. Seriously, they haven't a clue what the hell makes an add-on to your story work. If you need further proof from this movie, check out FFX:2. Just stay away from sharp objects, as you may want to bleed yourself after dealing with it's "plot".

What? That Tidus is still gone and you actually wasted your time on a whole game?

Yeah I know.

[Dead Sexy Vocab]

If so...cloud you lame moron..how could you resist Tifa? She's perfect..*drool*

She lost her juggular bounciness, now she's wearing really tight clothes that eliminates the bosom movements.

Why, Square-Enix, why?!

/(must stop oggling at fake anime breasts)

[Tenlaius]

She lost her juggular bounciness, now she's wearing really tight clothes that eliminates the bosom movements.

Why, Square-Enix, why?!

/(must stop oggling at fake anime breasts)
Sometimes anime breasts are the best since they bigger :)

[Dead Sexy Vocab]

The more you oggle, the more reason why you need a life.

[Tenlaius]

then I guess I reeeeeaaalllly need to get a life. Being a freshman in HS is lame ><.

[Varia]

Taken from another forum:

"Seriously guys. Can you go bashing this movie without really understanding what goes on in it? I watched the movie without subtitles, and the parts that I see everybody bitching about make sense in Japanese.

Why Sephiroth comes back: Sephiroth doesn't "come back". That guy (the main antagonist) has to become Sephiroth in order for Jenova to return and destroy the planet once and for all.

Yeah, a lot of it was random, but they couldn't just make the movie as long as they wanted, because then there would just be huge amounts of filler for those idiots who are like OMFG CLOUD HAS A SMALL SCAR ON HIS LEFT TENDON THAT WASN'T THERE IN FF7 THIS MOVIE BLOWS DONKEY ASS AND WTSHIT I HATE THIS.

Seriously. It would take another hour and a half or whatever to explain what went on in those two years. It was better to just be a little ambiguous about it and save a lot of time."

"Do you mean plot holes? Because if you do, ff8 had more plotholes than 7.

if you did mean loopholes, explain for those of us that don't understand (me).

dirge of cerberus or cerebus or whatever it is is coming out for the ps2, sometime in nov/dec holidays, if I'm not mistaken. No word on before crisisin any of the mags, although there might be some rumo mill info around the net of inter that I havn't found, not that I'm actually looking.

as for the movie, as been stated you understand it all when you've watched some of the trailers, read into the game a little, and make some of your own conclusions


*insert massive ammounts of spoilers*





for example, when meteor hit Midgar it was quite obvious that it took massive ammounts of planets lifestream to hold that thing at bay (all thanks to Aries) and it was quite obvious that meteor couldn't have just been wiped from the face of the planet. notice that when demolition people take down buildings, the building just doesn't dissapear, theres a whole buncha scrap. That's basically what happened to meteor, sure it was destroyed and the threat stopped, but the thing didn't just dissapear. The remanents of metoer stayed on the planet, and when the lifestream dispersed from midgar, pieces of meteor had to have been swpet up along with it, hence the geostigma (in the subs they even call it star scar syndrom) star scar, meteor, any bells yet people?

Now the spirits of sephiroth, ie bad guys, I don't get them completly besides the fact that they could also have been created like sephiroth himself, or were perhaps ex-Soldiers (ex being that shinra doesn't actually exist anymore and neither should soldier) infused with mako like cloud. I find this theory to be the best because they talk about cloud being big brother and a traitor.

reunion is just a term that was given to jenova's rebirth which would ave truly happened had all three spirits had fused with the head of jenova. If you played the game, you fought peices of jenova, which were always preceeded by some mention of sephiroth being there befor hand. Sephiroth is the.... I want to say vehicle of jenova, but that doesn't sound right. Perhaps the cause of geostigma. If you remember in the game, sephirtoh merged with the planet in order to absorb the planets energy to make jenova reborn and himself and her gods (god like if you want to be specific) when meteor was to strike. you can't tell me that that merger couldn't have affected the planet on some level which might be the cause of geostigma

to explain why some people have geostigma and others don't. Not everyone lives in midgar, not everyone got the full blow of meteor. Also, geostigma could be considered like other diseases, some people are carriers and never get sick themselves. specultaion yes, but good spec

if you understand any of what I've just typed you deserve a cookie, after reading it I want to delete it all, but I won't"

"Clones of Sephiroth perhaps? That's what i was thinking. In the game they're the guys in Nibelheim in the little black cloaks with numbers. I mean, both Cloud, Zack, and all the clones were tried to be made in the image of Sephiroth. The only reason they succeeded with Sephiroth though is because he had an actual mother, as did Zack and Cloud. The others were just test tube babies, to a greater extent. They call Cloud brother obviously because he too was infused with Jenova cells and Mako, though did his body reject the Jenova cells, hence the failed experiment and him being ashamed and taking on Zack's persona."

"ho damn I completly forgot about them. That would explain the opening scenes when the turks took jenova's head from within Crater completly. Reunion was mentioned within the ff7 game wasn't it. All the numbers talked about it, but I don't remember names, which is another stumper. Perhaps they named themselves or just decided to stick with numbers, I don't know.

Also, what did kadja summon? We're all saying its Bahamut, but there was speculation it was a Weapon from the scenes from trailers."

"That's totally Bahaumut, they just changed him to look like the crappy FFX version a little more. They should've just used a dragon, I think it looks really bad, like a statue and unlifelike. I dono, Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo seem like failed experiments, but ALMOST not failed. They weren't fixiated on Reunion, and had more free will (which wasn't very much ie. Kadaj in the church with Jenova's neck MOTHER MOTHER MOTHER). I felt that Sephiroth's new plan was kinda cheesey, they just needed an excuse as to why he was back and came up with that though. It was still good... Cause Sephiroth's a pimp... He shoulda won..."

"And dontcare, too bad that WASN'T omnislash, you tool. It's a NEW limit break. I'm pretty sure omnislash didn't include five or six swords."

I enjoyed it, and can say it is the best action movie I have ever watched.
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