Advent Children

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children

April 17, 2006 - The way you approach Final Fantasy VII Advent Children will have a lot to do with your history as a gamer, and more specifically, your history with the Final Fantasy series. There is no way around it: Final Fantasy VII Advent Children is fan service. Glorious, beautiful, well-executed fan service. Those who enjoyed Final Fantasy VII and wanted to see the story continue get their wish with this film and an upcoming gaggle of games that transport enthusiasts back to the land of their dreams. Everyone else, do a bit of homework on the back story, then sit back and enjoy one of the most visually engaging CGI movies ever.

Advent Children has already been out for some time in Japan as a DVD and UMD (the film didn't see theatrical release as Spirits Within did) and there was considerable confusion over when it was going to make it to the States. Whatever the delay was about, the end result is a two-disc set that is technically brilliant and offers fans an adequate (but not complete) set of extras to round out the package.

The Movie

The story of Advent Children picks up two years after the story of Final Fantasy VII (the videogame ) ends. Midgar lays in ruins and now a sickness is creeping through the land. Of course, this means that heroes will be called back to action—heroes who carry enormous swords, ride the coolest motorcycles on the planet and sport some serious hair.

Of course, I'm talking about Cloud and Tifa et al. Their characters can be summed up thusly: Cloud is an effeminate but super-powerful warrior who dresses in vests adorned with lion hardware that matches his earrings. Tifa is also of the ass-kicking school, but she is a brunette who wears leather outfits. They assemble a rag-tag group of helpers along the way, all of whom will be recognizable by fans of the FF lore.

They are all dead-set against bad guy Sephiroth, another ridiculously good-looking guy from the Trent Reznor school of thought—even though he's rich and beautiful and powerful, he has a monster chip on his shoulder and the world is gonna pay for that. Isn't that always how it is with the evil divas?

The main story of the movie plays out like a series of machinations that seek to get the good guys in fights with the bad guys. There is meaningful dialogue along the way if you know the characters, but for those coming to the series cold, there is little hope that you will feel for the events unfolding on the screen.

The plot itself is also somewhat impenetrable. Again, like the videogame, it seems like sometimes the exposition and "story" is just a way to get to the next battle. Luckily, getting to the next battle is always a glorious thing. In fact, Advent Children's fight sequences rival a lot of large-scale action sequences that Hollywood cranks out on the live action front.

From beginning to end, the visuals are amazing to behold. Fans of the game will see some familiar cut scenes woven into the action (especially in the very beginning), but for people who have never been exposed to the videogame, there is still a lot of beauty to behold. The imagined world is lush with the detail of both beauty and decay. The characters are amazing looking and animated to an eerie level of realism. It seems the animators want us to see their characters pull on gloves as many times as possible just to freak us out with how close CG is getting to the real thing.

Beyond that, the acting by both the Japanese and English vocalists is impressive. Often, animated films that are brought to the US are bogged down by too many stars, but this production features only a couple; a great impulse. The English language track has nary a weak link, and that is seldom the case with animated dubs.

Ultimately, it's nice to see a CG movie that doesn't rely exclusively on talking animals and wacky punch lines to entertain. There is definitely a market for more adult CG animated fare, and Advent Children makes a good case for this. In fact, in terms of direct-to-DVD releases (and considering all I'm about to say in the remainder of this review), this could well be one of the best direct-to-DVD releases ever.
This news was taken from http://dvd.ign.com/
To be continued...