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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Review Date: 2006 April 25 15:55

Reviewed by: Joe

Released by: Sony Pictures UK

Age Rating: PG

Region: 2 - UK

Length: 101 minutes

Subtitles: English
English [For Hard Of Hearing]
French
Spanish
German
Dutch

Audio: English 5.1 Surround
Japanese 5.1 Surround

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Summary

FINAL FANTASY VII: Advent Children continues the game’s storyline in this CG-animated film, featuring non-stop action and exciting visual effects. Two years have passed since the ruins of Midgar stand as a testament to the sacrifices made in order to bring peace. However, the world will soon face a new menace. A mysterious illness is spreading fast. Old enemies are astir. And Cloud (Burton), who walked away from the life of a hero to live in solitude, must step forward yet again...
Backed by a full team of video game extraordinaires, the film was directed by Tetsuya Nomura and Takeshi Nozue, written by Kazushige Nojima and produced by Shinji Hashimoto and Yoshinori Kitase.

Review

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, is a follow up movie to the hugely successful Final Fantasy VII game. It's set two years after the conclusion of the game. Considering how popular the original game was, a movie tie in was inevitable, however it is a bit late considering that the game was released 9 years ago. Luckily for those who have forgotten key elements of the RPG, the DVD includes a feature called Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII, which is basically a concise walk through of the key story elements, in the form of footage of the original Japanese edition of the PlayStation game.

The movie focuses primarily on Cloud, who now runs his own delivery service on his bike. While out and about Cloud is suddenly attacked by three men bearing a resemblance to Sephiroth. That's when the fighting starts, and it continues until the movie ends, at least it seems that way. The film has clearly been written with attention deficit disorder in mind, the dialogue is poor, and doesn't seem to flow that well, as if it's either badly written or badly translated, we'll let you decide which. It's essentially a load of action scenes cobbled together by a loose story. The CGI is nice and flashy, the cloth, hair and water effects look good, but it's making up for the weak story. Watching it feels as if you're missing something, as if you should have read something after the game ended or the movie started. It doesn't quite flow. If you haven't played the game I doubt this film would make much sense.

The animation is really high quality CGI, and the sets used are elaborate. The fight scenes tend to drag on a bit, and near the end of the movie get completely over the top, with far too many blink and you'll miss them type moments, it's very poorly paced. Tifa's fight in the Church however is worth watching. Although the game was made two years before the Matrix, the movie has clearly been influenced by with use of bullet time techniques.

All the playable characters make cameos in the game, with the exception of the Chocobos! Where are they? How can you have a Final Fantasy Movie without Chocobos?! Cait Sith's stuffed moogle is notably absent too. You still have BIG swords and materia.

The DVD is subbed with every major Language in Europe, and also dubbed into English. The English dub is also slightly off at times with missed lip sync, which can be annoying especially if you notice it.

In a (kupo) nutshell this movie is basically a load of action scenes stringed together, with a slight hint of nostalgia to the original game. If you like lots of action scenes, pretty boy's fighting and a story that doesn't quite make sense then this movie is for you. Even the most loyal fan may have trouble watching this movie, but in small doses it's enjoyable, just don't get your hopes up too high.

Rating: 6/10

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