Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (DVD, 2006, 2-Disc Set)

Advent Children is a movie that takes place 2 years after the game. A mysterious disease, Geostigma, is currently plaging everyone, and out of the blue, three silver haired villains show up in their search for Jenova. Cloud is no longer a mercenary and is now an elusive deilvery guy. Shinra seeks Cloud for his help to stop those three but he refuses. Soon Cloud has no choice but to go after these three once he's attacked by them and when they start kidnapping children and threatening the city.

Going on without spoiling anything, I'll say that FF7: AC is all style without substance. Its visuals live up to Square's name and careful effort and attention is payed to even the littlest things like Barret's tattoo. Not only are the visuals in that area impressive, but the fight scenes were just as jaw-dropping if not better. They were too fast and short but still good enough to blow you away. Even though the character design doesn't look as realistic as many would prefer, I personally find the style they chose and the mood of the environment to be fitting considering its from a game and that the FF7 world at that moment is gloomy.

Where Square earns an A+ in visuals as usual, unfortunately, the story is where this movie lacks. Scenes will switch from one event to another frequently, causing confusion on where the storyline is headed. There is no explanation of new characters like Denzel, and hardly any background information on Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz are touched. While new characters come off as vague props that're just there just to be there, some of the remaining known characters don't really seem to be anything like the lovable characters we all remember from the game. At least, Square doesn't even try or have enough time to focus on them. Aside from Cloud and Tifa, the rest of the familiar cast are more like cameos that were included just to please the fans. Even for the sake of comedy relief, it seems like Reno and Rude were the stars of Advent Children. Though they played a smaller role than Cloud, they helped moved the story along and were possibly the most entertaining throughout the entire movie.

I don't mind the music. It brings back nostalgic feelings and like the visuals, fits the mood and turmoil. They COULD'VE added more new songs but what they had was good enough for me. One Winged Angel although a bit different now, is still pleasant as ever.

The concept of the story had good potential. Unfortunately, Square didn't put out the story well enough to tap into that potential. The movie was too short and the majority of the trailors may as well been the actual movie itself. Excellent visuals and decent music along with the poorly structured story brought this to an average rating.

If you're a fanatic, go buy it. (Like anything I say will stop you) If you're a dedicated fan who cares very much for storylines, then I would suggest renting it. Newcomers to this series will be lost and even for fans the movie can be vague and confusing. So if you're new, be sure to watch the animated recap, Last Order to help you along a bit.