Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2006, UMD)

Wow.. I can't believe I actually sat through this entire movie. Even more bewildering would be the notion that there are fans who probably waited in line for the first theater showing of this film. The horror. If there would be any movie-made-from-videogame to serve as a viewing warning, Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children would be the poster child of bad movies when you might have least expected it. While the movie has some merit, it's pretty much just nonstop cameos, signature moves and signature items meant to cater to the gaming community. This movie is NOT meant for anyone who is not a gamer; most especially if they did not play Final Fantasy VII (or if they did, they didn't enjoy it like the majority).

Have I played Final Fantasy VII? Indeed I have, and I believe it is one of the greatest RPG games that has made such an impact to be on the top ten list of Best RPGs to Play, and which also put Square into the mainstream spotlight. Final Fantasy VII is arguably one of the games that kicked game developer, Square, into high gear and created a bigger, public profile for them. I, like many other people, absolutely loved that game. By contrast, the movie is tedious and probably gets way more credit than it should ever deserve. In my means of trying to create a balanced opinion about this movie, I'm going to do an aspect-breakdown.. and maybe this is more for me because I honestly can't decide how to rate it so I will leave it up to the star-averages to explain how I feel about it. It might sound more like a game review, but I'd rather be more complete with detail to make sure readers REALLY KNOW the consequences of viewing. You can't regain the time lost when you watch this bad movie :P.


Action Factor (for Gamers): *****
Action Factor (for Non-Gamers): ****
Within the first 15 minutes of viewing you get the pleasure of the first action scene. Even though it's all computer generated, the fights are fast, intense and persist through most of the movie. You don't get much downtime for story.. which may be a good thing since the action of Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children is all it has going for it. If you have played the game, you will recognize many signature moves by each of the characters. If you have never played the game, you'll notice that the action is pretty good (eye-candy) and akin to what you would expect from a videogame or kung-fu movie (suspended belief of powers and physics). The settings, clothing and weapons are straight from the game as well. If you have played the game, it is a neat treat to see the Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children alive like how we all wished we could imagine it. If you have not played the game, all that is still quite good to portray a gritty, semi-melancholy/subdued society recuperating from a serious, global aftermath as experienced from the game.

Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children is done in computer-generated full-motion video. I'm sure that this has been a dream for hardcore fans, since great videogames will tease us with gorgeous cut-scenes before going back to the normal graphics. This movie is like one, nonstop cutscene of story. I would have to say that the best design is within the first 40 minutes of the movie. Not to say that the rest is bad visually, but there are portions of the movie which looked a little cheap in the entire flow of things going on; like they took a break on quality and sped up the film in hopes no one would notice. Action can't move too fast for me to pick up on that (especially combined with the power of slow-video and caffiene). When it gets "cheap" looking, it lacks the same definition as the rest of what's been seen.. and feels like tv-quality cartoon for those few seconds. Now if you don't have the critical eye for this, from playing lots of games, you're likely to gloss over it. Without a good plotline to engage me, all I can do is nitpick everything else (graphics). While the video is great looking it's not really breaking any new ground; we've had lots of this in any videogame which has been released for PC or console. One of the major problems with the action is that once you've seen half the movie you've seen it all. The originality stops past the combat sequences you would see in the game. It also repeats. BOOOOOO. Quantity does not equate quality.


Sound/Music (for Gamers): ***
Sound/Music (for Non-Gamers): **
If you have played the game, you will recognize almost every single major sound track in the movie; they were taken directly from the game. Even though it's been many years since I've played Final Fantasy VII, the sound is much better in the movie than it ever was in the game. Those who pay more attention will actually hear non music-related sounds straight from the game as well. They're strategically inserted into the movie, and I'm sure it's to the effect to have people (read: FFVII NERDS) turn their head to the person next to them commenting about how they remember where that sound was from the game. The music itself has significance, in the sense that the movie pairs up tracks with the respective characters they're used to represent within the game. If you've never played the game, you'll never know and never care. It's just music. Some of the sound tracks have been enhanced (for those who never listened to any of the remixes that flooded the net months after the game hit it big-time) for the movie and are actually pretty sharp. Once again, if you never played the game, you'll never have noticed and are unlikely to ever care. The tracks new in the movie are quality enough to have been in the game; but they're only on par to what you would experience from a game. Once again, all of this mostly caters to the gamers, since the music is paired with the characters instead of used to maintain some underlying flow of the movie. You can be listening to an amped up combat score one moment, only to hear something soft and romantic another 30 seconds later. There is no sense of strategic planning of the music; it's just thrown in haphazardly to cater to the gamers.


Story/Plot (for Gamers): ***
Story/Plot (for Non-Gamers): *
If you have never played the game, you're going to hate trying to pay attention to what's going on. Not only does it not make a whole lot of sense, you're not really going to care anyway. You'll catch on to the character names, but there is no development to them (since all that would have happened if you played the game) so you never get any feeling of who or why they are. The bulk of the characters that are developed through the game are pretty much just dropped into the movie without any warning (or much need from the story). All you know is they're moving around, talking, and that they have a name others refer to them as. The plot is still somewhat cryptic to those who have played Final Fantasy VII. You don't really get a sense of what's going on or where you're being taken. There are references to the game within the movie, and without explanation, non-gamer viewers will gloss over those scenes and discard any intended plot importance. Most of the movie will mean nothing and feel like a complete waste of time. If you have played Final Fantasy VII, you will have a better idea of what's going on only if you remember the game, since everything was developed there. Even so, I felt that the story was pretty inconsequential and the means of telling it wasn't smooth enough to really make it enjoyable. It, more or less, rambles on with little direction to keep the focus of attention. The eye-candy does that. Yes, I did understand where it was trying to go, but the holes and gaps really make the movie more work than it should be. Did it make some sense at the end? Yes, but only because my knowledge of playing Final Fantasy VII allowed it. Those who never played the game would cheer the end because the movie was over; not because of any sense of triumph.


Bottom Line (for Gamers): ***
Bottom Line (for Non-Gamers) **
When it comes to ratings, if epinions doesn't let us do decimals then I won't do decimals. My values stand. I will never watch this movie again UNLESS I'm in company who really want to watch (despite my protesting) and I have liquor to deal with it. Once is definitely enough. If I want videogame nostalgia then I'll play that nostalgic game again.. or listen to the soundtrack and reminisce. There is a lot for hardcore fans to love, but the over-the-top action and constant repetition of scenes (how many motorcycle fight-scenes can we really tolerate?) just water down the movie as a whole and dimish the potency of the action by the end. The movie is gorgeous looking, BUT if I want great looking eye-candy then I'll play a recent-release PC or X-Box 360 game. At least then I know I will enjoy more and feel that my time has been worth it. If I want an intriguing story to entertain my brain as I watch, I'll go and pick from a list that does not include Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children. Square is great at making games which coerce us to look within ourselves for answers to questions that the real world sometimes poses. Directors taking the initial game direction still have a long way to go to do great things with the respective movie counterpart.

After looking at the sum of the ratings I gave each individual aspect of the movie, I'm disagreeing with myself and giving a different overall rating which will be reflected by the review. I will never watch this movie again if I ever have to, and that means it get a one asterisk (*) rating for normal viewers. Gamers may disagree with me greatly, but this review is meant to cater to the majority of movie viewers. Not all gamers will disagree, since I am sure there are many gamers who are of like mind on my opinion of this movie. There is a small group of people who would rate this movie 3+ stars and be serious about it. The only real difference between this movie and others such as Street Fighter, Spawn, or Mortal Kombat II is that Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children is easy on the eyes and without all the stupid, ugly human actors.