Thursday, September 15, 2005

FFVII: Advent Children review

OMG, I can't believe I just watched Advent Children. Square should have done this long ago instead of that crap called The Spirits Within which cost over $100 mil.

For those who don't know, Advent Children is the continuation of the game Final Fantasy VII which was released a long time ago but still fresh in the mind of many gamers. However the movie does a bad job of reintroducing the characters and plot so ppl who are unfamiliar with the game may be a bit lost.

Cloud ready to kick some ass. The way he uses his sword(s) is just brilliant!

Actually the plot is nothing much to speak of, similar to those Japanese special effect action movies like Casshern. I don't understand why these type of movies must have:

a) Have lots of unexplained things

b) stylistic characters trying to sound philosophical but coming across like people who have escaped from mental institutions.

Luckily, this movie is not about plot. Nope, Advent Children is basically an action movie and the action is beautiful. Its everything that Matrix 2 and 3 tried to be but couldn't. Of course its easier to let your imagination run wild when working with CG instead of actors but then its not like Matrix 2 and 3 did not have tons of (fake) CG characters.

Yes you heard me right, we get to see Cloud and gang do moves that Neo can only dream about.

Hhmm, Tifa looks a bit like Rinoa from FFVIII, with slightly bigger oppai, IMHO. (not pictured, see last pic)

Of special mention are Tifa's fight scenes and the group fight, both of which I wish were longer. There's nothing like seeing a group of heroes gang-banging a super powerful boss.

Shot from Tifa's fight scene.

Vincent, Tifa and Cid ready to layeth the smackdown. Too bad they hardly get to do any. :(

Didn't I watch you die at the end of the 1st disc many years ago? Stop haunting me, goddammit!

Group shot of the gang. Red XIII is at the bottom right and can't be seen. Notice Cait Sith being held by Marlene and Tifa's "ahem" assets. She could fit right in Dead or Alive.

I got goosebumps just hearing FFVII music during the movie and they've even worked out an ingenious way to get the victory music in. Another great thing was revisiting places from the game like Aeris' flower garden. Everything in this movie is top notch (except for plot) and I really urge everyone to go see it. This movie is every otaku's wet dream (that doesn't involve nurses or maids) and I would love to see this on the big screen.

Its easier to complain about a movie than to praise it and my euphoria from watching the movie is fading so here are my little nitpicks:

1) No chocobos! WTF? They figured a way to get a Moogle cameo but not Chocobos????????

2) Too much Cloud. Why not give the other characters some side quest to do? Rude and Reno got more screentime than the others. Who gives a fuck about those two?

3) Where's the gwahahaha/muahahahaha dude?

2 comments:

Twissie said...

I watched this last night as well. I'm not the biggest FF7 fangirl in the world, but it is an awesome game so I was looking forward to the movie.

The music got to me the most.. the movie ended too soon for me, there was like no plot o_o first half of the movie lulled me into this false understanding that there was more story to come, so I sort of wanted all the fighting to be over so that the story could go on.. instead the movie just ended :/ a tad bit disappointing, I'm not too fond of long battle sequences, no matter how stylistic and spiffy they are.

"1) No chocobos! WTF? They figured a way to get a Moogle cameo but not Chocobos????????"

xD My boyfriend and I had the very same reaction. Rofl

The movie was worth seeing for the humour and music.. but I really expected more plot :/ looked fantastic, though. Plus.. mm FF7 goodness.

Akiramike said...

IMO the plot was really simple: tests subjects imbued with Genova's cells were looking for her head.

The writers tried to make stretch it by making it seem like some sort of mystery and adding the kids into the story.

I do agree the humour is good but there's not much plot for them to do since the game ended with the bad guys defeated.

I think it would have been better to show more of the group just interacting with each other and fighting together.

I was expecting a chocobo to run across the road during one of the motorcycles scenes, lol.