So I'm jumping on the bandwagon a little late but earlier this week I got around to downloading the DVD version of Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children. I also downloaded a regular AVI version of it. Don't watch those, they're crap. Go with the DVD quality versions to get the full effect which is needed since the entire thing is CG. I must've watched the first 20 minutes or so of the AVI version before the DVD version finished downloading and wasn't especially impressed. But after I restarted viewing with the DVD version, it was like night and day.
After the fiasco of the original Final Fantasy movie (which I didn't think was as bad as everyone else thought it was), I wasn't expecting too much from this one. And in some ways it is a bit disappointing. The story is not particularly special but I wasn't watching this for that anyway. And it definitely helps if you remember the cast and events from the FFVII game. Non-fans will be left very much non-plussed by the story and plot unfortunately.
However, It was awesome to see the FFVII cast realized in non-chibi form as they were in the game. The CG and animation, as expected, was for the most part stunning. As with the original movie, it was noticeable that some scenes and characters received more attention than others but not too bad overall.
But what really wow'd me were the action/fighting sequences. Some critics play down these sequences as too Matrix-y and badly cut. I don't know what the hell they're talking about. It seems like any time any new action movie comes out with slow-mo portions in an action sequence they immediately get labeled as Matrix-wannabes. Sure they had them here but not all that many. Hell I wish they had added MORE in just so I could admire the amount of detail and effort that went into those scenes. The fighting scenes were very fast paced but poorly cut? I don't think so. It does come through better if you watch them a few more times though just so your eye and mind can get used to the speed and then you can pick up what's going on. And when you do, you'll be treated to some of the best sword-fighting sequences and poses ever. They don't call Cloud the dude with the big honkin' Swiss-utility sword for nothing. =)
Check your sense of reality at the door though cause the moves they pull off in this movie defy all logic. But that's exactly what makes it so cool. =) It's unfortunate that not everyone in the cast received a decent amount of screen time but unless you want to sit through a trilogy (which I wouldn't mind actually ;-), there's obviously not enough time to do that in just one film.
Oh, there's also a half-hour anime OAV floating around on BitTorrent called Final Fantasy VII - Last Order that sorta explains why Cloud's such a mopey dope throughout most of this movie (although you can figure out the main reason why just from watching this movie) and also provides a little bit of a backstory to a flashback that was shown in this movie and the brief appearance of a character near the end of this movie.
Anyway, I'm suitably impressed with this movie so much that I'll be first in line to get the official DVD when it's finally released in the US later this year. I'm wishing they also release it in a theater in NYC cause it'd be great to see it on a big screen. And it almost makes me want to go and pick up the game again. =)
