Lucasthucus

I read Todd Douglass Jr.'s DVD review of Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=21290 and...

I found Mr. Douglass's review to be pretty biased. To be fair, I really enjoyed the film, but more for the insane action than any story, which I think even die-hard fans will admit is pretty opaque. As a rule, I think a truly well-made narrative-oriented film ought to be comprehensible on the first viewing. "Advent Children" was not, despite having an understanding of the backstory developed in the game. Things were just too random. Characters made decisions with little evident motivation. In a way, the characterizations paralleled the action. Although the action kicked-ass.

Also, having had the opportunity to watch this on a giant flat-screen tv with surround sound, you should know that the compression is for the most part 'ok,' but during certain scenes with more subtle lighting, the image got pretty pixelated. The sound didn't hold up all that well, either, although both sound and video were great on my little laptop.

GOTH

The movie was a real let down. The story sucked, the "acting" sucked, and the fact that every other word in the movie was "mother" really got on my nerves.

visitor Q

Agreed, though I'm hoping that after repeated viewings, certain subplots of the story will make more sense. Keep in mind that I had no background info on the story going in, but got the gist of it.

The sound could have used a some more dynamic range (punch), but it was more than adequate on my set up with a good degree of surround sound usage albeit subdued. The only flaw on this end was the soundtrack itself. I didn't care for the OST and found the music to be distracting at times. I'd attribute this to poor timing.

Overall, I'd give the experience a 3.5 out of 5. The premise had me for awhile, but the story ended up just average. There definately were some winning points however. Like the OP stated .. the action sequences were hyper kinetic and I'll add - very stylized! But what really pushed this over the top for me was the scripting and cinematography. The panning shots got a little too fast during some action scenes but when they were dead on, they were very effective and the sequences looked amazing. There were times when I forgot this whole thing was a group of moving CGI elements. The character interaction was believable and the two subordinates to Shinra were realistic and comedic, both in mannerism and scripting.

The most amazing aspects were the shot compositions! The way the film looked and felt is exactly what makes animated features (at least this one) so promising versus live action .. or probably less expensive to make at least. The 'what would be' camera angles, close ups (level of detail), split screens, stop frames .. etc. added to the overall impact of Advent.

An obvious DVD comparison would be to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. The CGI elements are similar, but they finally figured out to use them more effectively in Advent Chilren. And it was all wrapped up in a nice clean DVD presentation.

I would definately recommend this for at least a rental, but its not a definate keeper unless you're a fan or interested in another landmark to CGI animation.

Ford Prefect

The best way to describe this excuse for a movie is to think that Jerry Bruckheimer got the rights to make an animated FF VII movie, then hired Michael Bay to direct it. The movie is just as loud, obnoxious, and flat out stupid as every Bay/Bruckheimer movie has been. I got to see the movie before it was released and thought it was awful, but so many people told me how stupid and idiotic I was for thinking that, I bought it to watch again and see what I was missing. So far I have yet to finish a second viewing. I have fallen asleep twice while trying to watch it, and just plain gotten bored and popped in something else instead. The movie is beautiful CGI, but everything else is absolute trash that only diehard fans of the game will like (and even then they probably won't like it, but as diehard fans they will convince themselves that they do like it, FF VII fans are scary).

bis22

I just watched this for the first time, and wow, am I disappointed. I don't know if all the Final Fantasy VII fans (I'm actually a huge one) are just blinded by seeing their favorite characters again or what, because pretty much all I've heard are good things about this.

I don't have a problem with the thin plot, but it wasn't handled very well. The whole thing mostly lacked both dramatic tension and scope, so when it was over, it almost felt like nothing ever even happened. And although there was a lot of cool action, much of it wasn't that exciting either.

I think the audio was a problem, too. Both the drama and especially action probably would have been helped tremendously if the it was mixed better. Much of it just lacked punch, the music was often mixed too low, and a lot of times the character voices didn't really sound like they were actually in their environments (English dub, anyway).

I also can't believe the praise the video quality is receiving. The entire time it's a little soft, which I could forgive, but it's plagued with aliasing. For instance, pretty much any time you see Tifa, there's aliasing all over her hair. I don't know what happened. It seems like it was improperly scaled or something.

Maybe I was just expecting too much (and was also distracted by all the aliasing), but I'll definitely have to watch it again to see if it grows on me. It's really too bad. I hadn't been looking forward to a DVD this much in a long time and just ended up being disappointed.

Fok

I found after a few viewings it does grow on you. I enjoyed the movie and the release is pretty decent.

gerrythedon

The only thing that I miss on it, is a commentary track or two.

ShagMan

Here's my 2c. I enjoyed FF: The Spirits Within, a LOT more. I'm not sure why, I think it's mostly that I don't really care for the over the top swordplay, and the plot was EXTREMELY weak. I think this movie was definitely a type of fan-service for the FF fans, rather than a decent stand-alone movie.

alphabetsoup

I just enjoyed the fighting scenes and graphics. Other than that, it wasn't great. I think I had too high of an expectation for it.

Giles

I agree, the lack of story really hurt this film - it was just one action scene after another... the editing and wild camera angles also gave me a headache.

tonyc3742

Pretty much my thoughts. The two assistants, Reno and Rude? were pretty cool, there were about the only 'stars' who had much personality. Fight scenes were pretty cool, but some of them dragged on, and were much too choppy to really follow--at times I'd be like, "okay, who's winning?"
I thought it sounded good, but yes, the music didn't always fit.
Plot--um, I think it was there. I didn't notice any aliasing but I also wasn't really looking hard.
They are doing more and more impressive things with CGI nowadays.