Review of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
To this day, I still don't see what people see in Final Fantasy: Advent Children. Other than some pretty neat fight scenes and stylistic action, this is a shell of a movie, and one that any kid with a penchant for action could have written. In one sense, it leaves writing a review for this film very hard to write, because the flaws of Advent Children are so basic and readily apparent. This is a movie completely lacking in the major attributes that can make or break (as they do in this case) any film. There is a laughable storyline, no character development whatsoever, and abunch of Final Fantasy VII characters make cameos simply for the sake of being there and getting squeals of delight from their fans.
I'll be the first to tell you that I love Final Fantasy VII, the game. I even like the universe it takes place in. But when a feature length film has much less story that a 1997 Playstation 1 video game, we have problems.
The story is just a vessel to get Sephiroth and the good-guy gang back in. There's a plot involving trying to cure "Geostigma," some strange affliction affecting children, but it all takes a back seat to the fight scenes. The actual development of the plot is terribly rushed; we're whisked from one fight to the next, with all new characters, with little to go on. Before you know it, the whole gang is back together, good and bad, Genova makes an appearance, and there's a big bad summon and final fight.
On that note, it is very hard to watch this movie if you have not played FF VII. Essentially no background time is given to any of the characters; combined with the way in which they sort of pop-up at any given time (like Barret and Yuffie at the end), and you have a recipe for confusion and lack of interest if you don't have prior knowledge of them.
It's too bad, because some of the nods are nice. Cell phones ring out with the level up theme from Final Fantasy. One Winged Angel makes a nice musical appearance. The animation is great, and the opening motorbike fight scene oozes cool. The voice acting is quite good. It's nice seeing voices lent to our favorite Final Fantasy characters, and they all seem to fit.
Sadly, though, it doesn't fill the void of a rushed, barebones plot and lazy character cameos. My suggestion; turn off your brain before you watch this, and try to just enjoy the fight scenes, because there isn't really anything else to go on.
2/10