Review of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Overview: FF7 Advent Children gets a lot of hate online, and some of it is quite justifiable. The story in this movie isn't very good, it doesn't further develop 7's beloved characters, and it isn't really a great continuation to the epic storyline. Why did I rate it so high? I will explain. Story and characters: 5/10 warning spoilers! We see that Cloud is still crushed by Aeris's death and isn't living with Tifa, because he's being a whiny bitch(I actually liked Tifa in the first place). The world is being ravaged by a mysterious disease and our heroes have all mostly gone their separate ways. The plotpicks us when some remaining clones of Sephiroth are searching for Jenovah's remains so they can bring back everyone's favorite human/demon hybrid from the dead to wreak havoc. Apparently Sephiroth doesn't even need to be alive to be a massive dick to everyone. He is responsible for the disease that is ravaging the surviving human population by tainting the lifestream with his spirit or some bullshit. Anyways, Rufus Shinra is alive for... some reason and conveniently has Jenovah's head with him. The whiny clone Kadaj snatches the head after Rufus throws it out a window like a dumbass and Kadaj turns into Sephiroth by using the Jenovah cells. I guess this makes at least some sense since even in the main game, Sephiroth's original body was incapacitated and hanging out in the Northern Crater and it was actually the Jenovah cell version that we saw throughout most of the game besides the flashback scenes. Cloud fights an epic duel with Sephiroth and although Cloud is on the ropes for most of the fight, he manages to spring omnislash on the overconfident Sephiroth and take him out. This somehow also cures the disease despite the fact that killing Sephiroth would probably just send his spirit back to the lifestream where it was causing the disease in the first place! We also see Cloud has gained some level of confidence and even smiles, perhaps hinting that he has found some solace over Aeris's death.

Art: 10/10

The CG when this movie came out in 2005 it was absolutely fucking amazing! We had never seen CG this good before. It didn't have the level of realism seen in Spirits Within, but kept the high detailed backgrounds without losing the anime inspired feel of the original character designs. This combination of realism and anime art created a beautiful looking movie that still looks excellent today in 2014.

Music: 10/10

I realize how cliche it is to say this soundtrack "gets your blood pumping" but GOD DAMN! We get a heavy metal version of Sephiroth's legendary leitmotif "One Winged Angel", along with new remixes of other fan favorite tracks like "Jenovah Absolute"! Nobuo Uematsu really brings his A game on this one and it is one of the most enjoyable highlights of the movie.

Enjoyment: 10/10

This movie has action, atmosphere, fun, looks great, sounds great, and is a very enjoyable experience. It is no artistic masterpiece, but it wasn't supposed to be. It was a fun action movie based off a fan favorite video game.

Overall: 8/10

You can't go into this movie expecting an amazingly well written continuation of the FF7 storyline. Instead go in expecting an action movie that looks great, sounds great, and is quite simply enjoyable. If you watch this movie with the right attitude than it really is quite good.