Review of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

It REALLY helps to have played the original FF7 game in order to appriciate and understand this movie. And, no, Kingdom Hearts does not count! The plot of FF7:AC assumes you've played and picks up 2 years after the game ends. Some guy friends of mine have said they liked the movie even without playing but they were completely lost. Honestly, if you're an action fan you'll like this movie...... about 80 of the movie is raw action and jaw-dropping fight scenes. There's little plot in the movie because you get the game plot woven in. In the first 5 minutes you get an introinto the lifestream, Jenova, and who Sephiroth is. The fight scenes are amazing and if you're not careful [fanboys: take notice] you might find your mouth hanging wide open with drool coming out. The CG animation is so unbelievable; the characters look so real that you can see freckles on the skin and strands of hair. The animation is truly some of the best I've seen.

All the popular characters from the game were in this movie: Cloud, Aeris, Yuffie, Cid, Barret, Vincent, Tifa, and Sephiroth. It was really awsome to see all the characters again after playing the game, all with new looks. Reno and Rude of the Turks were the comic relief, as they were in the game. There's no romance in this movie, but you do get some insight into how Cloud feels about Aeris. I wonder why there were no chocobos?!

Voice acting was pretty good in the dubbed..... except for Yuffie and Caith Sith, they were hard to listen too. Vincent's voice was done by Steve Blum [has also done Spike in Cowboy Bebop] who was a PERFECT choice. Blum's voice made Vincent even more sexy. But nothing tops the Japanese voices in the subbed, and this was considered importance since this was the first time these characters were given voices.

I've played the original FF7 game, played kingdom Hearts, and even cosplayed as Aeris - Because of this, I have a strong understanding and appriciation for this movie and I honestly feel it serves as a good ending to one of the best Final Fantasy games in the series! The game really should be fresh in your mind in order to understand everything in the movie.