Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

"A long review for a movie I have a lot to say about."

Aeris dies in Final Fantasy VII.

God, I've been waiting to say that for so long. I believe that the statute of limitations for FF7 has been expired for a long time, and now, you're reading a review for that game's sequel. You can't do that kind of thing without expecting spoilers, buddy. Besides, if you didn't already know about Aeris's death, you probably don't belong on GameFAQs in the first place.

There will be plenty of other less obvious spoilers for that game in this review, so you've been warned.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is, of course, the long-overdue follow-up to a wildly popular PSX game that I didn't like very much. It's not a videogame (though plenty of spin-offs are in the process of development as I type this), but rather a full-length animated movie. Many of the people behind the game had a part in the creation of Children, which is good, I suppose, since fans will want the experience to be as pure as humanly possible. Many people call Children a “sequel.” I think that's too heavy a term for so light a film, especially since it's not as much a continuation of the FF7 legacy as it is a side story. Despite its rabid fanbase, FF7 didn't need a sequel since its story came to a close by the finale. Although the game ended with something of a question mark, several things were clear: The main villain was defeated, Meteor was destroyed, the planet was saved, and things seemed to ultimately work out for our heroes. We were even given a glimpse of what Midgar would look like five hundred years later in a haunting final shot that fans still ponder over. There were some loose ends, sure, but the story ended.

That final scene with Red XIII (which was shown to anyone who sat through the credits) is also the very first scene of Children, but now recreated in gorgeous CG that is worlds ahead of the technology used for the game's cutscenes. The brief sequence shows Red XIII leading his cubs up a canyon wall to a view of a future Midgar, in ruins and covered with overgrowth. It's a classic scene, but there's really no point in putting it in this movie since the scene has no relevance to Children's plot. The purpose of the scene's inclusion is to make fans happy, nothing more.

Following that, we're given a brief sum-up of the entire game before the movie actually kicks into gear. In this sequence (which is narrated by Marlene, of all people), we're shown a number of famous moments from the videogame – the big sweeping camera shot of Midgar, Sephiroth walking through the fire, Cloud dropping Aeris into the pool of water, the final showdown in Northern Cave, etc. – all reinvented in brilliant animation to fit with the movie's visual standards. It's cool to see all of these familiar scenes again, but it's not like anyone watching this movie needs a recap, since most FF7 fanatics have beaten the game many times. Again, this montage is made just to make fans happy.

In fact, the entire movie is loaded with flashbacks and recaps that really serve no purpose to the story, but are there just to please FF7 lovers. It's fan service at its purest.

And that's really all Children is – fan service. Nothing that happens in Children is a necessary step forward in the FF7 world. Like I said, the plot ended with the game's finale, leaving room only for side stories and spin-offs. It doesn't really answer any of the questions that the game's ending provided, and the only really useful information that we obtain from watching Children is what has happened to these people since the Meteor disaster – and even then, none of the characters or settings have changed drastically since they were left off (we do see that Midgar, as a city, is still very much alive and well, and thus the movie still doesn't tell us what ultimately causes the metropolis's eventual turn to ruin). Children exists only to please the many fans of the videogame that have been begging for a follow-up for so long now. On that level, it succeeds. But more on that later.

Children picks up two years after the videogame. Though Midgar and its inhabitants survived the near-collision of Meteor, the city is under heavy reconstruction and is currently little more than a field of girders. Cloud, still as quiet and antisocial as ever, has turned away from his career as a mercenary and now runs a delivery service. He's becoming more and more detached from his friends – well, more than usual – and they're starting to get curious. He frequently rides around the deserts surrounding Midgar on his CME (Coolest Motorcycle Ever), mourning the deaths of his two friends, Zack and Aeris. Tifa has rebuilt her bar and is taking care of Marlene and her friend Denzel while Barret searches the world for oil to replace the infamous mako as an energy source. The rest of the cast is kind of left in the dark as far as details go.

With the death of Sephiroth at the end of FF7, we needed a new villain for Children. Instead of one, we got three: Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. Although the movie is never clear on who these guys are or where they came from, judging from their effeminate looks and silver hair, we assume they're relatives of Sephiroth. (They also call Jenova “Mother” and Cloud “Brother,” which is kind of a dead giveaway.) Remnants of the Reunion, perhaps? Anyway, they're bad. They've got whoopass weapons and can summon freaky monsters, so you better not mess with them! They want to start another Reunion, so they can… uh, I don't know, take over the world? Their plan is to spread an incurable disease called geostigma throughout Midgar, and get the children of the orphanage to follow them by fooling them into thinking that they can be cured. They also need one more thing for a successful Reunion: Jenova's remains. They're convinced that Shinra has Jenova's head, and are threatening to attack for it. And Shinra calls for help from the only person that can protect them.

A decent premise, sure, but it's obvious from the way the plot is presented that it's simply meant as a placeholder while the buildup for the next big action scene occurs. Children is an action movie. It's as simple as that. Every major or noteworthy scene involves an intense battle. Rarely does a period of five minutes go by without one guy slamming another guy into the ground. There are countless one-on-one fight scenes, a couple of monster attacks, and several motorcycle chases.

And this is when the movie is at its absolute best. Thankfully, director Tetsuya Nomura knows how to make an action scene. The fights of Children are executed with an almost Matrix-like coolness, both in the way they're choreographed and the way they're shot. The fights themselves are so over-the-top and gravity-defying that you can't help but be entertained – characters leap stories into the air, bounce off of walls, block bullets with their swords, and do a number of other impossible things. When a character kicks another character, rather than falling down, the victim will soar hundreds of feet. The physics are first made clear in Tifa's battle with Loz early in the film – a brief but spectacular clash that is only followed by bigger, fiercer fights. And each battle scene is edited to perfection, with just the right number of slow-motion pauses and camera zooms so as to make each fight seem unique.

And this is all happening while the film is utilizing easily the best CG animation I've ever seen. Though not quite distinguishable from real life, this is easily the closest any studio has come to matching the characteristics of real humans. Even Pixar would blush at the phenomenal work here.

But that classic phrase “all style, no substance” rings true here. As amazing as the animation is, and as grand as the fight scenes are, the movie really has very little in the way of plot development. And since FF7 is known for its heavy story and deep philosophical ponderings, it's strange that a film follow-up would place storytelling in the backseat. Many of the events that occur in Children make absolutely no sense or aren't fully explained, and I assume that the filmmakers just hoped that we'd be intrigued enough by the action so as to forget that a plot is even involved. And the dialog is embarrassing – no more embarrassing than it was in the game, mind you, but since Children has voice acting, people are actually reciting these lines, making them sound worse. I mean, when was the last time anyone said something like, “Last one in is a rotten egg”? And the battles were just fine without the horrible little one-liner exchanges, thank you very much.

But I don't even think that the writers tried to create a big, sweeping, plot-heavy epic like the game. Again, I must bring up the term “fan service,” as that most accurately describes what they were going for here. With gratuitous flashbacks and unnecessary cameos, the guys behind this film went out of their way to ensure that Children would make fans giddy with delight. And in that regard, the film is near-flawless.

I mean, the only really important returning characters, the ones necessary for Children's plot, are Cloud and Tifa. Aside from their conflicts with Kadaj's crew, the movie also spends a bit of time building on their relationship. It's not really a love relationship, but rather a deep friendship that was strengthened with the events of the game and is now becoming weaker. Any other characters from the game could have been taken out without marginally effecting the quality of the film, especially since most of the original cast stays absent for the entire first half. Even Barret, one of my favorite characters from the game, barely makes more than an extended cameo. Vincent gets more screen time than many other far more famous characters, and he's got the coolest entrance of anyone in the film. I barely noticed that Cid was even in the movie, and Red XIII only has one line (and he seems to be British, too – coincidentally, he's voiced by a guy named Liam). Cait Sith and Yuffie are just as screechy and annoying as they were in the game, if perhaps more so now thanks to their screechy, annoying voiceovers.

At one point, Cait Sith says to Yuffie, “Shut your mouth!” In the same scene, Yuffie calls Cloud a “royal pain in the ass.” Surely these are two of the more ironic statements I've heard in a while.

In talking about all of these useless characters, I am brought back to a scene halfway through the film in which Kadaj summons a giant Bahamut to terrorize Midgar. Most of the cast – including Barret, Yuffie, Cait Sith, Red XIII, and Cid – has remained out of the camera thus far. When the Bahamut attacks and backup is needed, each character steps in one-by-one, making a grand entrance accompanied by a guitar-studded remix of the boss theme. Again, this is pure fan service at work, as most FF7 fanatics will wet themselves watching all of these familiar characters show up all at once. The gang then proceeds to gang up on the beast X-Men-style, and the scene packs the energy and visual stimulation to make it one of Children's highlights.

Reno also makes a return and gets far more screen time than most of the returning cast. Although he often seemed like a pointless addition to the game, his energetic personality and snappy attitude made him one of my favorite characters in Children. He and Rude continue to contribute absolutely nothing to the story, but their roles as the film's comic relief fit well, especially since the main characters are always filled with such emo-like angst. Their battle against Yazoo and Loz at Children's halfway point is priceless (either intentionally or unintentionally… it's hard to tell).

Even dead characters make comebacks. Sephiroth returns in the film's finale, which is just silly, because we all know he was Omnislashed to death at the end of the game – and the film's explanation of his resurrection is ludicrous. But just imagine, a FF7 movie without Sephiroth! Again, fans wanted to see Sephiroth, and Sephiroth they saw. His climactic battle against Cloud is kind of exhilarating in terms of effects, but he's never even really stabilized as a proper villain (at least, not in the movie). Sephiroth is supposed to be a brooding and somewhat insane badass, but thanks to voice actor George Newbern's one-note performance, he instead comes across as tired and bored when he spits out his obligatory one-liners. He's never really “killed,” either. He just sort of disappears without any real resolution. I suppose that's because the writers didn't want to run into the same plot inconsistencies when they resurrect him again for the next sequel.

And there's simply no logical way to resurrect Aeris and Zack, so instead the writers decided to put them in a couple of flashbacks and dream sequences. Just imagine, a FF7 movie without Aeris! Surely you jest. Even freaking Rufus returns, and the writers made up some weird story about how he managed to escape from the Weapon attack. Okay, Rufus was dead, all right?

Aside from Newbern, most of the English voice acting is surprisingly good. Steve Burton and Rachel Leigh Cook, as Cloud and Tifa respectively, are the standouts, which is good considering the importance of their roles. Their performances are convincing enough that I usually forgot there were actors involved at all, at least for those two characters. Likewise, Steve Staley does a great job as Kadaj, just balancing himself on the thin line between whiny little mama's boy and frightening psycho-badass. He's perfect as the film's central villain. Quinton Flynn also does commendable work as Reno. On the other hand, Mena Suvari is simply miscast as Aeris. She's not bad, but her voice is too distinct. I was constantly reminded that it was Mena Suvari talking, not Aeris. The rest of the cast does a decent but unexceptional job.

Even Nobuo Uematsu isn't quite at the top of his game here. He composed the brilliant soundtrack for FF7, which I still consider to be one of the one of the greatest videogame scores of all time. Recycling the classic tunes is smart, but he has little (if any) experience composing for a movie, and it shows. Most of the time, the music doesn't correspond with what's happening in a particular scene – the characters in the scene are doing one thing and the music is going off in a completely different direction (this is most evident in “For the Reunion” and “Black Water”). I mean, playing a remix of “One Winged Angel” during the climactic Cloud-versus-Sephiroth fight is awesome, but the song doesn't match what's going on in the scene. When the soundtrack is good, it's very good – Uematsu's love for piano solos and Latin chants is apparent – but more than often he slips.

In the end, your enjoyment of this movie depends more on your love for the game than on your appreciation for good film. As fan service, it does everything it sets out to do – nearly every character returns, and there are more references to the game than you can keep track of. As a movie, it's melodramatic and sometimes cringe-inducing, but fun if you can look past the forced dialog. It's the classic case of style over substance once again.

Pros

+ A long-awaited follow-up to one of the most popular games of all time.
+ Amazing CG effects are among the best in the movie business.
+ Some of the slickest and most skillfully shot action scenes in a long time.
+ As fan service, it's perfect, with plenty of cameos and references to the game.
+ Most of the voice acting is good.

Cons

- Nonsensical story and lame dialog stiffen the overall edge of the film.
- Many of the flashbacks and characters are only featured to please fans.
- In fact, the entire movie is nothing but fan service.
- Boring portrayal of Sephiroth by George Newborn.
- Nobuo Uematsu disappoints.

Overall: 6/10

Not a bad movie at all but certainly not masterful filmmaking, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a disappointment even to me, and I was never a huge fan of the videogame to begin with. (Yet despite how hard I've been on the game in the past, I think I do have a soft spot for the RPG. Seeing all of these characters again, for the first time in nine years, sorta tugged on my heartstrings a bit. Children made me want to play the game again, which is no small feat.) The movie has a forgettable story and a damn near pathetic script. It's held together only by its amazing effects and eye-popping action sequences. Most fans of the game have already seen this movie, and for those of you that haven't, I recommend doing so, if only for the sheer coolness of the whole package. But don't expect a great movie, because you won't get one.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/06