Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

"What the first Final Fantasy movie should have been but wasn't!"

Almost a decade ago Final Fantasy 7 made a huge splash in the gaming world as Squaresoft's first foray onto the Sony PlayStation console with the very first 3D Final Fantasy game.

Since that time, Final Fantasy 7 has remained number 1 in the hearts of many Final Fantasy fanatics, and understandably so. Final Fantasy 7 set a standard and raised the bar for role-playing games to come with its combination of rich storytelling, CG cinematics, and a memorable cast of characters.

Square Enix obviously heard the cries of fans who have long since been clamoring for a proper sequel and has rewarded them with an action-packed, feature-length film follow-up to the story of Final Fantasy 7 with Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children.

Set within the vivid world of Final Fantasy 7, the story of Advent Children takes place 2 years after the near-catastrophic events that almost destroyed the world of Gaia but instead left the city of Midgar in ruins, serving as a constant reminder of the many lives that were lost and the sacrifices made in order to achieve peace.

While life goes on and the rebuilding process continues in Midgar, a mysterious new threat looms ominously over the horizon as a fast spreading illness known as Geostigma plagues the denizens of Midgar, with no cure in sight. Cloud Strife, the hero of the story and poster-boy for clinical depression has left the hero's life behind and continues to battle his inner demons.

Still guilt-ridden and emotionally distraught over the tragic events that transpired 2 years ago, Cloud now lives in seclusion, emotionally distancing himself from his friends and the orphaned children under his care. To make matters worst, Cloud too, finds himself stricken with Geostigma.

Unfortunately, things quickly go from bad to worst as a silver-haired villain named Kadaj, along with his not-so merry band of leather-cladded misfits, go in pursuit of something they keep referring to as “Mother”, with the hopes of finding it and using its power to unleash a greater evil upon the world. With that, Cloud must come out of his self-imposed hero's retirement, step up to the plate once again and fight to prevent a calamity of epic proportions from occurring as a result of Kadaj's relentless quest for power.

Compared to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, a comparison that's almost impossible to avoid, the storyline of Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children is a lot more palatable and enjoyable than that of the previous film (even if you've never played the original PlayStation game).

While there are certain aspects of the story that'll probably have non-fans scratching their heads a bit during their first viewing, the movie does a pretty decent job of trying to get viewers up to speed with various flashback sequences and recaps helping to provide a decent backstory to it all.

Regardless of how viewers perceive the quality of the storyline, the one aspect of the film that will stand out above everything else is the high-quality visual presentation, which is quite stunning to say the least.

Despite containing a significantly smaller development staff than the previous film, Advent Children does a remarkable job of bringing the world of Final Fantasy 7 to life. With the advancements made in the area of computer graphics, the city of Midgar has been lovingly crafted, and its inhabitants brought to life with an astounding level of detail rarely seen in CGI films.

Sparing little to no expense, the designers have lavished the film with wondrous amounts of detail and it shows from the opening sequence till the very end of the film. And while the previous film featured a more photorealistic visual style, the visuals of Advent Children are a bit more anime-esque and simply more appealing. While you won't be counting individual hair follicles and marveling at high quality wrinkled skin like you would in, ‘The Spirits Within', you'll pretty much enjoy Advent Children's visual wizardry all the same, maybe even more-so thanks to its superior motion captured animations.

In addition to featuring gorgeous CG visuals, Advent Children is also a pretty action-packed film. Featuring a variety of high-speed action sequences and numerous fight scenes, viewers will be taken on a thrillride all throughout the film as they kick back and enjoy high-octane motorcycle chases and thrilling fight scenes with lots of wonderful gravity defying moves and effects.

In addition to the thrilling cinematics, the audio portion of Advent Children is also on the impressive side with Dolby Digital sound accompanying all of the onscreen action. Highly acclaimed Final Fantasy series composer, Nobuo Uematsu, has lent his musical talents by composing an all-around great musical score for the film. While non-fans may enjoy some of the music heard throughout the film, hardcore Final Fantasy 7 nuts will surely be in their glory as they're treated to wonderful renditions of familiar Final Fantasy 7 themes such as a moving piano arrangement of "Aerith's theme", a nifty ring tone version of the "Victory fanfare", as well as ultra cool arrangements of "Jenova's theme" and "One-Winged Angel" with hard drivin' guitar work and riveting orchestral passages giving them more of an epic feel.

Additionally, while the Japanese version of the film featured all-around great voice-acting, Square Enix made a point to ensure that the U.S. dub would also receive special attention in that area. Having contracted a talented cast of voice talent for the films domestic release, viewers will be able to enjoy top-notch voice-acting across the board, and in the case of Cloud Strife, voice-overs that are surprisingly just as good, if not better than their Japanese counterparts. Fortunately, both Japanese and English language tracks are available in the DVD and UMD versions of the film with a surprisingly larger amount of subtitle language options available in the UMD version.

All in all, it goes without saying that Final Fantasy fanatics will be the ones rushing out to pick up Advent Children, and for the most part they won't be disappointed. The movie is leagues above Square's previous CGI efforts and serves as a great fan service to the millions of fans around the world

Again, if you never played the original Final Fantasy 7, the story in Advent Children can be a bit confusing at times, but not so much that it'll affect your overall enjoyment of the movie. Packed with a solid story, gorgeous CGI, wonderful sound, and spectacular action and fight scenes, Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children is definitely worth checking out if you haven't already done so.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/06