Customer Reviews:

0 out of 0 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A3IMWGBQX0VIPR 2008-08-11
 
Review Summary: an excellent film
 
Review Content: now although i admit the film is confusing if you haven't played the game it's still a great film i watched it and i hadn't played the game and i pieced together most of it aprt from the characters my advice if you haven't played the game is to ignore the plot and focus on the action aside from that it's a complex intelligent beautiful action filled film i advise to watch
 
 
 

0 out of 1 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A35MNVD6WIPVEK 2008-07-19
 
Review Summary: Do not watch unless you are a FF fan
 
Review Content: Incomprehensible story if you are not familar with the FF characters. I watched it with a fan and he did appreciate it more. The bottom line is the film does not tell a story on it's own.
 
 
 

0 out of 0 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A1PID2MT8MMPAF 2008-06-19
 
Review Summary: Flash but no substance
 
Review Content: Final Fantasy 7:Advent Children looks very good. Better than The Spirits Within, and that's saying something. It's got action, vast cityscapes, and people with hair that moves. And it's got monsters and motorbikes, and more action...and yet more action. In fact, there's so much action everything else falls by the wayside, and here lies one of the films biggest failings.

First, it has to be said that if you haven't seen Final Fantasy 7 and know a far bit about the world that this adventure takes place in, you're going to be totally lost here, because the movie is a direct sequel to that video game. So, as far as the movie going public goes, that's got to be a pretty small audience, even for a game like this, which was a massive world seller. But that's still not going to get as many bums on seats as your usual futuristic blockbuster. Still, let's assume that you're a bit of an FF fan and you've taken your chances and sat down, looking forward to seeing all your favourite characters come to life, so lets see what you get.

Well, here's what the game gets pretty much right. There they all are, Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie, Barrett, etc and they look fantastic. The animation is superb, everyone moves, walks and gestures like a real person. The city (Midgar?) looks authentic and the feeling of familiarity is spot on. This was definitely a labour of love. They've even included some of the same musical themes.

Now that you've got over the thrill of the characters coming to life, we can move onto the plot. Oh dear...Erm...well, three silver-haired punks turn up claiming that they want to reunite with Mother and take revenge on the planet. To do that they need to find some left-over cells from the original Jenova project that was behind the trouble in the game. Can our heroes stop them? Well yes, of course, is the answer, and to do so, the film starts with jaw dropping action sequences, and never takes a breath for 90 minutes. Now that might sound great but without any character or plot development in between, the action seems to have as much depth as a vintage side scrolling beat `em up. All that happens in this film, is fight after fight, after fight, after fight! The silver haired baddies come to town and our heroes fight them. And that really is it. Oh they also summon some big bug-like monsters, but just the one type - how cheap is that? I wanted to see classic FF creatures, especially a few summons like Ifrit or Shiva but these generic beasts are nothing I recognised, and they don't even do much. Anyway, Cloud and the gang rip through everything anyway, just pausing momentarily to utter deep and meaningful platitudes about life, destiny and friendship before they get back to leaping on motorbikes or dashing vertically up the outside of tall buildings (like you do) to have a go at the baddies. The action is so outrageously over the top that in a few places you might actually be laughing, but I think such a reaction would not upset the makers, as it is not called "fantasy" for nothing. There's one standout sequence of a battle against a particularly large flying dragon type thing (the only different monster to the previously mentioned bug things) which has some quite breathtaking shots (if only we could really jump upwards with enough momentum to go that high!), but the rest of the film badly needs some time out from all the excitement to make you care about what's going on.

The film is SO unavoidably for fans only that it's impossible for anyone new to the story to get anything out of it. And even someone who knows the original like I do needs a bit more meat on the story than this. I played it twice but still get lost when I try and unravel the plot, and this movie just glosses over everything, which, when you are referencing a game that had about 100 hours of interactive detail, that's a lot of glossing!! You couldn't just walk into this and get it, because the hugely important plot details about Mako, Materia, Jenova, Lifestream, Soldier, Sephiroth and Aeris are not explained in detail at all. All in all, the film is a fans dream, but an under developed one, because it's all your favourite characters in one very long and drawn out fight from beginning to end, and all in the same place and at the same breakneck speed. Its also seemingly shot in a palette of mostly grey, black and silver, which doesn't lend much to variety either. Quite exhausting, but ultimately very throwaway.
 
 
 

0 out of 0 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A2R524386V746O 2008-03-06
 
Review Summary: Absolutely amazing
 
Review Content: This film is absolutely amazing. I believe this is a great movie and one of the best of all time. The characters are rendered so amazingly that it seems that they are played by real actors, also the backgrounds and storyline are brilliant. Great purchase at £5. The storyline is slightly confusing but not too much, a couple of viewings and you will understand.
 
 
 

2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A1A0MT8U80B5OB 2008-02-16
 
Review Summary: The sequel to the best ever game is here, but I'm sorry to report it's all mouth and no trousers.
 
Review Content: Being a fan of the series, I was especially keen to hear in 2005, that the folks at Square-Enix were making a sequel to quite possibly the best video game of all time.
Back in the late nineties and, in fact, up to about an hour ago, I've been playing the masterpiece of the original Final Fantasy VII video game. It is a brilliant game, with (at the time) ground breaking graphics, and a plot so thick and diverse that you'd wonder if they were somehow reconstructing history. I, like millions of others around the world, was simply in awe of its achievements.
However one does have to wonder if in fact, they should have quit while they were WAY ahead.
Let's start with the plot. In short, it's painfully simple. Moreover, back-story knowledge is required to grasp the bulk of it. For those of you not acquainted, I'll go through it briefly, but again, research is in my opinion, needed to appreciate its full worth. While it should turn you to the video game (perhaps intentionally?), by the time you've figured it all out, this instalment might make you feel like it was a bit of a waste of time. In other words, those who do know what's going on will find this plot flimsy, and the rest of us will generally be left scratching our heads.

THE PLOT: Basically, an alien (called Jenova) crash-landed on Gaia (the planet) and was at some point dismembered and partially mixed with a baddie named Sephiroth, who in turn was defeated (in the original game).
In this sequel, Sephiroth, using Jenova's DNA abilities to live in a dismembered state, has (in its separate pieces) taken human form, and begun his mission to reunite himself so that he may resume his plans to take over the planet.
A main part of Sephiroth (that is yet to take human form) resides in the hands of the humans left in a city (called Midgar), which was ruined in the original video game. Jenova, however, also happens to infect the 'lifestream' (think the transit time between death and rebirth - or reincarnation - of all life on the planet as its blood flow), which is born out through a kind of severe eczema on a large percentage of the population. We follow the drama that unfolds as the heroes of the 1997 classic video game are brought out of retirement, and back into the action to defend Gaia once more.

In terms of visual presentation, there is no faulting, or understating, the massive achievements made here. Advent Children is so sweet on the senses, that in just one sitting you are thankful that diabetes can't be contracted this way. I am especially a fan of the return of the summon monster Bahamut, and his destructive reign over the city of Midgar, it is, well, just really cool. I was, however, quite baffled about the new laws of physics, which can look ridiculous to most newcomers, and as a fan, quite bothered me. I mean, it was hardly adhering to our laws anyway, but Advent Children just seems to be having a laugh with them, and (if you take this as a serious sequel) almost invalidating the original game, where you couldn't just casually leap up seventy stories of a building.
Nobuo Uematsu has yet again, done a great job on the audio front. I enjoyed most of what was coming from my speakers, thanks to his talent of making me feel emotion in a video game, and doing it through his music.

However, as with all animations to date, there has always been a certain something which is lacking, and I feel that is the real human element. Firstly, the voice-overs; whilst a somewhat all-star cast has been assembled for this historic piece of entertainment, I was quite disappointed at the seemingly monotonous tones of all of the actors; they also didn't quite seem to match up to the movements of their mouths. That implied to me that after the Japanese version was made, they just put different and undeniably boring voices over the top, which considering the size of the international fan-base, was a little disappointing. Moreover, it added to the noticeably mechanistic, disconnected feel of the characters I had previously come to love, and others had just met. The bubbly, charismatic and engrossing speech bubble heroes have seemingly degenerated into these miserable, mumbling sods. Perhaps something was lost in the translation, as a lot of the problems are quite subtle and, I fear, cultural. It just seemed difficult to re-engage myself in their plight. I had to make an effort to involve myself, and once you start doing that, it's a long way back to enjoyment.

So in summary; we have a stand-alone plot thinner than the width of a piece of paper and stale, almost unrecognisable characters. Most fans, in the cold light of day, really only have the visuals and Nobuo Uematsu to cling to. The newcomers really need to become fans to enjoy it, which can be a huge effort. All in all, it seems to be nothing more than a marketing ploy, and some kind of gimmick, which is all show, no go. Perhaps I just set my standards a bit too high, but as a fan of the series, I'm quite disappointed.