Truly Dreadful Film

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

To the jaded film goer with no interest in playing a masterpiece story of the video game world, this film is probably worthless, confusing, and a waste of time. But for the wide eyed, imaginative, and profoundly curious, this movie is an adventure ripe with mystery and emotion.It begins with a fantastic and intriguing world enduring the aftermath of some world altering cosmic event only vaguely addressed in an opening monologue, delivered to uniquely beautiful music and iconic imagery that makes it clear what exactly such a horrible trend of opening monologues in cheap anime and terrible B-movies were going for, and it's pretty awesome to see it done right. And that's a great picture of the film-making throughout: It's beautiful, enticing, and ethereal. On sight and sound alone, this film is utterly astounding; but on a story front, it can be either or.For someone who has no idea about the events of the game, the opening is played masterfully as a mystery; and for those who know the game's events it serves as a charming callback. For some outside the know, this is an infuriating tease, especially in an age where information is a prized as it is. We live in an age where people feel entitled to know the answers to mysteries that, while often held up in nostalgic memory, are ultimately cast down as lazy writing and incoherent story-telling if not answered within the context of their own story. But for the rest of us, this serves as a hook - teasing us to find out what happened, letting us know there's more to be known. The coherent framing makes for apparent yet unclear meaning to everything we're shown.For me, seeing this movie was the beginning of a journey that would end where it began. It's like the first episode of a long running series that ends up being the last episode in the chronology. It's vague allusions become deeper meanings and satisfying conclusions to character arcs as you emerge from the other side to watch again; wholly engrossed as you were the first time, if not all the more so.After playing the game, this movie goes from a solid 7 to a sterling 10. Watching this movie with the game as context makes for an emotionally touching close to a fantastically inspiring story. Without that context, action sets are just spectacle, rather than the giant allegorical externalized inner demon wrestling they become with the full context. With it, mysteriously gripping scenes become a continuation of something sorely lacking at the end of the game... closure with the characters - a happily ever after.It's not the most accessible movie, but it is very much so as a gateway to a larger world. You can't watch this movie and just be done with it. You can easily enjoy this movie without the game if you have the imagination, but the intent of the movie is to get you to play the game and then come back and enjoy the feature as the masterpiece it is. It's difficult to feel satisfied after watching it when there's so much more behind it and through it that you aren't seeing.Recommended for people who are interested in playing the game. It will be a film that makes you feel tons of wonderful and difficult things. It's a great movie and a great marketing tool for the game, at least from a narrative setting standpoint. It's pretty impressive, if you aren't a cynical critic who judges everything they see on a first viewing basis.

It took me a awhile to recognize this movie was a spoof. A spoof of almost every anime commonplace (and also hollywoodian commonplace) that there is. The invincible soldier (sorry SOLDIER) who lost his faith, orphans, evil who is evil for evils sake, flashy pop star hair on everybody (even freshly washed and dried hair on kids who live on the street), friendship surviving everything, crying bad boys, I can't even list all of them. All wrapped up in cheesy CG (say that many times), all shiny, glossy, glassy, gleamy, sparkles, sprinkles, chuckles. And of course no coherent story - nobody would need it. I mean: who needs story for a porn movie? Its just the visuals, a tour de force in CG. Yes we can (make the hair real), yes we can (make the water real), yes we can (make the skin real), etc. I liked the best when at two thirds of the movie heroes come out of the blue :) They just appear. They get introduced and start to fight :) WTF? Genius!So I had fun watching it :)

When I heard of a sequel to an acclaimed video game called Final Fantasy 7, I wanted to check it out. I expected it to have a fantastic plot mixed with excellent character development like its prequel, but unfortunately, it came out to be a disappointment............The movie starts out well with an opening of the events happening 498 years after this movie with several red animals in a greenery- filled land. Then it goes back to the time of the movie. A young girl's narration while chants echo throughout is very well done. But it the plot gets confusing as we are introduced to a sick boy in bed with leaking black fluid coming out of his forehead. Downstairs, a young lady is handling the bar and gets a phone call. For people who have played the game, they will know this woman. But for people who haven't played it, they are confused.We are then introduced to a young man in the desert, he appears to be hiding a condition under his left sleeve. For some reason, there are three silver-haired teens with cyberpunk wear and motorbikes. Where they came from? It is mainly stated in a FFVII novella, rather than the movie itself. This only adds to more poor storytelling in the movie. Where do they get their flashy outfits, weapons, and motorbikes from? And who are they working for? It is vague at first to the non-players, but they are related to the main antagonist to the movie's prequel.The villains in this movie are poorly developed. The three mysterious teens are evil by terms of their sinister looks but they do not have much clear motivations other than finding their Mother. The only morally abhorrent actions they committed were torturing two agents for info, infiltrating the diseased President's base, attacking that same young man with the left sleeve, summoning a destructive monster that endangers the city, kidnapping their "siblings", etc.While it is justified that they are just "remnants" of the actual main villain of the movie, that does not excuses their poor character development besides one being hatred, allure, and strength.The other characters are not much better. The protagonist is basically an emo, broody man who constantly thinks he cannot help anyone, a young girl who is an ingenue, a sick diseased boy waiting for the man to come back, a young woman who is sweet one second but is suddenly a martial artist, a stereotypical angry black man, a smoking pilot with a spear, a talking cat puppet, a red furry animal, two comic relief agents, a crippled President, and finally the main antagonist is...well... just plain an evil, arrogant god-wannabe.Much of the movie is wasted on the visuals, special effects, cool outfits, animations, remixed soundtrack, and ESPECIALLY fight scenes that will make many FF7 fans squee with joy.This sequel was a half-done work that could have added in more character development and story in order to make this movie a masterpiece to please both movie critics and gaming fans alike. But unfortunately, it mainly pleases the latter.Video game movies are not for me, next.

I can't say how much impressed I am to have seen this year's later. I was watching Spirits Within lately (if you wanna check out my review, head over to my IMDb page!) and I definitely agree that Advent Children is way better than Spirits Within! The reason was because, it very much is like the games even though I never experienced playing the games before. However what I like about this movie was it makes you definitely want to play the games if you have never heard of them before during your childhood. The details on the faces of the characters looked so real that I thought they were real life actors, not 3-D! I thought everything was great about the movie but the storyline was tricky to understand as I don't know most of the characters and haven't played the games so I was a little lost but that didn't stop me from watching the whole movie. I found it was very enjoyable and I loved the action involved, it pretty much is incredible!Very incredible film indeed!