Final Fantasy VII : Advent Children

Reviewed by Leland Bonaparte
December 2, 2005

Director: Tetsuya Norma Genre: Fantasy, Psychological, Science Fiction, Shounen Distributor: Columbia / Tri-Star Home Entertainment Soundtrack Info: Music Arrangement by Keiji Kawamori, Music Composition by Nobuo Uematsu Website: http://na.square-enix.com/dvd/ff7ac/ Review Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children takes place two years after Cloud and friends defeated Sephiroth at the end of FFVII (the game). In a perfect world a new threat has come of age called geostigma (a deadly disease). Along with this new threat, three new villains set out in search of their long lost mother (Jenova). It's all up to cloud and his friends to save the world and rescue the children from turmoil.

My first impression of this movie was,”OK here we go again”, but actually it was quite good. One thing I notice about this movie is the action. Action freaks will love the fight scenes in this movie. There are a lot of deep fight sequences that are very welcome and have a matrix-like feel too them. A lot of FFVII was incorporated into this movie. Fans of the game will be often reminded and feel at home with familiar scenes from the game. This is what fans of the game wanted in a Final Fantasy movie. The storyline was quite deep, but I wanted a little more. As you really start to get into the movie, it seem like it is over too fast. Cloud being the rebel that he is works in a delivery service, and like always he is fighting for somebody else. After playing the game everybody who wanted to see Aerith (Aeris) got their wish. When I saw Aeris for the first time I started to get all warm inside (OK, lets keep it clean), especially when they flashback and show Cloud putting Aeris in the water. I started to get a little knot in my throat. Visually I was amazed by the graphics and the overall presentation of the movie. The animation is very good and most impressive. Seeing Cloud's childhood friend Zack really got my attention.

This movie has a high evolution factor. What else can be said? This is what we've been waiting for (other than a FFVII remake). Also check out the Last Order, which tells the story about Zack, Cloud and Sephiroth after Nibelheim. There is also a special edition package that costs around 300 bucks. It has a lot of goodies plus the Last Order and limited edition FFVII for the PSone, but its only offer in Japan right now. I've also notice the Advent Children figures, which will run you about 20 bucks each. So until we get a new FF or a remake of FFVII this will have to do.