Advent Children is more like a 90 minute tech demo than a true film, and has a weaker story than most fighting games...
Enter Final Fantasy VII Advent Children: A straight to DVD movie that promised to continue the story and answer many questions concerning the fate of the games loveable characters. The buzz about the amazing looking computer generated film excited me more and more with each trailer and screenshot, and soon I became obsessive with getting my hands on a copy. Finally, in late September of 2005, I got my copy.
Much like the game in 1997, the film scores high in terms of graphics and special effects and dazzles us with an incredible display of masterful computer animation. Sadly however, there is just something missing from Advent Children... We don't get a chance to fall in love with all the characters again, because we are too busy watching never-ending battle scenes. The random appearance of an evil new gang lead by a young man named Kadaj confused rather than intrigued me. Eventually, I finally pieced together just who this mysterious guy was supposed to be, but I was already too disappointed to care.
The script (what little there is) is full of holes, and more than half of the story is told at the beginning of the movie through a brief flashback sequence. While this introduction sequence was initially enough to get my attention and heighten my interest, after the first half hour of needless fight scenes I realized this movie had no epic story and no heart. The film slices, dices, burns, and crashes its way to the final confrontation between Cloud and Kadaj. Following their epic battle, Sephiroth, Cloud's old, pretty-haired nemesis, returns to challenge our hero. The return of Cloud's enemy seems more like an act of fan appeasement by Square-Enix than anything else, and it left me scratching my head in bewilderment for a few minutes. High definition doesn't do Sephiroth any favors; instead of looking cool and mysterious like he did in the game, he looks like an undead Barbie doll.
The story is so weak, that is actually ends up taking points away from the entire Final Fantasy VII franchise. It is for this reason that I refer to Advent Children as nothing more than "a 90 minute tech demo."
Final Fantasy Advent Children is still a visual treat, and it is indeed cool to see the beloved cast return with a more realistic look. If you are expecting anything more than long, drawn out hack-and-slash battle scenes however, you are in for a world of disappointment. Maybe next time Square will remember to tell us a story.