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As a stand alone movie, it was ok...
As a hyped up OMG final fantasy movie, sucked hardcore _____ ( insert word ).
The movie had no music, creatures, or BIG ASS SWORDS ( every FF needs at least one ) from the FF series.
Square tagged on the name FF to make people come to see their first movie, thats why people hate it.
And I am one of those people :mad:
I will agree with you there, but Im used to connecting the dots with animation. I still watch animated programming, like space fortress yamato and mobile suit gundam, that got started in the eighties, where the animation quality shifted wildly at times. Even anime series these days use different studio's, so the quality in animation from episode to episode can vary. The quality of the CGI in spirits within tended to vary in quality at times, but the shifts were never too dramatic. In comparison Im surprised I dont see Advent Children taking more knocks, because its CGI fluctuated WILDLY. certain fights such as the turks rumbling with the seph duo looked nice, while the Tifa/Loz fight was hideously bad with blur effects taking the place of actual animation most of the time. and at some moments where cloud and seph were duking it out, I swore I was looking at two marionettes instead of CGI animation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Autumn Rain
Neither did any of the final fantasy's carry over any other elements from past games, save for IX (clouds sword showing up) or X-2.Quote:
Originally Posted by Noj_R
Smells like that post just got pulled fresh from a rectal colon. Aeries was only HALF an ancient, she was half human and that would have blunted any of her powers immensely. The only time she demonstrated ANY real powers was appearing to cloud in a dream just before she died. Holy was a summon spell from the white materia, not of any sort of innate abilities she possessed herself And she DOES physically touch cloud, as she threw him PHYSICALLY through the bahamut flare, and tends to sick children at the end. We also see her physically interact with the world around her, when the pool of healing water opens up in the church. So yah, Deus Ex Machina, Aeries be thy name.Quote:
Originally Posted by SoulTaker*
As for nobody else seeing Aeries besides cloud, maybe the fact that he was inside the omega flare at the time had something to do with it. All they should have seen was a few remaining bits of ash leftover from cloud scatter around midgar afterwards.
A better example would be that I still think Titanic is the highest grossing film ever in the western part of the world. Now I liked seeing kate winslet Nekkid and di-craprio die a horrible freezing death as much as your average red blooded male, and the ship sinking was very tense, dramatic, and well done. But the main bulk of the story was just crap. I consider myself a romantic at heart, but UGH the story itself just did not DESERVE to beat out good will hunting at the oscars. yet if we went by figures, its the best movie ever made, And akiria kurosawa is a nobody :screwy:Quote:
Originally Posted by Autumn Rain
I really dont know how to retort to arguments that arent based on anything but I'll give my best shot, so your sayin that Aeris being half ancient would limit her abilities? O im sorry do you personally know any half-blooded ancients or do you personally know the extent of the powers of a full blooded ancient, do you have any on hand to compare? I hate to bring up Star Wars and DBZ reference because I feel a bit nerdy but if I must use this type of logic for you to understand...DBZ Gohan a half saiyan and human, is his power stunted, no, about 3/4 of the way through DBZ he is considered the strongest being in the universe. Blade half vampire, amazingly even drake himself couldnt beat him, you can even say Luke Skywalker is only half jedi but he becomes the strongest in his line of work, I'll even reference Inuyasha. You see I feel retarded for even arguing about this. Aeris I heard if you use game shark her Great Gospel ability makes you virtually invincible at the end of the game in VII, also it is speculated that her limit break is used to cure the disease in the movie. So as to saying she has no power without any substantial truth doesnt work, she can even "speak" to the planet and even feels when its in pain and crying out, and I see no reason why a being this powerful spiritually cant break the barriers of death in a fantasy movie, especially if she has a deep emotional bond with the person she's helping.Quote:
Originally Posted by ishin Ookami
As for the Tifa fight, BEAUTIFUL, it was done with the style and grace I would expect in an eastern action film, and it seems to be the most popular in the film even to my surprise as its got the most poll votes in the thread I made.
We are not talking about specific elements, were talking about the general "feel" of the movie. In every Final Fantasy I've played VII-X I feel like its apart of the universe just like a marvel comic feels like its in the marvel universe or a dc comics feels like a dc universe. Which brings me to the Tomb Raider topic, I personally never cared for Tomb Raider and i thought the film was not ver good at all, but it didnt mask itself which I respect, the game is about a ass kicking archeoligist with big breasts and nice ass put in extroardinary situations, and the movie was about ass kicking archeoligist with big breasts and nice ass put in extroardinary situations, and people who love Tomb Raider games loved that type of matter in games loved this movie. People went to the movies and got what they wanted a summer popcorn action flick, while the only thing TSW delivered on was the popcorn.Quote:
Neither did any of the final fantasy's carry over any other elements from past games, save for IX (clouds sword showing up) or X-2.
Titanic appealed to women of all ages and was suprisingly well done when I saw it on an action scale, you felt the dread of the characters stuck in the ship, and it is your classic love story of a pauper getting a princess, I dont like classic love stories very much so it was probably why I havent seen the film from beginning to end, i usually fast forward to the part when people start dyin.
I will admit that Steve Buscemi and James Woods were probably the only saving grace in the movie to make it not completely unwatchable it seems their the characters who try and make sense of the horrible plot.
Neil: How could they survive a trip across space on a chunk of rock?
Aki: They didn't.
Neil: Oh... this is all beginning to make a creepy sort of sense.:confused:
or...
General Hein: "I'll blast you all to hell!" Well said general.:D
Ishin Ookami I did not say what you quoted. Take that back :mad2:
FFVII isn't take knocks for its 'inconsistancies' because it is all action based and due to how unrealistic it is that is why it is forgiven. The animation I talk about with this movie is basic stuff such as walking that looks awkward and out of place.
one thing is for sure...the CGI in TSW is superb and it still remanse as such.
dreamworks and Pixar are in this stupid fight to see who can make the best CG acheavments... and they were both beat in 2001, and guess what...they still are and always will be. TSW used CGI that is normaly for motion picture effects that half to look real. The made their modles look so good that shrek and shrek2 look like crap, yet they give Dreamworks the "best graphical acheavment" award.
Blade: probably the only applicable argument, I've never really liked the idea that him being half human, half vamp only rids him of the atypical vampiric weaknesses, but hey he was a comics character created in the early 70's or late 60's, so lets not split hairs.Quote:
Originally Posted by SoulTaker*
Inu Yasha is a Hanyo (half demon) and is definitely weaker than your average demon. Sesshomaru has proven time and again to be the stronger brother due to his being a full demon, and even regular humans such as the schinintai (troop of seven) gave IY a bit of trouble. IY's needed help in his first major fight of the series (Yura of the hair) and for a long time after that he had his father's sword, which was the same as receiving the father's powers, to protect him until the sword was broken and he had to start to become strong on his own.
In DBZ its stated that mixing human and Saiyan DNA produces a VERY powerful hybrid, as is evident in Gohan, Goten, and Trunks. yet Gohans daughter pan is very weak in comparison due to the fact that she is only 1/4 saiyan.
As for Aeries, I'll say it again, she NEVER demonstrated ANY powers. NONE! And while having her die to save the world was in a sense a touch of Deus Ex Machina (in FFVI, its the peoples hope that helped them to survive and endure in the world of ruin, in FFVII, last ancient and her white materia saves the day) it was use sparingly. In Advent Children, Aeries is EVERYWHERE! Your example of Obi Wan is not a good one as even Obi Wan could only council, not resurrect, throw, heal, or otherwise physically interact.
The fact that Aeries is doing everything but my laundry in Advent Children is the films BIGGEST weakness, bigger than nomura's incompetent and redundant direction or the inconsistent CGI. If they had just resurrected her It would have been contrived, but keeping her dead yet having her resolve all the films major crisis points was far worse. Spritual visitation is one matter, curing global epidemics is another. Personally I think it would have been a bit more poignant if the geostigma had been allowed to run its course. It need not have been fatal, I wouldnt mind if they went the star trek route and simply had it kill of the jenova cells then restore the body with genetic material from the ancients. the fact that the planet let humans survive after the end of FFVII shows it cared for them, so having the geostigma be fatal just doesnt make a helluva lot of sense if its simply trying to kill off jenova cells. But then again, expecting AC to make sense from a storytelling point of view is asking way too much.
Uhhh, quick retort, Inuyasha had to fight demons with the jewel shards which greatly amplified their power, like the hair chick, without the jewel shard power Inuyasha usually dispatches demons with his iron reaper farely quickly so, yeah. The only exceptionally strong demon with out the jewel was his bro.
I never heard this stated once, Vegeta usually says the exact opposite.Quote:
In DBZ its stated that mixing human and Saiyan DNA produces a VERY powerful hybrid, as is evident in Gohan, Goten, and Trunks. yet Gohans daughter pan is very weak in comparison due to the fact that she is only 1/4 saiyan.
Being able to commune with the planet isnt a power? I think being able to feel exactly what the planet feels is a great power, and once she enters the lifestream it probably amplifies but that was never stated in the game so I wont use it because I like to use facts not theories.Quote:
As for Aeries, I'll say it again, she NEVER demonstrated ANY powers. NONE! And while having her die to save the world was in a sense a touch of Deus Ex Machina (in FFVI, its the peoples hope that helped them to survive and endure in the world of ruin, in FFVII, last ancient and her white materia saves the day) it was use sparingly. In Advent Children, Aeries is EVERYWHERE! Your example of Obi Wan is not a good one as even Obi Wan could only council, not resurrect, throw, heal, or otherwise physically interact.
They probably wouldnt want geostigma to run its course because it would have caused the death of half the population in Midgar, you know the opening scene in the movie showed children dying, would you tell a person with cancer to just let it run its course, glad your not a doctor, Star Trek?:lol: Geostigma was overcompensating when trying to heal the body killing the person at the same time as the Jenova Cells, which was part of the reason Kadaj hated the planet and wanted to strike back at it.Quote:
The fact that Aeries is doing everything but my laundry in Advent Children is the films BIGGEST weakness, bigger than nomura's incompetent and redundant direction or the inconsistent CGI. If they had just resurrected her It would have been contrived, but keeping her dead yet having her resolve all the films major crisis points was far worse. Spritual visitation is one matter, curing global epidemics is another. Personally I think it would have been a bit more poignant if the geostigma had been allowed to run its course. It need not have been fatal, I wouldnt mind if they went the star trek route and simply had it kill of the jenova cells then restore the body with genetic material from the ancients. the fact that the planet let humans survive after the end of FFVII shows it cared for them, so having the geostigma be fatal just doesnt make a helluva lot of sense if its simply trying to kill off jenova cells. But then again, expecting AC to make sense from a storytelling point of view is asking way too much.
Again you insult Nomura when he has probably accounted for 90% of squares profits over the past 8 years, Final fantasy would still be in the basement of the game world, not only Final fantasy but all RPG's are able to thrive in the main stream because of his insightful storytelling and impeccable use of style and vision, he appeals to the people not just a few fanboys and fangirls.
so it didnt have badass swords so what? it was a tense atmosheric sci-fi thriller that brought the ff series into another direction instead of the same old tired (no offense) formula. which is basically: protagonist (which was a female for once) meets other dude they uncover evil plot they then go out on a guest and pick up a load of other people two people (usaully the two main characters) fall in love then they stop said evil plot....end of game...instead they changed this (granted not to a huge degree) and it was better because of it...Quote:
Originally Posted by Noj_R
like I said, the "Iron reaper" (its called the Tetsusaiga, its his father's sword carved from his father's own fang) endowed IY with powers from his fathers power to protect him. And IY needed kagome's backup to fight Yura. lets not even talk about the Schinintai, a group of soldiers who separately managed to give IY trouble, or the gaggle of Demons that have almost killed him time and again.Quote:
Originally Posted by SoulTaker*
Gohan Defeated Raditz when he was four years old, Raditz was a warrior who beat goku and piccolo, the two strongest fighters in the world at that time, without half trying. And immediately afterwards, we learn raditz was transmitting the fight to vegeta and Nappa. In the original Japanese Dialogue, Vegeta clued into that mixing human and saiyan DNA produces a powerful hybrid (how do you think Trunks, Goten, and Gohan all became SS as children while Vegeta and Goku couldnt do it until their mid twenties), Nappa initially wanted to take a group of human women to start creating a race of powerful warriors, loyal to the saiyans. Vegeta Nixed the idea Stating they'd only grow to kill the remaining true saiyans someday, it would be better just to obtain the dragon balls and wish for immortality.Quote:
I never heard this stated once, Vegeta usually says the exact opposite.
Great, she can make long distance calls with that power without paying a dime. Doesn't explain how she can cure global epidemics, resurrect a gimpy bishonen, throw cloud throw a fireball, and tend to sick children. and even if it did, I refer to it ad Deus Ex Machina for a reason. She's dead, yet she's not. Visitation, Sure why not. Happens all the time in anime. Resurrection, healing, throwing, fighting, ummm, doesnt all that just negate the fact that she's dead? If she's dead how come she's running epic errands? RIP Aeries, "nope cant. Nomura's directing me, and Kitase is writing me. "Quote:
Being able to commune with the planet isnt a power? I think being able to feel exactly what the planet feels is a great power, and once she enters the lifestream it probably amplifies but that was never stated in the game so I wont use it because I like to use facts not theories.
Right, I forgot how young you are. In star trek TNG, in the episode Transfigurations (this was back before the series was dominated by borg/vulcan cleavage in spandex BTW) the episode featured on an alien who was amnesiac, and ill. His body seemed to be being altered, he thought he was dangerous and dying and wanted to escape and be alone. This was compounded by the fact that his own alien government was hunting him, stating that very case. Seeing as how I doubt you'll ever watch an episode of Star Trek TNG, I don't mind spoiling it. by the end the "Illness" is nothing more than a evolutionary step that his people are destined to embark on.Quote:
They probably wouldn't want geostigma to run its course because it would have caused the death of half the population in Midgar, you know the opening scene in the movie showed children dying, would you tell a person with cancer to just let it run its course, glad your not a doctor, Star Trek?:lol: Geostigma was overcompensating when trying to heal the body killing the person at the same time as the Jenova Cells, which was part of the reason Kadaj hated the planet and wanted to strike back at it.
And like I said, it would have been dramatically poignant to allow geostigma to run its course. Yes, LET the threat of death hang in the air. Let some real drama occur. Let there be suffering and death, and then a "transfiguration" as the episode I referenced put it. But then again, this involves some storytelling skill. something that is far beyond Nomura and kitase. Let me also ask you this, if the planet is letting humans live after unleashing holy (which kills off anything threatening the planet) and the life stream, which is the planets conciousness, why would geostigma be fatal, how much sense does that make?. What, did the planet miss that ONE item on its checklist that day. :rolleyes2
Do you have any idea WHY the series is called final fantasy? Its because square was a nothing company back when the first one was released, and it was theorized that this would be the last game they would ever release. Six games later, and no sign of Nomura, they are a company that in Japan have gone from the verge of bankruptcy to toe to toe in terms of sales with RPG giant Enix, their titles gained International acceptance outside of japan while Enix decided not to release any of the 16-bit dragon quests due to the poor reception DQIV received. I'd call that successful boy. Ten years later, and with sakaguchi, Amano, Uematsu, Mitsuda, and a host of other developers having left the company, Square has now lost hold of all of its major franchises, and Final Fantasy has jumped the shark terms of sales. Things got so bad for square they had to merge with Enix while they were still making a halfway decent profit from their own games, and say "[img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img] IT" to the japanese market and base the sole success of their income on internation sales, while Enix is still playing the safe money, and still is the more successful of the two. Yes, SW did indeed do some damage to square, but it was allowing Nomura free reign and to go nuts that have more then HALVED their profits in japan from ten years ago, and has lead to the major franchises of the company along with key players leaving. Played a Chrono game lately? How bout Xenogears? Hey, Front Mission III rocked the PS1, FMIV must have... eh. Never mind. Rest in peace noble franchise. In fact its a great irony that Squares ONLY remaining profitable title, outside of FF is Kingdom hearts, which is a result of a partnership with another has been, disney. Last kingdom hearts owed its success too 3/4 nostalgia factor, and Im interested in seeing what happens with #2.Quote:
Originally Posted by SoulTaker*
Let me give you a clear picture as too just how poorly square is performing. would you say 700,000 dvd's sold of Advent Children is a impressive number figure? The company sure wants you to think so. It would indeed be impressive if that only accounted for sales in japan, but we are also talking about preorders for the dubbed version, which are getting higher and higher due to the release date being constantly pushed back, as some stores are actually buying the hype that square will get this into American theatre's and it will help sales. Keep in mind that most DVD's are ordered months before the release date. Then there are international orders (square did release a subtitled copy in japan). there are are at least ten shops in chinatown and markham that are selling the original copy's of AC along with the Last Order OVA. so lets just say each of these shops order 100 copy's. 10 x 100 would be 1000 copies ordered. so then we have preorders, my contacts at the head offices of a major store of video games tell me that they already have Advent Children on order, whenever square decides to actually release the DVD. Some of the larger stores can order 300-500 (Larger stores back in the day ordered an average of 150-200 copies of SW DVD on the initial shipment BTW) of a hotly anticipated title, but this is AC so lets just keep the figure down to 100 shall we, there are more then 100 locations of this store in canada alone, but for the sake of keeping the math even, Im just going to average 100 stores ordering 100 copies, which would be 10, 000, for a total roughly 11,000 copies ordered so far in canada alone. Lets factor in competing chains such as Best Buy, Wall Mart, Blockbuster, HMV, Starstruck, each store ordering in roughly 100 copies, and to be modest lets pretend that there are only 100 locations in all ordering an additional 100 copies (which isnt really alot. larger stores can sell that in two days and smaller stores can unload that in a month if the title is anticipated). Consider we'd have a total of 21,000 copies ordered alone for the sparsely (in comparison to US, China, UK, And Japan) populated country of canada, and consider the WORLD WIDE amount of international orders happening right now as well as preorders from major and minor store chains and independent locations, and that number increases immensely. at least 100,000 copies. And keep in mind that AC has been out for nearly 5 months, these figures are from a single shipment worldwide while keeping my numbers low, and my contacts in chinatown and markham can resupply anywhere from once a month to once a week depending on sales. With this amount of accessibility and hype, 700,000, hell even 1,000,000 isn't even what you would call a minor success. Hardly worth boasting about on a international scale. Microsoft becoming a second place competitor and obtaining the number of exclusive licenses that it did, that is an achievement worth boasting about. PS2's being sold out on the initial preorder shipment BEFORE sony halved the shipment. THAT was impressive. the little Black and White Game boy becoming the most successful handheld of all time, and the most longest lasting system ever, THAT is impressive. 700,000 copies of a dvd ordered internationally in five months? Yawn. Square right now is living on hype, and smoke and mirrors. You call this successful? Dragon Quest VIII sold 4,000,000 copies in JAPAN alone. when AC can even approach 1/4 of that figure on its native soil, then it has bragging rights. Not before. But square is playing with numbers, figures, and marketing strategies to hype up this product.
Talk to me about knowing a franchise after you've played the 16-bit final Fantasy's. until you have, you have no right to throw around the term fanboy while you behave and speak as one yourself. FF WAS successful without Nomura, and Without FFVII. and While I can respect the international acceptance it has brought RPG's, I doubt I could have played the phenomenal Dragon Quest VIII earlier this year, or sampled any of Nippon Ichi's wonderful titles, without its success, FFVII still remains an inferior RPG, in comparison to Sakaguchi's FF and other titles by other companies. And AC still remains an inferior film to SW. You throw around the term fanboy to people who like sakaguchi, a fanboy is someone that doesnt try to experience other titles other then the ones that are cool. Your lack of experience with the older titles, and your closed minded disrespectful attitude paints you out to be immense fanboy, bordering on being called an Otaku (which, isnt a nice thing to be called).
And I felt this statement deserved to be dealt with.
He appeals (though I am loathe to use this term) the noob's in the western world who think asian cinema is all about poorly dubbed cheesy kung fu flicks and anime is all about cute little rodents and funky flying constipated dudes with blonde hair. He rips off writers and directors who are far more skilled than himself, than calls in squares top team of CGI animators to make it all look cool. And if you think Im wrong, go take a look at the majority of your posts on this topic.Quote:
he (Nomura) appeals to the people not just a few fanboys and fangirls.
I agree with the majority of your post, but Sakaguchi is rather notorious for strong female protagonist's and/or co-stars. Rydia in FFIV was a strong presence throughout the game. Celes and Terra were two of the stronger characters in FFVI, Dagger got equal screentime and made a fitting co-star for Zidaine, and FFX arguably had yuna as the main character, since its really her story that has the most gametime. This is one of the reasons I prefer him over Nomura, who has no friggin clue whatsoever how to write or direct a strong and likeable female lead.Quote:
Originally Posted by omegaweapon2005
i concur greatly
[/QUOTE]No, the Iron Reaper Soul Stealer is his physical attack, which he used in his first demon fight against a centipede demon, one hit kill, he had this about 50 years before he got his fathers sword. Like I said Yura had the jewel shards which amplify a demons power immensly, and the group of soldiers were the best warriors in the Japan, they did mercenary jobs before they were beheaded, they were stronger than most demons and they had jewel shards also, even his bro had trouble with them in a few fights, they even managed to wound him.Quote:
Originally Posted by Oshin Ookami
I'm not going to argue about this since you have probably seen the uncut version or the originals before they made it to the US, I doubt they would allow talk of rape on Cartoon Network, Ill give you this one.Quote:
Gohan Defeated Raditz when he was four years old, Raditz was a warrior who beat goku and piccolo, the two strongest fighters in the world at that time, without half trying. And immediately afterwards, we learn raditz was transmitting the fight to vegeta and Nappa. In the original Japanese Dialogue, Vegeta clued into that mixing human and saiyan DNA produces a powerful hybrid (how do you think Trunks, Goten, and Gohan all became SS as children while Vegeta and Goku couldnt do it until their mid twenties), Nappa initially wanted to take a group of human women to start creating a race of powerful warriors, loyal to the saiyans. Vegeta Nixed the idea Stating they'd only grow to kill the remaining true saiyans someday, it would be better just to obtain the dragon balls and wish for immortality.
And the reason for THIS? I'll give you a hint, it bankrupted squaresoft and left them 123 mil in the hole. Nomura's churning out hit after hit, and then Square hits bottom with the release of the name which may not be spoken, then they release IX which is good game but nowhere near the splender of VII and VIII adn sells the least out the 3, and who is called to save the day? Nomura thats who, he dug Square out the basement.Quote:
Things got so bad for square they had to merge with Enix while they were still making a halfway decent profit from their own games
I know the history and story behind Final Fantasy BTW, doesnt account for the fact it was still a basement RPG, then Nomura comes along and its mainstream america, I would say that Nomura's art style do seem to appeal to the teenage mindset, the teenager which is 90% of Squares market, much like that of Marvel when they were competing with DC. But technically Nomura is only the character designer, while Nojima has been responsible for every story mostly or completely since VII, so its really Nojima you should despise. But maybe you just dont know why you hate Nomura, i think your just those type of people that dislike anyhing anybody else likes.
Im tired of talking about Aeris, sorry if she couldnt have been named Terra 2, deus ex references are getting old, if anything your Star Trek reference is extremely dues ex since that show relies on improbable things saving the day, like your letting deadly diseases run their course which in real life kills people.
i didnt read your rant, i think it had something to do with AC not being successful or something.
An Otaku is someone who dresses like video game and anime characters and is used to describe an overly obsessed fan boy or fan girl, but you wouldnt know anything about that would you.
It was fine. I did find the story weak- as the meaning there didn't feel deep, it felt uninteresting- the characters didn't develop, as in the emotions they felt didn't connect with me and I didn't see much change in the emotions I notice. To me it felt like a whole lot of nothing, I liked a lot of the animation but it never pulled off a feel I liked except in the outside expansive view scenes. There wasn't much music to enjoy and it felt pretty pointless. I also thought FFVIIAC was pretty pointless. I didn't like bringing Aeris back, I didn't like the added on story as I had really enjoyed FFVII openended ending. Neither had much to them in my view.
But what I came to this thread to say was:
Everything is stated as fact, this story is/isn't deep is pointless to say in an argument like this because we've got past the fact that one likes it and one doesn't. It's true that a lot of people hated it. It's true that Ooshin thinks it's an excellent movie. But it's not true to tell somone there wrong when it's opinion. I'm not going to give an example of this because I haven't checked everything written, but that's the feel of the thread.
I thought there was little meaning because the characters felt absolutely bland and there was never really conflict that worked for me. I think it would have been much better if it turned out that the opposition to the cannon was stupid, and did hinder stopping these ghosts because it would have cut away from the cliched feeling of whatever the good characters do is right. The feeling of the gaia also felt meaningless to me. It wasn't bad to watch but it never struck me as interesting. But I also thought there was just as little in AC.
At risk of being on topic, I think the difference at least for American movie goers is that Americans (in general) think of animated movies as kid stuff. The big CGI hits in the USA were things like Toy Story, Shrek, Bug's Life and Polar Express, all of which were aimed at younger children at most pre-teens. So it would be understandable that a CGI sci-fi flick wouldn't do so well. The people who saw the ads mentioning "Animated Movie" would be expecting something like a Pixar film, the FF fans expected chocobos, and I think it missed the audience that would have gotten the most from it -- the Sci-Fi audience.
The SW movie reminded me most of a B5 movie, which I like. There was a lot of intrigue and behind the scenes stuff going on, the characters were realistic, and the action was good, but it never devolved to a mere FX movie (like SWIII did). The thing is, it wasn't advertised as Sci-Fi. It was advertised as FF.
The thing about FF:SW is that the film is absolutely unique. You cannot compare it to StarWars since the style is so different. I mean, look at StarWars: Lasersabers, destroyers, everyone getting killed by the Evil. FF:SW is different though. You have an enemy which is not the Evil and thus you do not have the old good vs. evil. This adds much more depth to the film.
On the other hand, the film has an absolutely different philosophy. I mean, how many people offer themselves in StarWars to saved their girlfriend.