My Thoughts on Advent Children

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11-04-2005, 05:07 AM
Ishin Ookami

My Thoughts on Advent Children

I didnt like Advent Children for several reasons.

First of all, Im not really all that big a fan of the original FFVII. Sure it was a okay game, some points it was even great, but the game, the story and its characters, the music, and the overall challenge and design were all a step beneath the prior Final Fantasy, FFVI. When I first saw sepherioth, with his seven foot sword, girlish smile, bishonen long hair and V-neck leather I declared and prayed to the heavens not to let him be a main character. My outrage knew no bounds that he was the main villain, and its not just the fact that he looks like his life motto is "dont ask, dont tell" in every way possible he is inferior to characters like Eperor Geshtal who was so evil he slit the throat of a already dying woman just to kidnap her baby and turn the child into a living weapon, and kefka who needs no introduction. Then there was cloud, unlike most the cross dressing thing didnt really bother me considering it was done as a huge joke. Its just the fact that they gave him this badass mystique, revealed him to be a wimp, then tried to tell us that him, as a Final Fantasy equivelant to a rent-a-cop could withdraw a sword from his own midsection, and hurl the holder (by the point of his own sword no less) down a chasam was really pushing it. Then there was clouds moaning, weeping, angsty creed-like dialouge that often struck me as being beneath final fantasy considering how weighty the first six games had been.

Okay, I didnt find the main story so awesome, and the main antagonist and protagonist were less then captivating. Lets move on to the actual movie... which I can sum up with the words...

WTF!?!?!

Im not exactly the biggest fan of FFVII. But I do give it its props. But Advent Children was almost a complete vaccum of quality, filled instead with contrivance, idiocy, lost potential and redundancy. Lets take the animation values for starters. Watch much Hong Kong action flicks or anime? I do. and I found Advent Childrens animation and fight scenes to be very redundant of both. The whole flying and leaping thing can be compared to Such anime as Dragon Ball Z or such Wuxia flicks as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or hero. Ditto for the fight scenes and special powers as well. Also I found that alot of times the action in Advent Children felt wooden, like I was watching a puppet show or something. I wasnt expecting animation values on the level of Spritis Within (which by the way I feel is an immensely superior film, and a infinitely inferior final fantasy product) but c'mon at some points the action just felt so awful, like something out of a 1,000,000 dollar man episode.

Then there was the main character. Not characters, that would insinuate there was more then one. As soon as the film finished its rather boring ten minute long recap of the game (can anyone tell me what was the point of us seeing the ending of the game again at the beginning?) the film focused on cloud. And even IF I found cloud to be a likeable character (which I dont) didnt the moody mook sort out his psychosis back in the game? Why am I watching this looser work through his loneliness and bi-polar issues again? I had enough of it halfway through the game, I didnt need another hit while watching him do his best impression of Li Mu bai.

Then there was Tifa. Now Tifa may not have exactly embodied the essence of strong willed leading women in the game, but she did have her moments. Here she does nothing but serves as a punching bag for Loz and then acts as clouds cheerleader for the rest of the film. I love the scene where yuffie just gives her a sneer and comments on how stupid cloud is behaving. If Tifa had a backbone in this film, she'd slap him, throw a glass of cold water in his face and tell him to get off his his self pitying ass and get something done.

I'll finish my character asassination by commenting on the viallains. First of all could Kadaj had been any more boring? Maybe at the school of redundant bishonen acting 101, they teach you to dress in leather, say ambiguous villain talk and lather, rinse, repeat. But I do like my main villains to actually, you know, get something done or make a lick of sense. His master plan of kidnapping midgars children to turn them into his own cult of suicidal zombie ninja commadoes reminded of this one episode of GI Joe where cobra commander takes over a preschool and tries to make a class of 8 year olds into a crack commando team. (Except GI Joe did it better). And when you take your lessons in villainy from a lame 80's villain with a lisp, you suck. End of story. I know he's just a shell who's only purpose in life is to bring seph back, but I would have liked for him to be a bit more likeable. And when seph does come back, I was so bored. (Hey seph, you infect the planet and the human race with a disease made up of your conciousness, plan this elaborate resurrection scheme, and you dont know what your gonna do next? Can we just get Cobra Commander to be the villain next film? At least he had backup plans). All seph did was prance around, talk the ambigious stereotypical villain talk, and die. What was the point?

I'll tell you what the point was, and its Advent Childrens main flaw, it wasnt so much that it was a movie as it was a huge fanwank on square's most internationally successful title. Say what you will about spirits within, but whats the most common complaint about it? "It shouldnt have been called Final fantasy" is what the gaming crowd say about it. "It didnt even star any Final Fantasy characters". Gag me with a spoon for cyrin out loud, Sakaguchi and square work bloody hard to bring a legitamately intelligent and well thought out video game movie to theatres, and the video game crowd turned up their noses just because it didnt feature any moody bishonen? This is why video game movies since then suck, but make money. So yah, square took the rought of Super Mario Bros and the live action street fighter. It threw in every piece of Final Fantasy VII fanservice it could think of, and nothing else. Thats Advent Childrens greatest strength, and greatest weakness. Here's just a few examples of how most of the plot makes little to no sense.

Kadaj kidnaps and brainwashes midgars children, then just has them stand around waiting for bahamut to kill them. What was the point of kidnapping them then?

Cloud moaps for most of the film, and one pep talk from vincent later he's on top of the world? Give me a break.

I understand kadaj was a shell for sepherioth's thoughts and power. But what was the origin and point for the other two? It would have made more sense if all three stored a part of sepherioth. One the intellect, another the power, and the other the magic. That would have made so much more sense, and added to sephs coolness (what little there is) on the princible that no one human shell could contain his combined ability. As it was, the other two were just utterly pointless and served little real point to the plot.

The entire final fantasy cast is busy doing their own business, but bahamut shows up and they all coincidently just happen to be in the same neighborhood? Yah right convenient, couldnt they have done a bit more besides cheer on cloud?

Then there was the ending, They should have just let cloud DIE. Instead the lifestream brings him back. AGAIN! isnt this like the third time the lifestream has brought a dead person back? first seph when cloud throws him into the chasam, then clould when the crater collapses, then in this film. Seems there is so much traffic going through the lifestream these days they oughtta just build a subway terminal going through it. Would be alot less contrived.

And I really dont think we needed to see Aerieth and Zack at the end. They were more then just visiting spirits seeing as how Aerieth was tending too a sick child, and yes it answered the question as too who she loved, but It was still really pointless besides to give those idiots who still write poetry over her death a cheap thrill.

Then there was the beginning. You know, I want to be at the meeting where nomura pitched that idea. "Okay, wait for this, I have a BRILLIANT idea. I see Advent Children beginning.... with the same cinema that ENDED the Game! Ah, I am a Genius." Odds are the sheer fanboyish stupidity of that idea would trace the root of the rumored mental collapse of FFXII's initial director.

It wasnt ALL bad (just mostly) I loved the turks and reviewed the film too two and a half stars (rounded off to three stars for generosity sakes) based on their involvement. Reno and Rude's fight with the seph clones was great. Seeing them get in their licks after insulting jenova was priceless, and just the sheer antics from Rude always carrying a spare pair of shades to seeing those two clowns handle heavy explosives made for alot of much needed sincere entertainment. and Rufus went from Wily E Coyotee style corporate bumbling to having balls of sheer steel by the way he punked kadaj. Why couldnt those guys have been the main characters of the film? thats the REAL flaw. That writing and characters like that were relegated to second banana status.

there were alot of other issues I had, but I can stop now. Ive made enough of my point. As a video game Film, Advent Children is the cream of the crop. As a film period, it ranks beneath waterworld, and Gigli.
11-04-2005, 05:13 AM
Neco Arc

er...ok... so i take it that you don't really like FF7 or AC that much...
11-04-2005, 05:19 AM
Ishin Ookami

you know, As much as I bash on it, I did review it to a total of three out of five. It has alot of bad points, the plot makes no sense whatsoever, most of the dialouge is painful and juvenile, but the production values were decent, some of the fight scenes were entertaining, and rufus, the turks, yuffie and vincent were all entertaining. The film isnt the end all and be all alot of people will try and tell you it is, look past the flashy animation that does a bloody good job of fusing anime with HK kung fu direction, and you got a story thats thinner then a piece of wet tissue paper. And think about it, the statement "a few good moments and stellar production values" could be applied to Star Wars episodes 1 & 2 couldnt it? which we all know were utterly robbed at the oscars... :mad:
11-04-2005, 05:36 AM
krissy

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First of all, Im not really all that big a fan of the original FFVII.

stopped reading there
what's the point of watching this movie if you didn't like the game very much
11-04-2005, 06:33 AM
Ishin Ookami

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Im not exactly the biggest fan of FFVII. But I do give it its props.

next time, read further.
11-04-2005, 07:26 AM
Pivi

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Originally Posted by Ishin Ookami

I'll tell you what the point was, and its Advent Childrens main flaw, it wasnt so much that it was a movie as it was a huge fanwank on square's most internationally successful title.

That says everything. Yes, it was made for the fans of FF7.
Though I'm not that big fan of computer games now, but I really loved FF7 some years ago, thus I enjoyed the film. I do not say that it's the best film I've ever seen, but it's enjoyable, and brings back memories for me, when I was so obsessed with FF7, that I played through nights to finish it (I would not do this now).
11-04-2005, 10:50 AM
Blitz Ace

yeh seriously, i enjoyed the movie heaps simply because i enjoyed the game... i think thats your problem right there. i could go through each individual argument you made, like "ah the beginning sucked, because it was the same scene on which the game ended" (which i thought was brilliant) or "oh cloud is a loser", and everytime i would come to the conclusion that "this is because i actually enjoyed the game!!"

and how the hell can u give it three stars!!! the only positive thing u said in your review was that the turks were cool... yay.

go read this thread...
http://forums.eyesonff.com/showthread.php?t=70233
it seems to me that you dont have many friends on this issue.

i know its just your opinion, and i respect that, but what did you think peoples response was gonna be??
11-04-2005, 11:38 AM
RiTaPuffy

:mad:

You are complaining how the characters look like and you dont really like the game itself, its like jumping to the conclusion. I rather hear about why you hate the game first.

It's like a person who hate RPG game reviewing a RPG game.
11-04-2005, 12:15 PM
crono_logical

Nothing wrong with a review from a different angle on the film :p
11-04-2005, 01:02 PM
Christmas

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Originally Posted by Ishin Ookami

When I first saw sepherioth, with his seven foot sword, girlish smile, bishonen long hair and V-neck leather I declared and prayed to the heavens not to let him be a main character.

So, what is the ideal Sephiroth's image in your mind? Everyone had their own ideal image of a character so you can't expect it to be able to suit your taste since the movie isn't made just for you.

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My outrage knew no bounds that he was the main villain, and its not just the fact that he looks like his life motto is "dont ask, dont tell" in every way possible he is inferior to characters like Eperor Geshtal who was so evil he slit the throat of a already dying woman just to kidnap her baby and turn the child into a living weapon, and kefka who needs no introduction.

We know him pretty well in the game dun we?

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Then there was cloud, unlike most the cross dressing thing didnt really bother me considering it was done as a huge joke. Its just the fact that they gave him this badass mystique, revealed him to be a wimp, then tried to tell us that him, as a Final Fantasy equivelant to a rent-a-cop could withdraw a sword from his own midsection, and hurl the holder (by the point of his own sword no less) down a chasam was really pushing it. Then there was clouds moaning, weeping, angsty creed-like dialouge that often struck me as being beneath final fantasy considering how weighty the first six games had been.

You can't expect every character to be alway strong,cool, unbeatable and kick everyone ass. We see Cloud's weak side and we too see his strong side, it is like a development of a character and make it more realisitic as everyone had their strong and weak sides.

What's wrong with moaning, weeping anyway.....Must a person never moan or weep to prove he is strong?

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Im not exactly the biggest fan of FFVII. But I do give it its props. But Advent Children was almost a complete vaccum of quality, filled instead with contrivance, idiocy, lost potential and redundancy. Lets take the animation values for starters. Watch much Hong Kong action flicks or anime? I do. and I found Advent Childrens animation and fight scenes to be very redundant of both. The whole flying and leaping thing can be compared to Such anime as Dragon Ball Z or such Wuxia flicks as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or hero. Ditto for the fight scenes and special powers as well. Also I found that alot of times the action in Advent Children felt wooden, like I was watching a puppet show or something. I wasnt expecting animation values on the level of Spritis Within (which by the way I feel is an immensely superior film, and a infinitely inferior final fantasy product) but c'mon at some points the action just felt so awful, like something out of a 1,000,000 dollar man episode.

Sometime I do find it pretty incredible that they just fly all over the place and jumped up high rised buildings. But there isn't much wrong with that considering you can summon a dragon or monsters out of nowhere. That is a fantasy world.

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Then there was the main character. Not characters, that would insinuate there was more then one. As soon as the film finished its rather boring ten minute long recap of the game (can anyone tell me what was the point of us seeing the ending of the game again at the beginning?)

To recap on your memory what happened or for those that never played the game, a brief idea on what happened.

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the film focused on cloud. And even IF I found cloud to be a likeable character (which I dont) didnt the moody mook sort out his psychosis back in the game? Why am I watching this looser work through his loneliness and bi-polar issues again? I had enough of it halfway through the game, I didnt need another hit while watching him do his best impression of Li Mu bai.

If you dun like Cloud, then there isn't anything we can do about it since Square is the one intended Cloud to be the hero.

And what's wrong if he is really a loser, at least he strive hard not to be one.

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Then there was Tifa. Now Tifa may not have exactly embodied the essence of strong willed leading women in the game, but she did have her moments. Here she does nothing but serves as a punching bag for Loz and then acts as clouds cheerleader for the rest of the film. I love the scene where yuffie just gives her a sneer and comments on how stupid cloud is behaving. If Tifa had a backbone in this film, she'd slap him, throw a glass of cold water in his face and tell him to get off his his self pitying ass and get something done.

Must Tifa or any character in the movie kick the bad guys ass the moment they see them to prove she/he is just so awesome?

And Tifa did tell Cloud off but just isn't as violent or "unique" as the way you described.

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I'll finish my character asassination by commenting on the viallains. First of all could Kadaj had been any more boring? Maybe at the school of redundant bishonen acting 101, they teach you to dress in leather, say ambiguous villain talk and lather, rinse, repeat. But I do like my main villains to actually, you know, get something done or make a lick of sense. His master plan of kidnapping midgars children to turn them into his own cult of suicidal zombie ninja commadoes reminded of this one episode of GI Joe where cobra commander takes over a preschool and tries to make a class of 8 year olds into a crack commando team. (Except GI Joe did it better). And when you take your lessons in villainy from a lame 80's villain with a lisp, you suck. End of story.

His master plan is to get JENOVA's head back.......

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I know he's just a shell who's only purpose in life is to bring seph back, but I would have liked for him to be a bit more likeable. And when seph does come back, I was so bored. (Hey seph, you infect the planet and the human race with a disease made up of your conciousness, plan this elaborate resurrection scheme, and you dont know what your gonna do next? Can we just get Cobra Commander to be the villain next film? At least he had backup plans). All seph did was prance around, talk the ambigious stereotypical villain talk, and die. What was the point?

To tell everyone what he and his alien mother intended to do.

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Kadaj kidnaps and brainwashes midgars children, then just has them stand around waiting for bahamut to kill them. What was the point of kidnapping them then?

For the "Reunion" since they all have Geostigma....

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Cloud moaps for most of the film, and one pep talk from vincent later he's on top of the world? Give me a break.

What's wrong with that? Must he go under intense counselling to be okay again?

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I understand kadaj was a shell for sepherioth's thoughts and power. But what was the origin and point for the other two? It would have made more sense if all three stored a part of sepherioth. One the intellect, another the power, and the other the magic. That would have made so much more sense, and added to sephs coolness (what little there is) on the princible that no one human shell could contain his combined ability. As it was, the other two were just utterly pointless and served little real point to the plot.

If I remembered correctly, Kadaj mentioned "We can't be normal" so the WE might have mean the three of them. And here is my own deduction.

There is only one JENOVA head.

There are three of them, so only one of them can turn into Sephiroth.

But I am not sure about this one.

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The entire final fantasy cast is busy doing their own business, but bahamut shows up and they all coincidently just happen to be in the same neighborhood? Yah right convenient, couldnt they have done a bit more besides cheer on cloud?

There are cellphones in the game......

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Then there was the ending, They should have just let cloud DIE. Instead the lifestream brings him back. AGAIN! isnt this like the third time the lifestream has brought a dead person back? first seph when cloud throws him into the chasam, then clould when the crater collapses, then in this film. Seems there is so much traffic going through the lifestream these days they oughtta just build a subway terminal going through it. Would be alot less contrived.

Why can't Cloud live?

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And I really dont think we needed to see Aerieth and Zack at the end. They were more then just visiting spirits seeing as how Aerieth was tending too a sick child, and yes it answered the question as too who she loved, but It was still really pointless besides to give those idiots who still write poetry over her death a cheap thrill.

It show Cloud finally let go of his guilt and these two which is part of his guilt bid farewell to him.

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Then there was the beginning. You know, I want to be at the meeting where nomura pitched that idea. "Okay, wait for this, I have a BRILLIANT idea. I see Advent Children beginning.... with the same cinema that ENDED the Game! Ah, I am a Genius." Odds are the sheer fanboyish stupidity of that idea would trace the root of the rumored mental collapse of FFXII's initial director.

When a sequel is made, showing some footages of the original series is pretty normal, there isn't any wrong with it.

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Why couldnt those guys have been the main characters of the film? thats the REAL flaw. That writing and characters like that were relegated to second banana status.

Cause they aren't the main character in the game to begin with. They are just supporting characters in the game and the movie. Besides, it is not up to you to decide who should be the main character.

And if they are the main characters of the movie, what will the story be? But who knows one day they will have a film made specifically for them or play "Before Crisis" which is based on turks.

If you want a movie specifically made for you as who you want the main character to be, then it is pretty tedious.

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there were alot of other issues I had, but I can stop now. Ive made enough of my point. As a video game Film, Advent Children is the cream of the crop. As a film period, it ranks beneath waterworld, and Gigli.

It is a pretty interesting review from a different point of view I will said.
11-04-2005, 01:48 PM
Neco Arc

nicely told unknowns...
11-04-2005, 01:51 PM
Meat Puppet

my thoughts exactly Ishin Ookami (had to copy and paste your name)
11-04-2005, 02:42 PM
Destai

To the mediocre reviewer,

Im not saying this as an FFVII fan but I do think your reviews kinda dumb. Or wrong.

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But Advent Children was almost a complete vaccum of quality, filled instead with contrivance, idiocy, lost potential and redundancy. Lets take the animation values for starters. Watch much Hong Kong action flicks or anime? I do. and I found Advent Childrens animation and fight scenes to be very redundant of both. The whole flying and leaping thing can be compared to Such anime as Dragon Ball Z or such Wuxia flicks as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or hero. Ditto for the fight scenes and special powers as well. Also I found that alot of times the action in Advent Children felt wooden, like I was watching a puppet show or something. I wasnt expecting animation values on the level of Spritis Within (which by the way I feel is an immensely superior film, and a infinitely inferior final fantasy product) but c'mon at some points the action just felt so awful, like something out of a 1,000,000 dollar man episode.

Its pretty much based on anime action. That was like, the whole point of the cg and not live action. To say the least I didnt see it as a bad thing.

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Then there was the main character. Not characters, that would insinuate there was more then one. As soon as the film finished its rather boring ten minute long recap of the game (can anyone tell me what was the point of us seeing the ending of the game again at the beginning?)

Because its a sequel? I mean come on, your entitled to your opinion but thats freakin dumb question.

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the film focused on cloud. And even IF I found cloud to be a likeable character (which I dont) didnt the moody mook sort out his psychosis back in the game? Why am I watching this looser work through his loneliness and bi-polar issues again? I had enough of it halfway through the game, I didnt need another hit while watching him do his best impression of Li Mu bai.

Hes the main character. Its meant to focus around him. Why is it anyones fault you watch movies about people you dont like?

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Then there was Tifa. Now Tifa may not have exactly embodied the essence of strong willed leading women in the game, but she did have her moments. Here she does nothing but serves as a punching bag for Loz and then acts as clouds cheerleader for the rest of the film. I love the scene where yuffie just gives her a sneer and comments on how stupid cloud is behaving. If Tifa had a backbone in this film, she'd slap him, throw a glass of cold water in his face and tell him to get off his his self pitying ass and get something done.

Because every other character does that. Its not her job to do that.

Quote:

I'll finish my character asassination by commenting on the viallains. First of all could Kadaj had been any more boring? Maybe at the school of redundant bishonen acting 101, they teach you to dress in leather, say ambiguous villain talk and lather, rinse, repeat. But I do like my main villains to actually, you know, get something done or make a lick of sense. His master plan of kidnapping midgars children to turn them into his own cult of suicidal zombie ninja commadoes reminded of this one episode of GI Joe where cobra commander takes over a preschool and tries to make a class of 8 year olds into a crack commando team. (Except GI Joe did it better). And when you take your lessons in villainy from a lame 80's villain with a lisp, you suck. End of story.

His master plan was to get a hold of Jenovas head/cells. The children were just a prop he used to get the better of Cloud and attarct the attnetion of Midgar citizens.

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I know he's just a shell who's only purpose in life is to bring seph back, but I would have liked for him to be a bit more likeable. And when seph does come back, I was so bored. (Hey seph, you infect the planet and the human race with a disease made up of your conciousness, plan this elaborate resurrection scheme, and you dont know what your gonna do next? Can we just get Cobra Commander to be the villain next film? At least he had backup plans). All seph did was prance around, talk the ambigious stereotypical villain talk, and die. What was the point?

To end the Jenova thing once and for all. And I've been told good movies dont have deep plots. It was mainly for the entertaining action and the final showdown the fans had wanted. Sqaures good to give what its fans want.

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I'll tell you what the point was, and its Advent Childrens main flaw, it wasnt so much that it was a movie as it was a huge fanwank on square's most internationally successful title. Say what you will about spirits within, but whats the most common complaint about it? "It shouldnt have been called Final fantasy" is what the gaming crowd say about it. "It didnt even star any Final Fantasy characters". Gag me with a spoon for cyrin out loud, Sakaguchi and square work bloody hard to bring a legitamately intelligent and well thought out video game movie to theatres, and the video game crowd turned up their noses just because it didnt feature any moody bishonen? This is why video game movies since then suck, but make money.

Persoanlly I didnt like Spirit Within because it was freakin boring. I, like most people who went to see it only did so because it said "Final Fantasy" and was severely dissapointed. But I dont really get why Spirit Within is in your rag on AC review.

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So yeah, square took the rought of Super Mario Bros and the live action street fighter. It threw in every piece of Final Fantasy VII fanservice it could think of, and nothing else. Thats Advent Childrens greatest strength, and greatest weakness. Here's just a few examples of how most of the plot makes little to no sense.

Thats because action is actually entertaining. That was one thing the original game had going for it. entertainment.Also did you seriously not think the whole point of the movie was fan service? I mean come on, waitta miss the freaking obvious.

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Kadaj kidnaps and brainwashes midgars children, then just has them stand around waiting for bahamut to kill them. What was the point of kidnapping them then?

It was a prop to get the better of Cloud. It gave him a hand over him.

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Cloud moaps for most of the film, and one pep talk from vincent later he's on top of the world? Give me a break.

I get the feeling you'd moan just as much if it had been a long detailed struggle or hed continues moaping throughout the movie. One way or another your just gonna complain no matter what.

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I understand kadaj was a shell for sepherioth's thoughts and power. But what was the origin and point for the other two? It would have made more sense if all three stored a part of sepherioth. One the intellect, another the power, and the other the magic. That would have made so much more sense, and added to sephs coolness (what little there is) on the princible that no one human shell could contain his combined ability. As it was, the other two were just utterly pointless and served little real point to the plot.

It was pretty clear that Kadaj's plan wasnt a one man job and they were the reason to so many of the fights you;ve praised. Honestly, how you can miss such obvious points.

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The entire final fantasy cast is busy doing their own business, but bahamut shows up and they all coincidently just happen to be in the same neighborhood? Yah right convenient, couldnt they have done a bit more besides cheer on cloud?

They were fighting the dragon destroying the city. Also the fans would have been much more dissapointed if they hadnt been there in the first place. Cloud and Seph was a one on one fight. Thats what just about all the fans wanted.

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Then there was the ending, They should have just let cloud DIE. Instead the lifestream brings him back. AGAIN! isnt this like the third time the lifestream has brought a dead person back? first seph when cloud throws him into the chasam, then clould when the crater collapses, then in this film. Seems there is so much traffic going through the lifestream these days they oughtta just build a subway terminal going through it. Would be alot less contrived.

Cloud just drifted from a collapsed building to the church a few miles down the road. Hardly a major coincidence.

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And I really dont think we needed to see Aerith and Zack at the end. They were more then just visiting spirits seeing as how Aerith was tending too a sick child, and yes it answered the question as too who she loved, but It was still really pointless besides to give those idiots who still write poetry over her death a cheap thrill.

Its fanservice and a happy conclusion. You just answered your own question also. It was a sweet and nice ending
[QUOTE]

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Then there was the beginning. You know, I want to be at the meeting where nomura pitched that idea. "Okay, wait for this, I have a BRILLIANT idea. I see Advent Children beginning.... with the same cinema that ENDED the Game! Ah, I am a Genius." Odds are the sheer fanboyish stupidity of that idea would trace the root of the rumored mental collapse of FFXII's initial director.

Yeah funny how those sequels work. At what point was it made out that Nomura thought it was a fantastic intelligent idea? Oh, your trying to be witty by playing dumb. Sorry about that.

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It wasnt ALL bad (just mostly) I loved the turks and reviewed the film too two and a half stars (rounded off to three stars for generosity sakes) based on their involvement. Reno and Rude's fight with the seph clones was great. Seeing them get in their licks after insulting jenova was priceless, and just the sheer antics from Rude always carrying a spare pair of shades to seeing those two clowns handle heavy explosives made for alot of much needed sincere entertainment. and Rufus went from Wily E Coyotee style corporate bumbling to having balls of sheer steel by the way he punked kadaj. Why couldnt those guys have been the main characters of the film? thats the REAL flaw. That writing and characters like that were relegated to second banana status.

The film was made more for the fanboys who enjoyed the whole game. Not the Shinra fanboys like yourself.

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there were alot of other issues I had, but I can stop now. Ive made enough of my point. As a video game Film, Advent Children is the cream of the crop. As a film period, it ranks beneath waterworld, and Gigli.

You only think that because you have such a low opinion of video game movies.

A half decent reviewer should know to review on what most people want as opposed to his own preferences. Or at least not to post his review where I can read it. You've just made a load of arguments about how a scene was pointless because you missed the point or didnt understand it.
11-04-2005, 03:58 PM
ThroneofDravaris

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Sure it was a okay game, some points it was even great, but the game, the story and its characters, the music, and the overall challenge and design were all a step beneath the prior Final Fantasy, FFVI.

Someone hates FFVII fan boys…

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When I first saw sepherioth, with his seven foot sword, girlish smile, bishonen long hair and V-neck leather I declared and prayed to the heavens not to let him be a main character.

Wow, what a coincidence. That was my reaction when I saw that main antagonist in FFVI was a clown…

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My outrage knew no bounds that he was the main villain, and its not just the fact that he looks like his life motto is "dont ask, dont tell" in every way possible he is inferior to characters like Eperor Geshtal who was so evil he slit the throat of a already dying woman just to kidnap her baby and turn the child into a living weapon, and kefka who needs no introduction.

Yeah, because you know, it wasn’t as if he tried to destroy the entire world with Meteor or anything.

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Then there was cloud, unlike most the cross dressing thing didnt really bother me considering it was done as a huge joke. Its just the fact that they gave him this badass mystique, revealed him to be a wimp, then tried to tell us that him, as a Final Fantasy equivelant to a rent-a-cop could withdraw a sword from his own midsection, and hurl the holder (by the point of his own sword no less) down a chasam was really pushing it.

Sabin holds up a house. What was that about ridiculous strength?

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Then there was clouds moaning, weeping, angsty creed-like dialouge that often struck me as being beneath final fantasy considering how weighty the first six games had been.

That’s strange; I didn’t notice this at all. Maybe I was just used to it, after listening to Terra whine for half the game that she’s different from everybody else.

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Okay, I didnt find the main story so awesome, and the main antagonist and protagonist were less then captivating. Lets move on to the actual movie... which I can sum up with the words...

WTF!?!?!

That’s an abbreviation…

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Im not exactly the biggest fan of FFVII. But I do give it its props. But Advent Children was almost a complete vaccum of quality, filled instead with contrivance, idiocy, lost potential and redundancy. Lets take the animation values for starters. Watch much Hong Kong action flicks or anime? I do. and I found Advent Childrens animation and fight scenes to be very redundant of both.

Wait, so which Anime and Hong Kong movies have the same standard animation as Advent children?

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The whole flying and leaping thing can be compared to Such anime as Dragon Ball Z

Yeah…although when someone jumped in FFVII:AC, they just jumped. In Dragon Ball Z, someone says they are going to jump (approx. 3 mins), the villain tells them they can’t jump (approx. 5 mins) followed by about 20 mins of talking about the repercussions jumping might bring about. They then jump (1.5 seconds), and something explodes for no reason.

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Also I found that alot of times the action in Advent Children felt wooden, like I was watching a puppet show or something.

If you can get a puppet to do any of the action scenes in AC, you’ll make a million dollars.

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I wasnt expecting animation values on the level of Spritis Within

Why wouldn’t you? It would be easy to emulate the animation of a 200 million dollar movie!

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Then there was the main character. Not characters, that would insinuate there was more then one.

OMG! You mean it only had one main character, just like 99% of films?! Blasphemy!

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As soon as the film finished its rather boring ten minute long recap of the game (can anyone tell me what was the point of us seeing the ending of the game again at the beginning?)

It’s been 8 years! Of course they are going to recap what happened in the game!

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And even IF I found cloud to be a likeable character (which I dont) didnt the moody mook sort out his psychosis back in the game?

Yeah, what gives? So what if he has a virus that will eventually kill him? That’s no reason to be depressed!

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Then there was Tifa. Now Tifa may not have exactly embodied the essence of strong willed leading women in the game, but she did have her moments. Here she does nothing but serves as a punching bag for Loz and then acts as clouds cheerleader for the rest of the film.

Yeah…apart from the fact that she beats the [img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img] out of Loz to begin with, then he just knocks her down with his glove contraption. She also partakes in the Bahamut battle as well…

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If Tifa had a backbone in this film, she'd slap him, throw a glass of cold water in his face and tell him to get off his his self pitying ass and get something done.

She has a loud mouth little girl to do that for her…

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I'll finish my character asassination by commenting on the viallains. First of all could Kadaj had been any more boring? Maybe at the school of redundant bishonen acting 101, they teach you to dress in leather, say ambiguous villain talk and lather, rinse, repeat. But I do like my main villains to actually, you know, get something done or make a lick of sense.

He DOES turn into Sephiroth, that counts as something. And when you say, ‘make sense’, who exactly are you comparing him to? Kefka? He doesn’t even have motivations for his actions! He kills people for no reason!

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I know he's just a shell who's only purpose in life is to bring seph back, but I would have liked for him to be a bit more likeable.

Since when are villains supposed to be likable? They’re VILLAINS.

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And when seph does come back, I was so bored. (Hey seph, you infect the planet and the human race with a disease made up of your conciousness, plan this elaborate resurrection scheme, and you dont know what your gonna do next?

I’m not sure, but I think the part where he said “I’m going to use this planet as a ship”, implies that he new EXACTLY what he wanted to do next.

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All seph did was prance around, talk the ambigious stereotypical villain talk, and die. What was the point?

Yeah, that’s exactly what happened. Oh wait, insert ‘insane CG battle scene’ in between his monologue and his death.

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I'll tell you what the point was, and its Advent Childrens main flaw, it wasnt so much that it was a movie as it was a huge fanwank on square's most internationally successful title.

WHAT?! You mean the main reason they made the movie was to make money out of people, like 95% of sequels are designed to do?! YOU LIE!!!!!!!

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Gag me with a spoon for cyrin out loud, Sakaguchi and square work bloody hard to bring a legitamately intelligent and well thought out video game movie to theatres, and the video game crowd turned up their noses just because it didnt feature any moody bishonen?

Yeah…so they got Alec Baldwin instead…

Hmm…

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Kadaj kidnaps and brainwashes midgars children, then just has them stand around waiting for bahamut to kill them. What was the point of kidnapping them then?

It’s a reunion! Did you watch the movie/play the game at all?!

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Cloud moaps for most of the film, and one pep talk from vincent later he's on top of the world? Give me a break.

It only runs for 100 mins. How long do you want an epiphany to be?

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I understand kadaj was a shell for sepherioth's thoughts and power. But what was the origin and point for the other two? It would have made more sense if all three stored a part of sepherioth. One the intellect, another the power, and the other the magic. That would have made so much more sense, and added to sephs coolness (what little there is) on the princible that no one human shell could contain his combined ability. As it was, the other two were just utterly pointless and served little real point to the plot.

They’re called ‘henchmen’. Do they need another purpose? And Kadaj wasn’t ‘a part’ of Sephiroth at all. He just had more Jenova cells than the others, thus Sephiroth’s image was able to manifest in the same way that it manifested in FFVII.

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The entire final fantasy cast is busy doing their own business, but bahamut shows up and they all coincidently just happen to be in the same neighborhood? Yah right convenient, couldnt they have done a bit more besides cheer on cloud?

You saw the Air Ship didn’t you? And they did FAR more than just cheer on Cloud…

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Then there was the ending, They should have just let cloud DIE. Instead the lifestream brings him back. AGAIN! isnt this like the third time the lifestream has brought a dead person back? first seph when cloud throws him into the chasam, then clould when the crater collapses, then in this film. Seems there is so much traffic going through the lifestream these days they oughtta just build a subway terminal going through it. Would be alot less contrived.

At least they didn’t use a Pheonix Down…

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And I really dont think we needed to see Aerieth and Zack at the end. They were more then just visiting spirits seeing as how Aerieth was tending too a sick child, and yes it answered the question as too who she loved, but It was still really pointless besides to give those idiots who still write poetry over her death a cheap thrill.

Wow, you complain about how the entire movie was just fan service, then fail to acknowledged the most obvious sign of it within the movie? Jesus Christ…

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Then there was the beginning. You know, I want to be at the meeting where nomura pitched that idea. "Okay, wait for this, I have a BRILLIANT idea. I see Advent Children beginning.... with the same cinema that ENDED the Game! Ah, I am a Genius." Odds are the sheer fanboyish stupidity of that idea would trace the root of the rumored mental collapse of FFXII's initial director.

It was the best way to link the game with the movie. And I think you must be the only one complaining about seeing all of these FFVII FMV’s in updated CG…

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It wasnt ALL bad (just mostly) I loved the turks and reviewed the film too two and a half stars (rounded off to three stars for generosity sakes) based on their involvement. Reno and Rude's fight with the seph clones was great. Seeing them get in their licks after insulting jenova was priceless, and just the sheer antics from Rude always carrying a spare pair of shades to seeing those two clowns handle heavy explosives made for alot of much needed sincere entertainment. and Rufus went from Wily E Coyotee style corporate bumbling to having balls of sheer steel by the way he punked kadaj. Why couldnt those guys have been the main characters of the film? thats the REAL flaw. That writing and characters like that were relegated to second banana status.

Maybe it was because they were minor characters in the game? This was based on the game after all…

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there were alot of other issues I had, but I can stop now. Ive made enough of my point. As a video game Film, Advent Children is the cream of the crop. As a film period, it ranks beneath waterworld, and Gigli.

Wow, your entire review could have been summed up by “FFVII SUX FFVI RULZ”

The reason you decided to write such a lengthy review on a movie you hate is almost as mysterious as why I just wasted my time rebutting it…
11-04-2005, 05:55 PM
Karl

the point was to make as much money as they could, therefor they went after the fanboy audience instead of the self opinionated reviewer audience, OBVIOUSLY a good choice, u just came to piss people off or so it seems.

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