What does Advent Children mean to you?

[silentfuzzle]

The plot is weak, largely because someone thought it would be a great idea to release it as a novel separate from the film, which ultimately weakens the films ability to tell an actual compelling story because so many important plot elements are cut out.

Okay, I looked it up and Case of Denzel and Case of Tifa were released with the original film in 2005. My mistake. But I still stand by the idea that the film stands well enough on its own.

I agree that a film can be weakened by placing crucial elements of its plot in other media though. Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is a good example. I haven't beaten FFXV yet, so I'm not sure if even knowing the story in the game can redeem this terrible movie, but Noctis was a crucial element of the plot. Without him, the film doesn't even have a conflict. The deplorable characters fight over magical objects and people to save a nebulous future. We're given no reason to care about them or their successes, and even if they fail, the prince is still safely outside Insomnia and could probably save the future himself. Regis dies, Insomnia falls, the Crystal's stolen, Luna threatens to kill herself, no one can use the ring unless Regis and the other former kings allow it, and the movie ends on a hopeful note, so what was the point of trying to save any of them?

I don't think this is the case with Advent Children because even if we don't know all the details of geostigma, Sephiroth's revival, Denzel, Tifa, etc., the film has conflicts and explains why Cloud needs to address them, which are the basic pieces of a story. Whatever happens in novel didn't seem to hinder the film's ability to tell its story.

As a matter of fact Rufus is way way way more different in the original as he is also much more direct with his disrespect. He flat out calls Cloud "wannabe-Ex-SOLDIER" which then is later picked up by Cloud when Rufus calls him as the Ex-SOLDIER and Cloud just responds with "wannabe ..."

I assume you're comparing the scene between Rufus and Cloud in the original film and in Advent Children Complete. I really like the dialog in that scene in the original. It's very to the point and says a lot about both their characters.

However when I watched it again a month or two later and took off those rose tinted glasses I found myself thinking exactly what WK said in his original post. So yeah, he hit the nail on the Jenova head there.

The only negative retrospective thoughts I remember having when the film first came out was I wished Cloud had to work a little harder to cure his geostigma. I think I understand what the creators were doing in the scene where he's healed now, but then, I wished it were different. The more I've watched this film, the more little details I pick up in it, and the more I appreciate what the creators appeared to be doing.