WANTED: Reviews for the frontsite.

[Ishin Ookami]

I wouldn’t say most of the people who were criticising the film did so because it wasn't a ‘Final Fantasy' movie. Indeed, out of the 100 that I read a good deal of them had never played a Final Fantasy game. I must admit though, there were some truly terrible reviews there. I want to kill the guy who tried to say that the phantoms were based off pyrflies with a rusty hook. Many of the reviews hit the problem with The Spirits Within right on the head: It’s boring. I’m not going to debate whether or not this movie was good or not in this thread though; I see you’ve made another thread on this particular topic that I might add to later.

Well tarsis, consider this social commentary, or just another POV, but from I notice the majority of video gamers out there are incredibly shallow. Even your thought on SW, stating "Its Boring" makes me wonder just how much depth are you capable of appreciating as I wasnt bored for a minute. I also disagree with your opinion on FFIV Advance being not as compelling as FFVII - X. as one of the things I always found amusing in the game is that while Cecil is redeeming his soul, kain is loosing his to his jealousy. By the end Kain can no longer stand to face cecil and rosa. and Leaves on a journey on the same day they are too be married. I thought that dynamic was very amusing and ironic. While the revelation about barretts daughter didnt really come off as a shock seeing as how the hints were given, that she didnt look anything like him. I thought escaflowne did that sort of plot point far better and made it so much more complex, and personally I always thought Barrett was one of the more interesting characters in FFVII, right next to Cid and RedXIII.

If you had then gone on to comment on the various other groups that would have disliked this movie (eg those unaccustomed to the 'Anime-ish' style of storytelling), this comment may have been more acceptable. As it is however, it needs to be either added to, or removed entirely.

I feel Anime-ish storytelling doesnt really apply here to the film, there were themes that are more prevelant in japanese cinema, such as environmental issues, but overall I thought sakaguchi just focused on telling a decent story, and despite the flaw of the story being too big for the time frame, it was successful. The only anime influences I could see was the nature of several of the plot twists. Hayo Miyazaki is rather notorious for plot twists in his films where the intial conflict or dilema in the film is on the verge of being solved, then throwing in a plot twist that undoes all of the heroic deeds done, and ups the ante by making the conflict more dire and larger in scale. but than again, the nature of those sort of plot twists have been around since Akira Kurosawa decided to have master swordsmen kyozo shot in the back in seven samurai's climactic battle just to illustrate how unfair life can be. So I suppose that the style of storytelling in SW comes back to being more japanese in tone rather than being "anime-ish".

The comments that you make every so often about how awesome the Turks were are slightly overshadowed by the colossal amount of posts you’ve made about the various aspects of the game you thought were half-arsed. You‘ve pretty much taken every opportunity you‘ve had to voice your opinion on the AC, and most of the time you are just reiterating the same points over and over again. If you didn’t have a vendetta against the FFVII compilation, you wouldn’t waste your time discussing it as much as you do.

Actually, when you do check out the post I made on this thread, check out one of the more recent ones when I compare a scene in Advent with a very similar scene in a film many argue to be John Woo's Finest, hard boiled. Basically I just make a point that Nomura's direction was one that screamed out in every scene "hey kids, isnt this cool" where as film makers like John Woo focus on making action scenes that ARE cool, far cooler than anything in AC, but also tell a coherant story. A good example would be the character of mad dog in hard boiled, who has roughly three lines in the film, but when he dies its a sad moment. Whereas when Kadaj, yazoo, and loz bite it, I felt nothing. For the "Isnt that cool" moments Nomura crafted, they were just ciphers rather than actual characters with opinions and feelings.

Nomura reminds me of a writer who wrote star wars novels for a while, called kevin J Anderson. Anderson sincerely loved the mythology and universe, but he had one fatal flaw, he couldnt write for beans. He quotes every line in the original movie and refers to it at least once a page, sometimes a refferrence to the original films, or other novels is made on every paragraph. Couple this with the fact that he couldnt write original dialouge worth a damn, and went for romantic pairings that make beauty and the beast look like romeo and juliet, and it's little wonder that eventually LUCAS, the same guy who thought Jar Jar Binks was a good idea at the time, told him to stop writing for star wars. The point for that anecdote is to illustrate that just because this guy could quote the original trilogy, he couldnt capture what made it interesting. In much the same way Nomura can imitate Wuxia, Anime, and Hong Kong action stereotypes but he cant emulate the substance of what makes the genre's and film makers successful.

So yah, There is alot wrong in AC, and I do point it out, just like I point out the good. It isnt my fault Nomura doesnt have an original bone in his body, and cant even imitate competently. sorry if you disagree, but thats where I stand.

Oh and incidently, I almost fell asleep watching Advent Children. :P