I thought the movie was extremely well done. The sequel issue allowed them to get away without much character development, and for those of you who think that Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz needed some: let's not forget that they're Shinentai of Sephiroth. Just imagine a sixteen year old Sephiroth who's looking for his mother. That's what they are.

Also, there are a few ideas that just make the movie superb that were based on old ideas. One of which was Geostigma. Taking into account that Jenova cells would have made their way into the Lifestream and infected people when Meteor fell was an absolutely brilliant idea. Very well thought out.

The return of Aeris as nothing more than a spirit was also good (though some say she plays too much of a role). The reason she has not yet departed to the Lifestream is because she knows Cloud still needs help to overcome his guilt over both her and Zack. One will realize in the end when he finally does get over it, that she and Zack both walk off. They are finally returning to the Lifestream.

One of the major flaws of the movie though, was the fact that it focused on the fighting. FFVII was revolutionary because it was one of the first games where the story was not so much about fighting and saving the world, but about interactions between the characters (a bit of this could be seen in IV, V, and VI but not nearly as crucial a role as in VII).

FFVII was never about the fighting, but the movie clearly was. It just went from action scene to action scene. Fight after fight after fight. Though I must comment, the musical score was quite good. Some say that it wasn't good because it didn't fit in with other FF music, but it did a very good job at portraying what the movie was portraying, which unfortunatley was fighting.

The voice acting in the English wasn't that good I think. I've only watched the movie once in English. The other ten-bejillion times I've watched it has been in Japanese. Not only do the voices fit with the mouths better, but they also fit with the characters better. All of the voices were almost exactly how I imagined them.

Graphics were amazing. In some scenes it almost looked real. Absolutely incredible. I loved the revamping of the old flashback scenes into the new graphics. The other thing I loved about the graphics was the update on the characters. Sephiroth, having the largest amount of work done, was so much more like he should be. In the game, I always imagined him as having more of a feminine look to him, which is definitely how he looked in the movie.

Storyline was somewhat of a recycle of the game, but it still sufficed. It helped with the whole idea of Cloud releasing his guilt over the past, which is ultimately what the movie was supposed to do. The rest was just to make it look spiffy.

That brings me to another problem with the movie. As stated by Tetsuya Nomura in an interview, they didn't care if people could really jump that high, or stay airborne that long, just so long as it looked cool, it was good. This makes the movie much harder to analyze in terms of physical strength. Would this person really be capable of defeating this baddy? Don't really know. Not a major problem, just a slight hindrance in analysis.

That pretty much brings me to my conclusion. The movie has some good and bad points. Though, I personally think that the good outweigh the bad. I would give this movie an 8 out of 10. Superb job, but it could use some work. Overall though, a great film.