I've pretty much been saying the same thing about Advent all through the picture ever since it came out. The story was absolute trash, no logic or thought whatsoever. And it seemed that every time they wrote themselves into a corner with cloud getting hurt, or dying, or about to die, Aerieth would show up and save him or resurrect him. That was pretty much the worse part. And the cloud/sephiroth fight was the definition of stupidity. you mean to tell me sephiroth blocks clouds leaping overhead downward slash, bare handed, yet can't block omnislash vr. 967111? Lame. And I've always said that after cloud took that sword wound in his shoulder, the fight should have been over. No physical way he could have continued sword fighting with the muscles in his shoulder cut like that. None. I don't care how strong you are, when your muscles get severed, no amount of strength is going to make them move.
Im a final fantasy fan, but I'm a Fan of Sakaguchi's final fantasy. Nomura couldn't tell a coherent story to save his life. Every story he's worked on I've found is utter crap. Except in FFVII where sakaguchi stayed on as an assistant scenario writer, which means I suspect anything decent as far as characters or story you can thank him for.
Oh, and I also thought the animation was a bit crap as well. As for the action scenes, I think someone needs to sit down and teach nomura the meaning of choreography, because those fight scenes were just mindless. EVERY ONE OF THEM!