Is Advent Children REALLY better then SW?

[Ishin Ookami]

Since I thought this was a topic that deserves to be discussed, and saw noone had started the thread, I thought I would do it.

Now, I know that the answer is going to be a resounding "YES" from the majority here But I still feel this is a thread that should be started. I personally feel that Spirits Within is by FAR a better film. It has a story that makes sense, deep characters that actually feel real, a poignant ending, and solid direction. Yah, I really don't care that it didnt have cloud or squall, or chocobos or summons, or materia/magecite/espers/aeons/what have you. It was just a good film. I feel the subject matter gets maligned a lot, and unjustly so. Sentient planetary chi (or energy if you will) was a plot point in several final fantasy titles. So why I wonder do people not bash FFVII for having tree hugging plot points? Also once again, so what if it doesn't have any prior FF characters except cid and a chocobo phantom? I still don't get the major issue with that.

Advent children on the other hand, I've gone in depth before, so I'll just summarize, it was poorly directed, hideously scripted, contrived beyond belief, with poor characterization on most parts. the only thing to really like about advent is that it tries to look stylish. But I've seen stylish. and style doesn't count for much for me when the writing and direction comes off as that loopy.

Anyways, that's my opinion. I still think this could be a interesting topic. Even though the outcome and general consensus can be seen coming a mile away. At least the discussion and points posted by the people here should be interesting.

[LunarWeaver]

I watched the Spirits Within before and after Advent Children and felt pretty much the same about it. I didn't feel the characters were real at all, I felt like I had missed their entire backstory and the entire main plot. It was like I skipped to the end of a story. But that's necessary when you're doing an hour a half movie with no source material of back information, so I get over that.

But even then, the plot and everything about it is just kind of average to me. For every neat idea squeezed in there's a lot of times I was just bored. It's not a bad movie and it isn't the anti-christ or something, but as far as sci-fi movies go it was nothing special. The villains have arched brows and do what they do for relatively no reason, there's a love story injected into it but barely covered, there's a cast of funny characters that all die, and there's bad alien creatures menacing everybody.

So basically it was crappy Aliens.

But again, it isn't a bad movie at all, a lot of things about it are good. If you do hate it, try subtracting the FF from the title and only looking at it like a sci-fi movie...There is enjoyment to be had sprinkled all over it.

And let us all be amazed that nobody's hair moves but Aki's... because she's a witch

[Xurts]

It has a story that makes sense, deep characters that actually feel real, a poignant ending, and solid direction.

...And AC doesn't? It helps a lot to have played the game first. If you've beaten the game, then it has all of the things I quoted.

[Ishin Ookami]

I watched the Spirits Within before and after Advent Children and felt pretty much the same about it. I didn't feel the characters were real at all, I felt like I had missed their entire backstory and the entire main plot. It was like I skipped to the end of a story. But that's necessary when you're doing an hour a half movie with no source material of back information, so I get over that.

But even then, the plot and everything about it is just kind of average to me. For every neat idea squeezed in there's a lot of times I was just bored. It's not a bad movie and it isn't the anti-christ or something, but as far as sci-fi movies go it was nothing special. The villains have arched brows and do what they do for relatively no reason, there's a love story injected into it but barely covered, there's a cast of funny characters that all die, and there's bad alien creatures menacing everybody.

So basically it was crappy Aliens.

But again, it isn't a bad movie at all, a lot of things about it are good. If you do hate it, try subtracting the FF from the title and only looking at it like a sci-fi movie...There is enjoyment to be had sprinkled all over it.

And let us all be amazed that nobody's hair moves but Aki's... because she's a witch

You basically hit the nail right on the head when it comes to the films chief flaw. Basically it always felt like sakaguchi tried to tell more story then he could fit into two hours. I always felt that with some editing, and some extra scenes here and there, Spirits Within could have been better, but still I felt it was still a great film. Flawed, yes. But still had enough good in it to make it great.

[Lilliputian Hitcher]

I really can’t be bothered working out which of these movies is better; they are both irredeemably [img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img]. Advent Children because it’s contrived and stupid and Spirits Within because it’s boring and stale. The only redeeming feature of either of these is that they had half decent CG visuals.

I'd take ANTZ over either of these anyday.

[Ishin Ookami]

It has a story that makes sense, deep characters that actually feel real, a poignant ending, and solid direction.

...And AC doesn't? It helps a lot to have played the game first. If you've beaten the game, then it has all of the things I quoted.

To answer in a succint form, you just stated my case for me. Advent as a film has little to no development whatsoever, it all went down in the game. That's no real exscuse since we are speaking of the film.

If you got the time, you can see my posts on the advent children opinions thread, the one at the top of the board to see more in depth pointsand reply in that thread if you disagree to any of them. I'd like to keep both discussion seperate, and not overstate previously mentioned points.

Oh, by the way, I did play the game. Issalright, but I always thought VI and IX was better.

[Zeromus_X]

AC is a sequel. To the game. Meaning you need to play the game first to understand it. AC does not stand alone. What is so hard to understand about all this? People complain about it not having enough development, well, it's a less than two hour long movie, which is a sequel to the game. The movie just covers events that take place after the game. Sheezus.

[Goldenboko]

I don't know about anyone else but I really enjoyed Advent, it just left this satsfying feeling because I finally knew the end (I always thought FF7's ending left something to be desired)

[Zeromus_X]

Possibly the reason for SE's 'creativity' as of late.

[Maux]

I don't know about anyone else but I really enjoyed Advent, it just left this satsfying feeling because I finally knew the end (I always thought FF7's ending left something to be desired)

It's not the end, it is the beginning. The last few games have been games for each character, I believe that Final Fantasy 7's ending has not yet ended, they will have to do something to explain where the clones came from. It's my belief that they left that out because they would need a mystery surrounding it if they ever do a sequel(although the main character will not be zack, cloud, or vincent, that still leaves a lot of other characters. I enjoyed Advent and not just because it added on to FF7's ending.

[Vaincast]

AC is WAYYYYYY better than SW. Swords and Guns for AC rocks, the swords in the motorcycle was awsome, the whole slow motioned part showed all the action. I didn't see any action in SW all there was was plants and dreams. Though AC english version was EXTREAMLY bad I liked the action (I saw both jap and eng )

[Xurts]

I don't know about anyone else but I really enjoyed Advent, it just left this satsfying feeling because I finally knew the end (I always thought FF7's ending left something to be desired)

It's not the end, it is the beginning. The last few games have been games for each character, I believe that Final Fantasy 7's ending has not yet ended, they will have to do something to explain where the clones came from. It's my belief that they left that out because they would need a mystery surrounding it if they ever do a sequel(although the main character will not be zack, cloud, or vincent, that still leaves a lot of other characters. I enjoyed Advent and not just because it added on to FF7's ending.

No, it is the end. AC wasn't even necessary to make, since the game ended very well.

Sephiroth created Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz by contaminating the nearby Lifestream with his will, and then splitting it into 3 equal parts. That was the only way he was able to survive after the game.

[Maux]

Sephiroth created Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz by contaminating the nearby Lifestream with his will, and then splitting it into 3 equal parts. That was the only way he was able to survive after the game.

Were we ever actually told that? If we were I missed it. Mind telling me where you heard this. But even if that is the case, I do not believe AC was the end, nor was FF7 or DoC. Considering how many people bought the movie, I can safely say it is a money maker, maybe not in the near future, but someday they will do another FF7(it's all about the money, and more than just a few things have yet to be explained). Even if I don't think a sequel should be done I don't believe Square has given up on it(look at how many prequels and sequels there are, they will have more, it is inevitable). Although they may decide to expand on an earlier or newer FF instead, which may or may not be good.

[Xurts]

Sephiroth created Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz by contaminating the nearby Lifestream with his will, and then splitting it into 3 equal parts. That was the only way he was able to survive after the game.

Were we ever actually told that? If we were I missed it. Mind telling me where you heard this. But even if that is the case, I do not believe AC was the end, nor was FF7 or DoC. Considering how many people bought the movie, I can safely say it is a money maker, maybe not in the near future, but someday they will do another FF7(it's all about the money, and more than just a few things have yet to be explained). Even if I don't think a sequel should be done I don't believe Square has given up on it(look at how many prequels and sequels there are, they will have more, it is inevitable). Although they may decide to expand on an earlier or newer FF instead, which may or may not be good.

How else would Sephiroth be able to return in AC? Jenova cells alone are not enough to make Sephiroth magically materialize out of thin air. He had to of had them absorbed into one of his remants.

I'm against Square making all of these FF7 spinoffs. They don't realize that they are making FF7 the Mario of the FF series. And it seems they won't stop making more FF7 crap until people are so sick of it that they just stop buying it completely.

[Ishin Ookami]

Sephiroth created Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz by contaminating the nearby Lifestream with his will, and then splitting it into 3 equal parts. That was the only way he was able to survive after the game.

Were we ever actually told that? If we were I missed it. Mind telling me where you heard this. But even if that is the case, I do not believe AC was the end, nor was FF7 or DoC. Considering how many people bought the movie, I can safely say it is a money maker, maybe not in the near future, but someday they will do another FF7(it's all about the money, and more than just a few things have yet to be explained).

Actually, if it's all about the money, square would do well to give up now. Advent Children, as of an update I saw about two months ago had sold less then 3 million copies world wide, with maybe 500,000 copies being sold in japan. thats actually very bad, and far below Spirits Within performance.