Quote Originally Posted by Ishin Ookami
Personally, I think the movie abandoned any dramatic strength when they pointlessly rehashed the games ending cinema, then pick a nice round number (498 years prior) to flashback too. You can accuse me of nitpicking, but there is such a thing as beating a live horse to death. I understand the film is a fan servicing piece of fluff, but that was just taking fan service a bit too far.
You do realize why they chose 498 years don't you? The ending of the game that was shown at the beginning of the film said, in the game at least, 500 years later. Well, since AC takes place two years after the events of FFVII, they were actually choosing the correct number of years to display. I still don't know why they showed the end of the game at the beginning, but they do have a reason for saying "498 years earlier."