I think it's true that this one hinges somewhat on how familiar the viewer is with the Final Fantasy VII storyline. I wasn't too familiar myself, but I knew who Cloud and Sephiroth were, and that was enough to get me through it.

After the first Final Fantasy movie left viewers scratching their heads as to what it had to do with the Final Fantasy games, Advent Children was made with nothing but the games in mind. It is not connected to the first movie in any way, shape, or form, but is a kind of sequel to the Final Fantasy VII game (arguably the most popular game of the franchise). It employs the same, if not slightly improved, high-end 3D character animation that was used in Spirits Within, featuring all the characters that Final Fantasy fans know and love in a kind of 3D-anime form.

This is an interesting movie, to be sure; if you can get past the fact that Cloud and Tifa are just impossibly sexy, there are some good action sequences and a good buildup of tension in the storyline. However, critically speaking beyond that there's just nothing special about Advent Children. The character development is minimal (again, assuming you are already familiar with them), and the plot just seems vague and almost pointless. Also, numerous characters make cameo appearances just for the sake of making cameo appearances, then are seldom or never seen again.

Anyway it's a big step up from Final Fantasy: Spirits Within, and I'm sure any Final Fantasy fan can get a kick out of this. Also, the 3D animation is some of the best you'll see, aside from the occasional bland facial expression. But if you're looking for an animated film that is uniquely powerful in its writing and presentation, you might as well look the other way.

The graphics are a major step up from the first Final Fantasy movie, but beyond that. . . Man does this movie annoy the heck out of me.

First of all, yes you have to be a fan of the video game to enjoy this movie. I'm not one of them. Granted Final Fantasy VII was notorious for having an inconcievably bad plot, but it had its fun points. Advent Children, then, makes me think even less of the game for having NO plot and not being fun at all.

The graphics are actually stunning, but what good are they when the characters are so dull and lifeless? If the movie's not jumping into flashbacks to remind people of what happened in the game(which is impossible) or rewarming all of its super complex ecological themes, it's smacking you in the face with hyperactive, hard-to-follow action sequences seemingly pulled from the worst action movie cliches. Go ahead. Watch the movie a dozen times and tell me you know what happened to who, when, and where. One minute it's like The Matrix. The next it's like Godzilla. The next it's like Bad Boys. If you're a fan of the game, this is only for fan service. Everybody else. . .pass.

Spending time around a friend’s place sometimes means you end up watching things you wouldn’t necessarily bother with; like this. Being familiar with that other Final Fantasy film didn’t fill me with confidence about this one. After all the first film nearly bankrupted the company and forced them into the merger with Enix. I was outvoted and so we watched this; Strange thing is then, that my friend had never played VII, so didn’t know anything about Cloud, Sephiroth or the Jenova project; like I did (having spent time playing the game).

First impressions. Yeah it nearing photorealism, so what? If I really wanted that I’ll go and watch a live action film. Emoting once again is out the window, but thanks to Cloud’s persona it doesn’t affect him quite so badly, he wasn’t one to show much emotion in the game, why should that change how. Still if fits the style of the Fantasy series and it’s fun to recognise locations you’ve seen before, yet it still feels a little what’s the point to me.

The still apparent use of rotoscoping (motion capture, whatever you want to call it) is less painful than before, mostly due to the fact that it is absent a lot of the time as the characters do things that no human could ever do without killing or severely injuring themselves. The kinetic, overzealous and verging on the insane fight scenes make up the best parts of the film, with absolutely no attempt at realism whatsoever, but that’s the point. They are fun to watch and don’t require much thought, they also never seem to get anywhere for the most part; still it could be worse, it could be a Dragon Ball Z fight.

One fight scene just seems to be an excuse just to fit in as many of VII’s famous faces in the picture as possible, for fan service of course. The plot is borderline terrible, seems like something straight out of videogame land (wonder why), but who’s watching it for that, it fades into insignificance while the characters duke it out.

Would I watch it again? possibly, if just to hear the Japanese. Would I go out and buy it? no, definitely not. If they remade VII then I might get that, but this film is more of a celebration of the game then a serious contender for a great film. Nothing really wrong with that and it achieves it’s goal and will probably bring a smile to FF fans. Yet a part of me wishes that Square-Enix stop making these films and continue concentrating on what they do best; make games.

It's a two, but it's a low two, bordering on one-and-one-half. Still it's a big improvement over Spirits Within. Hey, if they keep these improvements up maybe they get a three with the next film. Wonder what that'll be, Kingdom Hearts: The Movie? I wouldn’t put it pass them, although it would have to get pass Disney.

AH, hope grows. Remember FF:Spirits within? The 'pretty on the surface, but sitll somehow wrong looking' CG movie with horrible writing?

Well.. after a bit of practice in the Matrix universe with "Final Flight of the Osiris", and some financial wound-licking with the help of the enix merger, "squeenix" has dipped their CG movie toes into non-interactive graphics again. (Not so brave as to go to the theatre again, though.)

Final Fantasy fans will notice something about AC right away that TSW seemed to be missing. AC is actually a Final Fantasy movie that's about final fantasy.

Sure, there (WAS) a long running tradition with square that no 2 games were directly linked, and such, why should the movie, but times, they are a changing at the ole' chocobo ranch, and ff7 fans are legion, and drooling for more content.

"Dood, don't get excited. It kinda sucks." My friend warned me, having seen FF7:AC before me.

But, I am among the drooling ff7 fans. Cloud's sharpened-girder-on-a-stick sword makes any piece of crap watchable. (Don't ask me to explain that logic.)

Most of the plusses are for ff7 fans.. seeing familiar characters looking better than ever before, seeing moves from the game played out in such realistic enviroments, seeing a cool way to equip materia (That CAN'T be good for you)... but most of this results in a film that comes off a bit like it was writtn by ameture fans.

In one of the extras, the director says he was less interested in reality, and more in making a fight sequence that looked cool.

Well, mission accomplished. While the battles on the whole were really dynamic, (Tifa's big fight scene against Loz was my personal favorite) there were a handful of moments that were just TOO FAR out of the realm of reality, that it snaps you out of the immersion you may have acheived. Just for a non-spoiler small sample of what I mean...: I don't care HOW much you paid for those ugly shades Cloud, they're not going to save you from a bullet head on from about 3 feet away.

But, he's probably level 99 at this point, who cares about bullets? You gotta summon a hunk of rock the size of texas before you can even phase this guy...

There's a few events that just come off as needless, and almost silly, when they try to protray them as serious as stone.

Also, many ff7 characters show up for little other reason than to show up. But each has their rabid fans, and all must be satiated a little.

Let me prepare you now for the most horrid part of the film. "Dilly Dally Shilly Shally" When you hear anything "Dilly", just translate it in your head to "Cloud, you're such an EMO dork.", and things will make more sense to you.

One plus is the music. Players who have an ear for it will notice that many of the tunes are arragements of the in-game music, souped up and customized for the scene. Of course "One wing angel" is one of the most recognisable modern video game tunes, but there's more subtle instances. The Tifa/Loz fight, for example, sports a piano treatment of one of the game's "boss music" songs... and ends with a witty way of throwing in the "Victory jingle" which has been a staple of the games since the first one in the 80s.

Voice acting.... I have to watch it again in Japanese, but the english acting... not super. If you can spend so much on graphics, shell out a bit more for the talent. This is largely the same voice people as heard in Kingdom Hearts 2, but where game voices don't hold much expectations, they fall that extra distance shorter in the venue of a film.

All said and done, I've watched it twice, and I'll probably watch it again before long, but I AM a ff7 nut.

Will non-FF fans get anything out of this? Sure. Mostly the fights, and flashy effects. But don't expect to be moved by the drama or anything.

The "BIG MOMENT" in the game ff7 ripped my heart out. FF:AC barely tapped on it.

Hey squeenix! You have the graphics down pretty good...! Now spend some time on writing and acting! I'm looking forward to the next attempt!

Ahh Cloud... whom I will always think of as the Final Fantasy character who wields a cedar plank instead of a sword.

My exposure to the Final Fantasy video game series has been very limited--a little bit of FFX and Kingdom of Hearts... and I don't think this movie is really going to rouse you unless you've played Final Fantasy VII. Frequently I got the sense that what I was watching was a *significant moment* but I didn't always know what exactly was significant about it. I was very thankful for the little video game summary clip on the DVD which at least provided me a sense of picking out which characters I should be paying attention to.

As for animation... Final Fantasy VII suffers from the same barely-there facial animation combined with super-super smooth motion capture animation that existed in Final Fantasy: Spirits Within... I have to wonder however if this is simply a "look" that the film is going for--Cloud as the ultra-cool guy that doesn't emote... ever. There were a couple characters that reached for normal levels of facial expression, but these were all fairly exhuberant characters. So if you can accept the look, you're probably okay... if porcelein faces drive you batty... well this is not a good movie for you.

I will add that despite the fact that I didn't always understand what was going on and it was somewhat difficult latch onto non-expressive characters... I still found the film visually compelling... the fight sequences are quite fantastical and insane... and, if there's one thing Square can be counted on is capturing a certain visual wow-factor.

So I'll toss in an extra star for that...

Oh, and one last thing... I actually think the PG-13 rating is a bit high on this film. Yes, there is a fair amount of violence in this film and a few scary looking monsters, but the violence isn't particularly graphic... mostly characters flying through the air in impossible positions while bashing at each other with swords. In terms of rating, I'd be more concerned about a kid watching Princess Mononoke than this one.