NationStates Jolt Archive

I just bought it today, and was blown away. Has anyone else here seen it? If so, what are your thoughts?

I say OMFG best movie in the whole freakin world.

Amazing animation, great battle scenes, good story and most of all I say tifa kicks yo but:D

If anyone says this movie sucks they ought to have thier heads checked^.^

I say OMFG best movie in the whole freakin world.

Amazing animation, great battle scenes, good story and most of all I say tifa kicks yo but:D

If anyone says this movie sucks they ought to have thier heads checked^.^
Ah yes, let's have our heads checked because we can see through "ZOMG ACTIOOON GRAAAAFIXXS!" :rolleyes:

The story was a rehash of Final Fantasy VII that focused entirely on Cloud, one of the worst characters from that subpar game. Cid, Vincent, and Red XIII barely featured at all, and they were by far the best developed characters. Further, it was mostly action rather than any true story. Finally, it loved to rely on little bits of humor that weren't all that funny, like the whole Victory theme ringtone for the cell phone.

Seriously folks. Don't waste your money.

I totally agree with you! One look at the realistic graphics, and I just knew the movie would be great! I also love the fact they made Cloud so droolable. :D

Ah yes, let's have our heads checked because we can see through "ZOMG ACTIOOON GRAAAAFIXXS!" :rolleyes:

The story was a rehash of Final Fantasy VII that focused entirely on Cloud, one of the worst characters from that subpar game. Cid, Vincent, and Red XIII barely featured at all, and they were by far the best developed characters. Further, it was mostly action rather than any true story. Finally, it loved to rely on little bits of humor that weren't all that funny, like the whole Victory theme ringtone for the cell phone.

Seriously folks. Don't waste your money.


Sour puss. :p

If you arn't a fan of Final Fantasy. or action sequences, or arn't more than remotely familiar with Final Fantasy VII, it makes 0 sense. I have gotten a quarter or so of the way through FF7 and I still have no clue what the fuck is going on in the movie, just unmitigatedly awesome CG.

If you arn't a fan of Final Fantasy. or action sequences, or arn't more than remotely familiar with Final Fantasy VII, it makes 0 sense. I have gotten a quarter or so of the way through FF7 and I still have no clue what the fuck is going on in the movie, just unmitigatedly awesome CG.


only a quarter of way of the game? I beat it yesterday for like the 10th time...this time only 50 or so hours.. :(

*sigh*

I wish I knew where my Disc 1 was. If I did, hell, I'd probably be playing it now! :D

Maybe there's something lost in translation ... but it's pretty safe to say AC sucked. Seriously. The picked the absolute worst aspects of the game to make into a movie. I felt like I was watching the battle scene throughout the entire movie; I kept expecting little numbers to pop up over the heads of the characters.

Maybe there's something lost in translation ... but it's pretty safe to say AC sucked. Seriously. The picked the absolute worst aspects of the game to make into a movie. I felt like I was watching the battle scene throughout the entire movie; I kept expecting little numbers to pop up over the heads of the characters.

eh, whatever I thought it was awsome but I guess different people have different opinions^.^

Hmm.. I don't mind FF. I haven't seen the movie though. Game is cool.

Sour puss. :p

Truly.

I never played FFVII, cuz it looked kinda stupid. I saw a buddy of mine playing it, and he was explaining it and it just didn't catch my attention at all. Some loser with a giant sword, running around in a game with ridiculously long animation sequences for special attacks? Uhhhhhhh... *snore*

And if, as they've said, you have to have played the game to understand the movie, I won't bother watching it...

Ah yes, let's have our heads checked because we can see through "ZOMG ACTIOOON GRAAAAFIXXS!" :rolleyes:

The story was a rehash of Final Fantasy VII that focused entirely on Cloud, one of the worst characters from that subpar game. Cid, Vincent, and Red XIII barely featured at all, and they were by far the best developed characters. Further, it was mostly action rather than any true story. Finally, it loved to rely on little bits of humor that weren't all that funny, like the whole Victory theme ringtone for the cell phone.

Seriously folks. Don't waste your money.
not a rehash of Final Fantasy VII, but just another story. a tying up of loose ends so to speak.

while there were alot of characters that was only touched upon, Cloud is the main character. just like Vincent is the main character in FFVII: Dirge of Cerebus (only in Japan... for now I hope.)

and no, you don't need to play the game to understand what was going on. Several of my friends who never played FFVII liked it.

Lets see:
Good fights... Check
Sexy ladies... Check
Badass enemy... Check
Return of favourite characters in 3D... Check
Plot...

So it gets a great but not the best film :D

Ah yes, let's have our heads checked because we can see through "ZOMG ACTIOOON GRAAAAFIXXS!" :rolleyes:

The story was a rehash of Final Fantasy VII that focused entirely on Cloud, one of the worst characters from that subpar game. Cid, Vincent, and Red XIII barely featured at all, and they were by far the best developed characters. Further, it was mostly action rather than any true story. Finally, it loved to rely on little bits of humor that weren't all that funny, like the whole Victory theme ringtone for the cell phone.

Seriously folks. Don't waste your money.
I thought it was a good game. Final Fantasy (all infinity billion of them) basically have two aspects of them: the story, which is always utterly linear, so it's like playing a movie, and the battles, which are intermittent and usually happen completely at random. In battle, you can leap great distances, take bullets to the face without dying, and slice through buildings with swords that are bigger than you. But that's ok, because it's in battle, it doesn't carry over to the real world (case in point: a phoenix down was not used on Aeris). In the movie, all of the above happened, and the story took a backseat (hell, it was tossed out the window and run over by a semi).

The huge problem with making a movie with that focus is you very quickly cease to care about the characters. For example. when Cloud can be stabbed in the shoulder, then five frames later be completely ok again, you get the sense that he's not human, so there's really no conflict, because he's immortal and superhuman. The story in the game was good because it let Aeris die, which let us know that the characters were mortal, which made us more uncertain about the outcome, which was why it was fun to play. AC was not fun to watch for the opposite reason.

The huge problem with making a movie with that focus is you very quickly cease to care about the characters. For example. when Cloud can be stabbed in the shoulder, then five frames later be completely ok again, you get the sense that he's not human, so there's really no conflict, because he's immortal and superhuman. The story in the game was good because it let Aeris die, which let us know that the characters were mortal, which made us more uncertain about the outcome, which was why it was fun to play. AC was not fun to watch for the opposite reason.it was never showed that five frames later he was completely ok. granted they never showed blood anywhere in the film so lack of bleeding was, at least, consistant.

it was never showed that five frames later he was completely ok. granted they never showed blood anywhere in the film so lack of bleeding was, at least, consistant.
So I'm exaggerating. But not by much. Shortly after being stabbed, Cloud jumped up and sliced his opponent to ribbons by flying through the air wielding eight dozen swords.

So I'm exaggerating. But not by much. Shortly after being stabbed, Cloud jumped up and sliced his opponent to ribbons by flying through the air wielding eight dozen swords.
watch again, he only used 2. the others were only floating in a circle. but then again, for the whole battle, they were flying around like DBZ characters... (I HATE DBZ!)

Ok, here's the thing I had with this movie: I've never really been into FF at all (in fact, I knew just about nothing coming into watching this movie), I'm female so the "sexy ladies" did nothing for me, and I'm neither impressed nor underwhelmed by the graphics. I had to have the people I was watching it with constantly explaining things to me, I was slightly put off by the fact that the entire thing was more of a ramshackle storyline to connect the fight scenes, and there were points where I determined that maybe I'd understand better if I just went outside for a smoke break and left all the extra shit out of it.

On the other hand, it was pretty, and I loved the music. OH how I loved the freakin music. It is only for the music and the use of their colour choices that I voted positively on the poll......this is definitely not something I'd bother buying for myself, or in fact ever sitting down to watch again even though my roommate owns it.

I totally agree with you! One look at the realistic graphics, and I just knew the movie would be great! I also love the fact they made Cloud so droolable. :D


Oh god they made Cloud look like a kid. I thought it was a decent movie, but not enough plot to be really good.

..Am I the only one that feels the need to point out that an almost identical topic, with an almost identical poll, was posted the same day of the release? :headbang:

..Am I the only one that feels the need to point out that an almost identical topic, with an almost identical poll, was posted the same day of the release? :headbang:
But most people hadn't seen it the day of release, duh....

Simonist']But most people hadn't seen it the day of release, duh....
Could have bumped it up, or at least made this topic somewhat different.

Could have bumped it up, or at least made this topic somewhat different.
Might be skirting the boundaries of gravedigging, after all this time, though. Personally, I too would've started a new topic, rather that reviving the old one.

I'm a huge fan of FF, and was so hyped to see this movie. Maybe I had too high of expectations, because I was let down. It was OK, but not great.

The purpose of the film was stated in the very first few seconds of it:

"For those who found friendly company within, this Reunion is for you" (not exact but close enough)

Which means, essentially, the film was made for Final Fantasy 7 fans, like myself. It was not meant to be seen by those who have no experience of the game, as you could probably tell from the fact that, from start to finish, the film did not bother to explain itself.

I voted for "it wasn't the best and it wasn't the worst" in the poll. I did this because, while it was good to see the characters in 3-D and with voice actors, the story was entirely substandard and was in fact merely a justification for the action sequences. I never thought Final Fantasy 7 was a story exclusively about Cloud but that is the impression you would have got from watching the film without playing the game. Red XIII, a great character, gets one measely line. Barret, a huge character in the game, barely gets anymore. There was only one scene where we got to see the characters interact as a team and that lasted little more than twenty seconds. This is what disappointed me when I first watched the film. However, I realise that it was probable that my expectations were too high. The game took 30 hours to play through (at least) and so it was unreasonable of me to expect a similar experience from a film that barely lasts an hour and a half.

The graphics were impressive and the battle sequences were well-orchestrated, I can say that much for it.

To conclude, I am unwilling to consider this story of the film as part of the FF7 universe. The only purpose of the film, in my opinion, was to give fans a glimpse of their old favourites, digitally re-mastered. With any luck, Square-Enix will announce a remake pretty soon and we shall get to see those digitally re-mastered characters acting within their proper context.

I enjoyed AC, but I definitely appreciated some aspects more than others.
I've only ever played FFX, but I did watch the "Reminiscence on FFVII" before I watched Advent Children, and unlike with the first FF movie, Spirits Within, I felt as though I was actually watching a Final Fantasy game in movie format. So that was kinda neat. I was impressed with the animation-- hard not to be-- especially during the action sequences. Bahamut was /\wesome. And to be honest, my *favourite* thing about AC was the musical score. Went hunting on Limewire for music from it afterwards-- love "Calling," "Divinity I & II," and I wish I could find the little 20 second or so choral bit that plays during the DVD menu.

As far as weaknesses... well, super-powered killers telling each other "don't cry" is kinda typical of the silly characterisations in general in animated Japanese entertainment. I mean I was a fan of Sailor Moon, sure, but eventually I started wanting my superheroes and villains to act more... 'super'... and less like insecure teenage girls.

Anywho, that's my 2 cents

I enjoyed AC, but I definitely appreciated some aspects more than others.
I've only ever played FFX, but I did watch the "Reminiscence on FFVII" before I watched Advent Children, and unlike with the first FF movie, Spirits Within, I felt as though I was actually watching a Final Fantasy game in movie format. So that was kinda neat. I was impressed with the animation-- hard not to be-- especially during the action sequences. Bahamut was /\wesome. And to be honest, my *favourite* thing about AC was the musical score. Went hunting on Limewire for music from it afterwards-- love "Calling," "Divinity I & II," and I wish I could find the little 20 second or so choral bit that plays during the DVD menu.

As far as weaknesses... well, super-powered killers telling each other "don't cry" is kinda typical of the silly characterisations in general in animated Japanese entertainment. I mean I was a fan of Sailor Moon, sure, but eventually I started wanting my superheroes and villains to act more... 'super'... and less like insecure teenage girls.

Anywho, that's my 2 cents

Fanboy Bullshit VII: Please Let it Die

Suggested alternate title.

Yes. It wasn't the best, but it was awesome!

It is far from the best movie ever. Lets not get carried away now.

Still, graphically it is stunning, and for any fan of Final Fantasy it's a wet dream. Awesome is a good description.

Yes. It wasn't the best, but it was awesome!

It is far from the best movie ever. Lets not get carried away now.

Still, graphically it is stunning, and for any fan of Final Fantasy it's a wet dream. Awesome is a good description.
sorry, but this FF Fan's wet dream involves Tifa, Quistis, Lulu and Paine... and that's all I'll say on the subject.

... and I wish I could find the little 20 second or so choral bit that plays during the DVD menu.
I believe that's part of [the AC version of] One-Winged Angel. Either that, or it's part of [the AC version of] J-E-N-O-V-A, or Black Water, or The Chase of Highway, but I'm 90% sure it's OWA.

(Yes, I realize the [] goes without saying, but the originals and the AC versions are quite different, so yeah.)

I wrote this review back when I first saw it (September 2005?):

Last night I watched Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children while long-distance phone conferencing with the only person qualified to share such an experience with me: my FF-obsessed hetero life partner. He found the entire adventure to be orgasmically transcendent, and, while I could never equal his amazing fanboydom, I also must strongly encourage everybody to screen Advent Children. Preferably in the original Japanese--with English subtitles, of course--so you can appreciate how mind-bendingly well the mouth movements match the voices.

However, I also felt there were several potential points of improvement for the film, and I am a strong believer in giving honest constructive criticism.

* For one thing, the plot would have been improved by 100-fold if the army of creepy snake-eyed children had been equipped with giant gun/swords (a Final Fantasy staple) and set loose to rampage across the half-ruined metropolis. Sure, little children are terrifying in their own right, but add some comic book weaponry and you've got yourself a serious party.

* I felt that Cloud's climactic self-realization moment was poorly scripted. Instead of delivering the powerful and somewhat poignant line, "There's nothing that's not important," Cloud should have said, "You raise some interesting points, Sephrioth, but this next move of mine is going to be so freaking sweet that it'll make you explode into a flurry of bird feathers."

* Cloud's CutCo Knifematic 2000 Motorbike X-treme should have contained a couple more awesomely gigantic swords. As a rule, when you're providing a totally badass mode of transportation for the main character in an anime action flick, the sword-to-rider ratio should never drop below 15:1.

* Finally, the animators could have improved the detail on the characters' skin to the point where you could actually see the microscopic bacteria and follicle structures on the surface. I mean, sure you can't perceive that level of detail in real life, but they already made the rest of it so hyper-realistic that my retinas hurt...why settle for the poor resolution of actual human vision, when CGI can improve on our wimpy biological sensory abilities?

Seriously, though, this was a really gorgeous piece of work and I strongly recommend it. To get the full effect, if you haven't played FF7 the game then you should probably read a FF7 plot summary before trying to watch the movie. Well, actually, if you haven't played FF7 then you should go spend an hour in your Shame Closet, because it is one of the greatest of the videogame classics.

Crazy kids!

I wrote this review back when I first saw it (September 2005?):

Last night I watched Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children while long-distance phone conferencing with the only person qualified to share such an experience with me: my FF-obsessed hetero life partner. He found the entire adventure to be orgasmically transcendent, and, while I could never equal his amazing fanboydom, I also must strongly encourage everybody to screen Advent Children. Preferably in the original Japanese--with English subtitles, of course--so you can appreciate how mind-bendingly well the mouth movements match the voices.

However, I also felt there were several potential points of improvement for the film, and I am a strong believer in giving honest constructive criticism.

* For one thing, the plot would have been improved by 100-fold if the army of creepy snake-eyed children had been equipped with giant gun/swords (a Final Fantasy staple) and set loose to rampage across the half-ruined metropolis. Sure, little children are terrifying in their own right, but add some comic book weaponry and you've got yourself a serious party.

* I felt that Cloud's climactic self-realization moment was poorly scripted. Instead of delivering the powerful and somewhat poignant line, "There's nothing that's not important," Cloud should have said, "You raise some interesting points, Sephrioth, but this next move of mine is going to be so freaking sweet that it'll make you explode into a flurry of bird feathers."

* Cloud's CutCo Knifematic 2000 Motorbike X-treme should have contained a couple more awesomely gigantic swords. As a rule, when you're providing a totally badass mode of transportation for the main character in an anime action flick, the sword-to-rider ratio should never drop below 15:1.

* Finally, the animators could have improved the detail on the characters' skin to the point where you could actually see the microscopic bacteria and follicle structures on the surface. I mean, sure you can't perceive that level of detail in real life, but they already made the rest of it so hyper-realistic that my retinas hurt...why settle for the poor resolution of actual human vision, when CGI can improve on our wimpy biological sensory abilities?

Seriously, though, this was a really gorgeous piece of work and I strongly recommend it. To get the full effect, if you haven't played FF7 the game then you should probably read a FF7 plot summary before trying to watch the movie. Well, actually, if you haven't played FF7 then you should go spend an hour in your Shame Closet, because it is one of the greatest of the videogame classics.

*claps and hands you a box of special cookies*

I haven't seen the film myself, but I've heard (mostly) very good things. Actually, the only bad things I hear about it are from people who shun the game itself, so their opinions are absolutely meaningless.

Of course, I'd also like to see the Before Crisis short film (Anime, approximately 45 minutes). It explains (in immense detail) the events of the Nibelheim incident, with Zack as the main character.

I wrote this review back when I first saw it (September 2005?):

*snip*

Great review.

And yeah, if you havent played ff7, dont even try and see the movie.

*Munches happily on cookies*

Hooray for internet forums, where my reviews of videogames bring praise rather than beatings!