Okay, so it’s obviously not as bad as my title makes it out to be, but I thought it seemed kind of fitting.

Advent Children is definitely made for those who played through and enjoyed Final Fantasy VII; it’s pure fan service for anyone who wanted to know what happened with Cloud, Tifa, and the other characters after the events of the game. That being said, there were some major, major problems with the film from an aesthetic standpoint.

While the entire film is animated beautifully, with graphics that absolutely scream high-definition, the plot leaves a lot to be desired. It makes little sense, and what make even less sense is why all the characters just happen to show up at the same time. In addition, none of the characters go through any sort of development, except for maybe Cloud.

Square-Enix seemed to devote the majority of their time to the action sequences, which take up a good portion of the film. Unfortunately, they take every cheesy, over-the-top action scene cliche you could possibly fit into a film like this. Hell, some of the fighting looks right out of The Matrix or Dragon Ball Z, which, needless to say, is slightly ridiculous at times. By the end of the film it was hard to take it seriously.

I have to say that I was actually disappointed in Advent Children. FFVII was quite possibly my favorite game of the series, and when I found out that they were making sequels I was scared that they’d ruin the series. While AC isn’t as bad as Dirge of Cerebus for the PS2, it’s not that good. Worth a watch if you’re a fan of the game, but otherwise don’t bother.

Very pretty, but that’s about it. Trying to follow the plot gave me a migraine. I’ve seen David Lynch films that have made more sense.

And yes, I’ve played (and finished) the game.

I’ll be the first to admit fandom: I played the SNES games obsessively, and I’ve finished the playstation ones. And really, without knowing the playstation games this movie will make little sense to you. It is assumed you know the characters and their backstory.

That said, this movie is like a hour and a half of beautifully made cutscene. Fantastic animation. The hair and cloth are rendered in painstaking detail and behave beautifully, billowing in the wind and moving quite naturally. The fight scenes are stunning.

In short, if you know/love Final Fantasy and/or exquisite computer-generated graphics you’ll love this. Otherwise, probably not. It was a fun ride for me.

Being a huge FFVII fan, I can say that it was worth the wait for the movie’s release! I do expect reviews to be different from those that have played the game and those that are watching it with no prior knowledge to the storyline. This movie isn’t related to the previous Final Fantasy movie whatsoever. It took me over 40 hours to pass the game back in 1999, and movie developers aren’t going to spend over two hours to recreate the game’s intricate plot. The visuals were breathtaking, the sound effects were fabulous, and like the video game, the music was beautiful. If you are a FFVII fan, you will enjoy FFAC. Don’t expect chocobos in the movie though. As for those that haven’t played the game, this movie might not have much resonance and might be overrated, but the animated effects are still up to par. :)

As with the previous movie, the animation is fantastic. As Benjamin said, it’s so good it almost looks like poor quality live action. Strange. Unfortunately for the makers of this movie, beautiful animation isn’t enough for me. I should say straight out that I don’t like most anime (Witch Hunter Robin is a notable exception and to some extent Hellsing).
I only stayed awake for the first 30 minutes or so. There was no character development and tons of oblique references to things not explained in the movie. My guess is if you’d watched the first movie (I slept through a lot of that one too) and played the game, this wouldn’t bother you.
I recommend against renting this movie if you aren’t a huge Final Fantasy fan and you need character development to invest yourself in a movie. And even if you are, keep your expectations low. Benjamin didn’t like it either.