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Final Fantasy VII Advent Children is the animated movie sequel to the critically acclaimed game Final Fantasy VII. Being the sequel of one of the most popular RPG games ever, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children has been subject to some high expectations from both fans of the video game and anime fans in general. With the previous CGI marvel but somewhat disappointing Final Fantasy The Spirits Within setting a standard of it’s own in the animation and graphical departments, how well did Square-Enix fare at their second attempt at making an animated movie? Read on…

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children picks up about a year after the events of the game. With the old team broken up and having gone their separate ways, they each struggle to survive and rebuild the broken world that was left in the aftermath of Sephiroth’s destruction. Making any sense so far? If it isn’t, then you probably haven’t played the video game, and are pretty much confused to no end. Final Fantasy VII Advent Children is a movie for the fans of the video game. It’s aimed at that particular audience and has deep ties to the game. People wanting to get into the Final Fantasy VII universe through Advent Children will probably be disappointed to hear that it is definitely not for people who are unfamiliar with Final Fantasy VII.

Animation wise, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children has no equal. The characters, the world of Final Fantasy VII and everything else in it is brought to life with the most cutting edge graphical modeling ever seen before in a 3D animated movie. Final Fantasy VII AC, clearly surpasses its predecessor FF: The Spirits Within on both levels. The animation is just so superb and jaw dropping, perhaps one of the best (if not the best) animated creations to date. While Final Fantasy VII Advent Children’s development period has been very long for a movie, it has proven that the wait was well worth it.

The Action in the movie is intense and very well done. Each fight scene has been planned and scripted so well that you can’t help but be drawn into it. The fights between the various characters may totally defy the laws of Physics, may be totally unbelievable and even be downright impossible, but the animation and graphical detail to each clearly makes it all the more believable and impressive.

Now, if Final Fantasy VII Advent Children is so great, why exactly does it receive such a low score you ask? It’s rather simple really. Final Fantasy VII Advent Children fails on the one front where one would expect a lot out of it. The plot for the movie is very weak and predictable. Most of the time, the story of the movie seems more of like a filler and a link to the fight scenes, rather than an actual story.

Too much time is spent on the fight scenes and not enough on the development of the plot. The dialogue, while mostly superb and very suiting to the characters is scanty and not used enough to actually give the plot any real depth. Many viewers of Square-Enix’s previous project, Final Fantasy The Spirits Within were turned off by the rather odd and unknown storyline that involved alien invasions and a sci-fi setting rather than something more Final Fantasy like.

FFVII AC does indeed capture the feel of Final Fantasy VII, but the plot is stretched so thin and is just so bare that you can’t really help but feel that the movie is more about the makers flexing their CGI muscle rather than focusing on making a truly effective and memorable movie.

The overall result, is a great looking and very well animated movie that lacks real depth and can be quite bare on the story side. It does a great job of capturing the “essence” of the Final Fantasy VII world, but it just can’t keep the feel going with the story. Final Fantasy VII Advent Children has great looking visuals, great action scenes, but that’s really all there is to it. Diehard Final Fantasy VII fans will probably be able to forgive the movie for it’s shortcomings but more casual watchers will probably feel a bit bored in some parts, and will feel that the movie is just a showoff of graphical splendor and great animation. It is for these reasons that we award Final Fantasy VII Advent Children with a grade of B.

~Reviewed By Setsuken