It's nearly impossible task not because the original's story was a masterpiece, but because it is a sequel to something from an entirely different medium. Now don't get me wrong, I adore Final Fantasy VII, it's visual design, solid game-play and breathtaking score are all reasons it's beloved by the video game community. Yes, it is overrated. But something has to be good and rated well in the first place to become overrated. It's story ain't great from a critical view point, it's narrative flow is messy, full of cliches and riddled with plot holes. Video games are a different form of art, one that allows the audience to particpate and more fully immerse themselves into the story. Because of this, one can forgive the narrative flaws more, you aren't interpreting, you are participating. The best films adapted from novels incoropate the best features and translate them on screen. Think Kubrick's The Shining or Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Video games adaptations almost never do this. The Resident Evil series both tries to be a Hollywood zombie blockbuster while still desperately clinging to fragments of the original games. A character from the games MUST be thrown in, worse still when it's the third or fourth entry, so the audience know this is related. Heaven knows we couldn't make a zombie horror film loosely connected. They even make the film LOOK like a game. It's hideous. When a video game movie tries to tell an original story while incorporating what they feel to be the best parts from the game, they fail miserably. The Super Mario Bros film is an example, as is ironically, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Those films both sucked and bombed and ever since studios have been more and more reluctant to give writers artistic freedom.
Our "hero/heroine"
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is guilty of all of the above. Do I really need to summarise the plot? A big criticism at the time of release was that those who had not played the original game would struggle to comprehend the plot. Well it's true, if you haven't played the game you won't have a clue whats going on. I can't be assed recapping the plot of a 15 year old Playstation game either, so we are going to have to work together here folks. There is stuff about geostigma, clones, summoning demon monsters and rescuing Bruce Campbells stolen '69 Buick. The last one might of been from the movie I was playing in my head while watching this.
Since this an animated feature and we can't discuss the plot, how does it look? Meh. It can be pretty impressive (Though not as impressive as Spirits Within) and obviously a lot of hard work and hours have been poured into this. I can't help but feel it should of been game and then it would been really impressive. As a movie however, the CGI industry can still not replicate a human face realistically. You can't CGI in a soul and everyone has the dead eyes of a puppet still. I'd of been more impressed if it was all done in live action. It's also hard to critique lighting in a CGI film. What the fuck can I say about the sets or costumes? Cinematography?
Behind those dead eyes lies a monster
Look, I didn't enjoy this movie. It tries to pander to the original fanbase while managing to piss them off and then goes and alienates those who haven't played the original. The plot is bland and pretty un-absorbing and the characters of the personality of fresh roadkill. It's nice to have a tingle of nostalgia when you hear familiar music score though but thats about it.51/100 - "A pandering, lifeless, dead eyed and un-original cash in"
KRS
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