Final Fantasy 7 Ad Nauseum
You may have heard reports that Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, the 100 minute long Square Enix movie based in the Final Fantasy 7 world, was leaked onto the interweb earlier this week. Yes, indeed, a very high quality DVD rip of the final version was leaked by a Chinese group called BiEN, and shortly thereafter English subtitles were created. Use your magical internet resources to find the torrent (I won't link it for fear of smiting and other nasty reprocussions from various allmighty sources). You'll be happy you did.
Remember the crap that was Final Fantasy Spirits Within? It was a fully CGI movie with big name voice actors set in a pseudo FF world that made no sense, wasn't very plot-heavy and nobody liked. This is not that movie. Square has become an entirely different company now that Enix swooped them up, and their new obsession with creating various Final Fantasy 7 spinoffs and turning them into movies, cell phone games and action shooters seems to be paying off. That is, if this movie is any indication of how well the other spinoffs are going to be, we fans are in for a treat.
If you aren't a fan of Final Fantasy 7, however, you may not like this movie. Much. The CGI is beautiful enough for anyone to look at, but that's just eye candy. So are the impressively choreographed fight scenes. Pure eye candy. It's the plot that drives a movie, and FF:AC is a bit thin unless you know what's going on. The movie itself starts out with a brief primer, but it is so filled with little treats and references (both musically and visually) that you will definitely be missing out on what is really good about this film if you hadn't played the original game.
Because that's what it's all about, really. It's fan service. Fans have been drooling at the bit, and getting more and more frothy as trailer after trailer was released. After the More Friends concert at this last year's E3 they even played a new, updated version of the main villain's theme One Winged Angel, making every fan wet their pants a little. I did, and I am not even a very big fan of FF7. Advent Children was filled with enough little treats for me that I found it highly enjoyable, even as a casual fan of the game. Granted, I am an FF nut anyway, so when a Moogle or a Chocobo is mentioned my head basically explodes. This is a condition that I have.
I won't spoil it for you, but the plot basically takes place two years after the events of the video game, and follows Cloud Strife and friend's journey to discover how to cure a deadly disease, and how to defeat a mysterious gang of Sephiroth look-alikes hell-bent on gathering pieces of their "Mother", JENOVA. The plot is well fleshed-out and never boring, with plenty of twists and surprised to keep your mind occupied. Especially for fans.
SE was smart to release this straight to DVD and PSP, and not go for a wide release, as FF:AC won't appeal at all to mainstream audiences. It might, however, create a couple of Final Fantasy converts, and it will definitely please hardcore fans who may have doubted FF:AC's credibility following the FF7 storyline.
Download it, or wait until next week to buy it. Either way, it's a good watch for any Final Fantasy, CGI film or action movie fan.
---Frodo
