Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Review

Lack of story for such a good idea...

Being that in this current state that I'm someone who is researching upon Japanese animation for a dissertation, it's no surprise really to learn that Japanese animation and video games are entertainment and artistic platforms that coalesce with each other. While a more subtle example of this can be see in Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky with magic crystals and floating cities resembling that of the 90's Final Fantasy video games, another more well-known platform would be that of Pokemon which is a pure example of being a successful and morphed product which has spawned not just endless titles of films and games, but also with it's ever-popular merchandising of toys and playing cards. After the instant success of Anime in the late 90's/early 2000's, and Pokemon being one of the shining lights in establishing this, Japanese animation essentially became the norm for western audiences and the demand for these animations to be turned into English Dubbed products, was high. It's no surprise then, that Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was made in the year of 2005 since there had already been a stand-alone Final Fantasy title of The Spirits Within in 2001 and the fact that Advent Children is a carry-on from the events of the popular JRPG of 'Final Fantasy VII' which people of today, still rave about. While it's evidently noticeable that this films animation consists of CGI and motion capture for some of the fighting set-pieces, it doesn't shy away from being visually appealing at times and is backed up with a soundtrack that is divine with the scenarios that we are placed in. What lags this film from being a well-rounded filmic piece is it's underwhelming main narrative as the exposition is mostly told through over-long combat segments and hall-marks back to the tropes of video games that don't neccearily translate well onto the silver screen...

Advent Children takes place two years after the events of the 1997 JRPG 'Final Fantasy VII', during which the antagonist, Sephiroth, attempted to absorb the Lifestream (the life blood and soul of the world) to become a god and managed to destroy the city of Midgar with the spell Meteor just before he was beaten by Cloud Strife and his companions. Since the end of that time, the survivors of Midgar founded the new city of Edge where Cloud and his childhood friend Tifa Lockheart now run a courier service and are the caretakers of orphans Denzel and Marlene. While it may be seen as a time that's forgotten the events of the past, Cloud is an individual that is still haunted by his role in the death of Aerith Ganisborough, who was ultimately killed by Sephiroth. What's even worse, both Cloud and Denzel are infected with a mysterious new ailment known as "Geostigma", which has no known cure. With Cloud now living a life of seclusion, keeping his distance away from his friends, it isn't long until he's once again back amongst the fray as a new enemy appears; looking to resurrect their "mother" and an old enemy...

As always when I review a film/T.V. series that is of anime origin, it's best that we firstly discuss the animation to Advent Children since it is a filmic piece that throughout, uses CGI for the animation and motion capture for the action set-pieces that cover up most of the time of this film. While The Spirits Within, as mentioned in the intro to this review, was the first photo-realistic computer animated film which went on to be one of the most expensive video-game film adaptations, it expectedly never caught they eye of many due to it's cliché and overstretched story. Don't get me wrong, the plot of Advent Children isn't eye appealing to all audiences, which I will go into more detail a bit later on, but it has to be said that the CG animation in this film is crisp to say the least. The whole purpose of using CG, whether it's used for something that is minuscule, is to create this illusion of reality; that you're witnessing something that is generated that seamlessly fits the scenario. In the case of Advent Children, Director Tetsuya Nomura certainly adds that element of trying to be real, especially with the action set-pieces. Adding that 'realistic' attempted touch with anime tropes of dramatic camera movement that moves in tangent with the scenery/characters and integrated bullet-time effects hallmarking back to the Gun-slinger Hong-Kong films of the late 80's, does definitely make the set-pieces beautiful to witness with it's vivid attention to detail. My only gripe with the visuals, which will come across as nitpicking, is the variation of the animation. While the CG animation with the motion capture add-ons are lovely to watch, it would have been if there was some scenes within the film, most notably in the flashbacks, where they could have gone with a different outlook with a drawn segment. But digressing from that, overall the animation is crisp and is something to admire whilst watching the film.

One important thing to consider when talking about an anime film such as this one in Advent Children, is the use of sound and music. The implementation of music in general film really is a tool that can either subtly set-up as a means of creating an emotional communication between the films story/characters and it's audience. Being that Advent Children is a filmic-adapted sequel to a much talked about Final Fantasy video game entry, it doesn't really come as a surprise to say that the makers really cater to the fans since they remaster some of the musical pieces from the game, into this film, which isn't a bad thing. It's fair to say that the majority of the music used in the film is really well done. Each piece of music that is provided neatly fits the sequence that is on screen, whether it's a scenario that is upsetting or a set-piece which is moving at a fast pace. My particular favourites would be the piano pieces since those musical pieces are not only performed well, but can be interpreted as pieces of sound that is enjoyous or sad to listen to. Fans of the original game will undoubtedly prefer the theme of Sephiroth, 'One Winged Angel', which serves to be a menacing theme for any suited villain. The only issue I have with the sound of this film would that of the English Dubbed version. Having watched both the original Japanese version (English Sub) and the English Dubbed iterations, I would recommend in watching the Sub rather than the Dub. While the actual voice-acting of the English actors is perfectly exceptional, it can look a little scoo-wiff when the characters are talking; it just doesn't look right in terms of the movement of the lips and the dialogue.

Certainly not enough time for character development...

As mentioned before, the biggest problem that Advent Children upholds is the poor storytelling and story-line that not everyone will get and understand. Simply, it is a story that caters towards the fans who played the 1997 video-game and while in the opening scene we do have the character of Marlene explain a brief summary of the events of the game which leads to the story of this film, it just doesn't serve to be a satisfactory explanation for those audiences who are unaware of Final Fantasy and/or have never watched a anime-inspired film before. What is more disappointing from a fans perspective in terms of seeing the characters from the game reappearing in the film, is that the side characters only ever really appear 1 or 2 times which is staggering considering that this is a 2 hour film where there should be enough time for all characters to make a contribution to the events of the story. Instead, much of the time that takes up Advent Children are the action-sequences and while they are beautifully executed, it does become repetitive with the amount of action scenes that take place in this film and serves to be an exposition tool to advance the story which is negates the story-telling. It would have been more beneficial for Nomura to at least focus on the acts where Cloud is thinking about the past events with the deceased characters of Zack and Aerith since to me, they seemed to be the more interesting parts of the film as far as the story goes. Of course, there is the main plot-line of the eventual return of Sephiroth which is thought provoking; especially when he does return since his appearance comes about in a theatre-esque fashion when the music of 'One-Winged Angel' starts playing does contribute to the sinister themes of that particular part. It's just disappointing that the story of this film, is told through the action sequence in which there are too many and it certainly doesn't engage you with the characters that much.

Correlating with the past Final Fantasy film of The Spirits Within, Advent Children is another example of the emergence of new cinema in which the boundary between cinema and animation disappears with the implementation of digital animation and motion capture attempting to construct something that is fantastical, yet real. Undoubtedly, it's hard to really fault the animation of this film since it tries to go into detail as neatly as possible with the derelict city-scapes that obviously is echoing the Sci-Fi sub-genre of 'dystopia' and has action set-pieces and choreographed fight scenes that at least match with some of the better action segments we might see in a live-action flick. But along with other anime-related films, Advent Children falls into this pit of being a Japanese animation that isn't translated well to your ordinary viewing audience. In the end, it's a film that was made FOR the fans of the popular video-game series. It's a film that falters due to it's lack-luster of story-telling which is primarily told through the action scenes and ultimately, can become repetitive and tiring to sit through and watch.

And with that, it's time for me to sign out. As always everyone, thank-you to everyone for reading my latest film review and I hope you enjoyed the read. If you do have an opinion on the film or on the review, please feel free to drop a comment down below. I'll be back next-week with another film review which I'm sure everyone will be interested in! Until then, I'll see you all later! Adieu!! :)

7/10 - Alex Rabbitte