Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

*Reviewed by arachidonic

Finally! The sequel from Square has arrived. I was very, very excited when I watched it and it proved successful in awe-ing me.

Firstly, the graphics in "Advent Children" - it was extremely realistic and not a single glitch was found. I specifically loved the way they portrayed the water dripping and other minor effects. Square has once again proved that they won't lose in the graphics aspect.

Now onto the story. Honestly, I didn't find it interesting. It's the normal "save the children" thing and the usual antagonists who want to take revenge on the world. Plus, people who haven't played Final Fantasy VII would find the story confusing as the story continues on two years after the VII story. I'm not putting in any spoilers, so I can't elaborate too much on it but I hope non VII gamers won't feel disappointed if you think you're going to find the story uninteresting to you. This movie has other aspects that will keep you attracted to "Advent Children", for example, the graphics.



Next, how is the action done? I believe there are some real human stunts, but I'm not sure whether all of them are done by human stunt artists. The action in "Advent" might make you question: "How is this possible?! It's so unrealistic!" My answer is, "This is a CGI movie!" The action in "Advent" is the second AWE you could find. There are no glitches at all. After watching it, you might find the fighting scenes are a little too fast but, to be frank, the action is the aspect that make me go "AWESOME, COOL!!!" and it's only until the end of the battle that I found that my mouth was opened wide. In short, it's amazing. I'm not being biased here.

Onto the music. If you're a Nobuo Uematsu fan, I'm pleased to tell you that he's back with his music. Some of them are the original soundtracks from the earlier VII game. Nevertheless, it's inserted with great timing and it suits and blends with the movie and the part of it well.

As to the voice acting, I have no complaints. The voice acting for Cloud in "Advent" is the same as in KH. I believe Aeris/Aerith and Zack's voices in the movie are also the ones for in "Gundam Seed Destiny". I personally liked Kadaj's voice, I thought it suits his character well. In conclusion, not much complaint on the voice acting aspect.

The character and weapon design in this game is done by none other than Tetsuya Nomura himself. You might find that some characters in "Advent" are similar to characters in other games (i.e. KH) but that's probably because it comes from the same artist. Sure, I do hope that there are differences but as long as you like them, no problem, right? Cloud's weapon is the third AWE. I loved it. But, sometimes, I wonder if he is as strong as that? Find out for yourself!



In conclusion, it is up to you whether you want to watch it or not. I personally suggest that you watch it. It is a movie that you should not miss. Yeah, my review here might be a little biased, and no spoilers to read (for those who've already watched it) but, please do try it yourself first.

If it weren't for my exams, I would've watched it tons of times already. Back to studying..
source:www.spcnet.tv