Originating simply as a demo, the fan outcry for a fully realized Final Fantasy VII sequel ultimately spawned Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, a theatrical sequel to the game of the same name. Not to be confused with the visually impressive, but poorly received, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Advent Children is the Final Fantasy movie fans have really been waiting for.
Taking place two years after the events of the game, Advent Children picks up where the game’s infuriatingly ambiguous ending left off. Don’t think for a second you need to have played the game to enjoy this movie, though. The movie’s short intro does a good job of recapping the events of the game. The DVD also comes with a feature called “Reminiscence of FINAL FANTASY VII Story Digest” which is a fifteen minute summary of the original game's plot, told through the actual game’s story scenes.
Some might refer to the movie as a “true ending” to the game, but I disagree. While it has deep connections to the game, this is a separate and stand-alone story. After the defeat of Sephiroth, a sickness called geo-stigma has begun to infect the world’s population. On top of that, a gang of silver-haired youths have begun violent attacks, claiming to be looking for “mother”. The reluctant Cloud is called again to help save the world.
Roger Ebert referred to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within as a “cyberfilm”, not simply a 3D cartoon or a live action film, but something altogether new. Not surprisingly, I think Advent Children easily falls into this category as well. Director Tetsuya Nomura says they were not necessarily interested in mimicking real life, either in the way the characters look or in their actions. It doesn’t matter if people can’t really jump that high, they just want it to look cool. This gives Advent Children something of an anime flavor with extremely elaborate battle sequences and characters doing some truly amazing stuff.
The DVD comes with both the Japanese and English voice acting provided. While there are no Huge Hollywood super-stars like we saw with The Spirits Within, we see lots of good performances from experienced voice actors such as Steve Staley, who plays lead villain Kadaj, as well as more traditional actors such as Steve Burton (The Last Castle, Taken), Rachael Leigh Cook (She’s All That, Josie and the Pussycats) and Mena Suvari (American Beauty, American Pie).
I did have one major problem with the localization. At the very beginning of the film, several phrases are presented via text on screen. However, these phrases have been left in Japanese. You have to turn on subtitles to see what they say, which is a bit silly.
Reminiscence is an interesting exercise in storytelling, and the making-of featurette is very good, but those are the only decent extras provided with the Special Edition. The deleted scenes are fairly disappointing, and consist mostly of extremely short action shots so brief in length I would be hesitant to call them scenes.
The bottom line is this. If you were a fan of Final Fantasy VII, and there are many, you’ll want to pick up this movie. Even if you’re not a fan of the game, if you’re into action films or anime, you’ll probably still enjoy the ride.
