Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete

Others have remarked on how this movie would be confusing to someone who's not familiar with the Final Fantasy VII video game. As one who first watched this movie in that state, I'll offer my comments on both `before' and `after' impressions. I've been a long time fan of both science fiction/fantasy and animated movies. Four or five years ago I watched "Final Flight of the Osiris" a CGI video short on a dvd called Animatrix. I was so impressed by it that I looked for other work by the same artists and found "Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within", and the original dvd version of "Final Fantasy: Advent Children". "Spirits Within" had phenomenal and imaginative imagery and some gripping scenes but overall it didn't have a `spark'. "Advent Children" though was another matter. I fell in love with it. The characters are terrific; the graphics are awesome; the settings fresh and some quite beautiful; the action is out-there. The dystopic science fiction setting and elements of magical fantasy were very satisfying as a fan of those genres. And it has some nice wit and humor. But yeah, the story was confusing. Being as innocent as I was though of the story that led up to the movie, I was in a state of not knowing how much I didn't know, so I didn't miss it. I enjoyed the movie so much I watched it a couple more times over the next few years. It wasn't until surfing the internet this summer, coming across the movie's protagonist, Cloud Strife, by chance and reading about him that I became aware of the huge story world behind "Advent Children". I soon learned that Cloud is a renowned character among gamers, as is his enemy Sephiroth; that Final Fantasy VII is regarded as groundbreaking and one of the best video games ever; and that there's a massive amount of verbiage on the internet about both the characters and the game. The more I read, the more I was drawn in. I read complete synopses of the game and bios of its characters and - branching out to its prequel Crisis Core - watched all 3 hours of cutscenes from that video game in 10 minute Youtube segments. Then I watched "Advent Children" again, knowing that the first few times around, I'd been watching it through a dim fog. This time it all seemed to be in focus. I knew what the glowing round spheres were. I knew who the secondary characters were and how they connected. I knew why the city of Midgar was in ruins. My enjoyment of the movie was substantially enhanced, so much so that I was left wanting more. The only solution was to play the game itself. This took me a bit of self-convincing, since I'm old enough to be Cloud's grandmother and hadn't finished a video game since Zork Nemesis, but I took the plunge. I just finished it a few nights ago. And I agree that the game is everything it's cracked up to be. But I know this is a review about the movie, not the game. I'm leading up to how much more still having played the game adds to the pleasure of the movie. I watched the movie again last night, and this time I watched the blu ray extended version. Of course I expected it to be better this time around what with the added minutes, the increased clarity of the blu ray format, and the much deeper understanding I'd gained from the game itself, but the movie STILL exceeded my expectations. The additional footage is a great improvement, from tiny little insertions to some complete new scenes, they're all worthwhile. Some serve to fill in story and character development, others add even more wow to the over-the-top action sequences. The blu ray clarity makes these quite a bit easier to follow. And now having played the game, I understood even more than I'd expected about what takes place in the movie that I'd not recognized before - Sephiroth's tragic background and what took place between him and Cloud; why Cloud camps out in the church; Aerith's huge significance. And Zack! I was delighted to see more of Zack, who's an awesome character in his own right. He deserves his own movie. I was surprised by the impact of the music this time. It derives from the game, and strongly evokes the game's themes, from battles to uneasy exploration, to Aerith's warmth and Sephiroth's sinister terrificness. This time around, the characters, their friendships and animosities and traumas were much deeper for me. The interconnected FFVII stories are more like a tv series than a single movie or book in the amount of time one spends on, or `in', them, and as with a really good tv series, I found I'd come to really care about the characters. A lot of excellent creativity and effort was put in to Advent Children. Considering its limited prime audience, it's a grand gift from Square Enix to FFVII's fans. I'm glad it's been successful for them, and very happy they put the effort in to making this new "Complete" edition. Sure it helped to sell blu-ray playing PS3s and generate interest in the FFVII PS3 download, which is what I played. But they did a great job. They have my appreciation. I think Tetsuya Nomura's sense of character and story is genius. In summary, I recommend this movie to anyone who's curious about it, especially if you have a fondness for epic sci-fi fantasy action adventure romance. It hits on all cylinders (ok, the romance part is mostly in the games). But "FFVII:Advent Children" also has thought provoking currents underlying its save-the-world plot, the personal challenges faced by its characters and its sensational, adrenaline stirring action and battle scenes - the tradeoffs of degrading our environment in return for energy; the use of a soulless corporation as an excuse for committing atrocious acts; the importance of friends. The depiction of Mako energy and the lifestream as having a healing/destructive duality also intrigues me, especially as there's a similar 'planet force' depicted in some of Hiyao Miyazake's animated movies, which I also adore. In this extended version of "Advent Children", Reno asks how a person could ever manage to atone for the horror brought about by the Shinra Corporation (which occurred during the game), and there's mention of the destroyed Mako reactor still emitting too much lifestream energy to be safe. I can't help but wonder if this is a conscious or unconscious reference to nuclear energy, also both beneficial and hugely destructive, and if it comes up in these Japanese stories because Japan's the only country in the world to have been exposed to a nuclear attack. Then there's the whole question of Jenova and what she represents. That FFVII has this depth and breadth (which you can take or leave as desired) helps make it an A+ story for me. If you're already a FFVII fan who by some chance hasn't learned of this movie already, I doubt you need much further encouragement to watch it. If you aren't familiar with the game, I do recommend reading a summary of it and the characters beforehand. With video games now rivaling movies for entertainment dollars, it's worth learning about the game if only for its `historic' value. But the game stories are well worth it on their own terms, and do enhance the movie. I also recommend watching the movie in Japanese with English subtitles. Sometimes in dubbing, the translation has to be altered in order to fit the spoken words into the character's visible speaking time, and clarity or nuance can be lost. And the Japanese voice acting here is superb. I find that despite my knowledge of Japanese extending no further than 'hai' and 'arrigoto', the tone and inflection of the voice actors' portrayals, especially Cloud's, adds greatly to the characters' presentation. And, compared with my memory of the dvd version, the English sub translations have been improved in the 'Complete' edition. Yes, this movie is escapist entertainment, but it's also deeply satisfying. My only consolation in being done now with the game and having again watched the movie is that there are several more Final Fantasy games yet to play.

If you liked any of the Final Fantasy VII games, or even if you never seen or played it much, you will still enjoy this movie. I can say this from experience. I just briefly heard and saw some of the characters from a game called Kingdom Hearts and they peeked my intrest to say the least. I was recommended this movie to watch, and so I watched it online. I was deffinitly taken back. I had close to no knowledge of the game and I still thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I watched straight through and loved everything about it. Afterwards, I just had to play the original game because I loved it so much. When I did and, I understood much, much more about the movie and even caught myself going "oooh" half the time. After I beat the game, I rewatched the movie and enjoyed it twice as much if even possible. That is because this movie reintroduces these amazing characters from the 1990's style graphics (1997 to be exact) to Square Enix's legendary CGI animation. Also, because the game has no vocals you also get to hear the characters voices for the first time. Thankfully, they fit perfectly. The voice acting was outstanding, every character has a unique voice that fit their personality perfectly. I tend to be a bit picky with the voice acting I hear, but I can say now for sure that I was 100% satisfied this time. So, if you played the game first you will deffinitly be amazed by this movie (and extremely thrilled and satisifed if your a big fan like me). All aspects of it were flawless. The movie starts out with what might be considered a little bit slow for some people, with the occasional fight or dispute, but more talking than anything. That is so you can begin to grasp the story of what happened in the game, and start seeing the new story that takes place in the movie, and how the two are still connected. This also introduces you to the main characters. You very quickly see their problems starting to show and how they each handle them differently. One may fight their problems head on, and another may "run away". As you might be picking up, the characters and story are very realistic and relatable, dispite being considered a fantasy. You will find yourself feeling for the characters, even if it's a character you were almost sure you didn't like, you may be shown a new side of things and how things look through their perspective. Before you know it, the movie picks up...a lot. Soon enough their are fights left and right, each one has it's purpose to the story thankfully and weren't just there for our entertainment, though that's a bonus. The fights are very fast pased, meaning that if you blink for too long or look away for a second you may miss about 10 attacks a character just did. They do give you some short breaks in between fights to let us take it in and catch up with what's going on. You will then be thrust into a new fight scene, and the amazing graphics really prove their worth in these. No matter how fast a character moves, they won't blur or distort. Even the backround during any scene is perfect, from every little detail. To a flower in the back, to a crack on a wall, it will all be visibly clear. The graphics redefine real, then again, its not too real where you might think "I might as well just watch it live-action." A lot of animated films also tend to have decent graphics, but in a way distorted that gives you that "cartoony" feeling. I did not experience that at all here. From the glassiness of their eyes, to the viens in their hands, to the texture of the leather and cloth, the glare of the sun, and from each strand of hair, it's all their. One thing I loved about the Blue Ray version is that the graphics are even more enhanced. I even compared the two versions, and actually saw the amazing difference. If you were thinking of getting the original version instad, don't. If you have a Blue Ray player, get this instead, I promise it's worth it. The video and audio are improved to a great degree. They also added over 1000 edits to the film, as well as 26 minutes of extra scenes and movie time. This means that any questions the original movie you left you with (which it does), this one answers. For example, in the original all you know is that theres a disease that seems to be killing people somehow. In the new version, it is revealed how it kills people, what it does to their mind and body, and how they are treated by the rest of society. There are also a few new characters in this movie that were not in the game at all, this means they have new character stories to tell on top of reminicing about the old ones. In the original version, you understand them to a degree but not enough to fully comprehend or sympathize with them. In the new version, that all changes. You will learn about their pasts and see how they got into the story that their telling us now, and why they are there. Even the main character, Cloud, you will get great glimpses of his past. If you played Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, you will recognize those clips and they might even give you goosebumps remembering them. If not, you will get a great insight to Cloud's past, and what really happened to him to make him the way he is today. Rememeber, this movie takes place 2 years after the original Final Fantasy VII ended. It begins showing us a quick glipmse of the actual ending, which takes place 500 years into the future. They will then let you know that your now going 498 years into the past, to see what happens 2 years after the game ended. If you really think about, the way it ended didn't satisfy me completely. It left questions about what the characters could be doing. This movie shows us what all the characters are now doing. In addition to all of this, this movie also has great special features. Their are several special features that recap on the games. One recapes on the original game, giving about an hour worth of great scenes, and also showing you how much their graphics dramatically changed. Even so, it shows you how that old game still contained so much life, and how it was actually amazing and considered to still be on the top ranking of video games. They also show recaps of the three other Final Fantasy VII games (Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, and FiThenal Fantasy VII: Before Crisis). They show you this in two ways, one lets you see the games in order they came out. Another lets you see what order they were in relating to the story, not just by the games, but by their specific scenes. In addition to all of this, theres a special feature that lets you see first hand what one of the new character's past was like, they do this in an anime form. It was very well done and was about an hour long. Last but not least, they give a very nice trailer of their newest game, Final Fantasy XIII. As for languages, you can easily change it to the original japanese version. If not, you could keep it at it's english version, or a french version which they also offer. The subtitles also come in many languages of course. All in all, this movie was amazing. No pictures you find online or anywhere can compare to seeing it on the big screen. Even if your not a Final Fantasy VII fan, or only know a little about it, I still believe you will find many things to love about this movie. As long as you pay attention, it is not that hard to catch on to the story and what exactly is going on. Even if you didn't play the original game? Yes. You could always watch the recap from the special features first, which is a good idea. On my first time though, I didn't. I knew nothing, yet I was extacic afterward. Now, if you are a Final Fantasy VII fan, you will undoubtly love it. They show all the characters you knew and loved in the game, and I mean all. The supporting characters do come back for epic fight scenes, and you can watch them all in action together while the story continues to unfold around them. You will also get to see things from the game that you always dreamed of seeing in CGI. For example, Cloud's sword, Sephiroth's wing, Cloud's motercyle (which they redid, making it much more futuristic and it carries his swords too), Barret's gun, Vincent's cloak, Yuffie's weapon, Red XIII's tail, even all these little details will be there to see, including almost anything else you may want to see. They also capture the characters personalities very well, even just their facial expressions are what I could see them wearing in the game at parts. Also, if there are certain characters you miss or wish you could see but doubt they'll be there, you may be in for surprises. As for quality, I was 100% happy with this product. It never, ever lagged on me and I watched it several times. I became very used to things running slow with me, but I was surprised this didn't. In fact, it was on the fast side. The disc and box was in perfect condition as well. It was completely worth the money. This is coming from someone who rarely buys things online because of the fear of wasting money on a bad product. You will not be sorry, this movie is great for anyone. There are some cursing and blood however, if you don't mind that then your all set. I give this product 5 stars, and that is the first time I have ever done that.

Un de mes filmes préférer l’es final fantastique c’est la vie et ce filme c’est vraiment un diamant

Llego a tiempo y completamente nuevo y sellado! Recomiendo ampliamente al vendedor!

Muy buen producto, por averse tardado un no le doy 5 estrellas, por lo demas lo recomiendo a cualquiera que tenga la intencion de comprarlo...

This is my favourite movie in the whole wide world, I'm so glad I was able to find a copy of it

他のレビューに書かれてあるような白黒だとか色の薄さとかは無いですね。 おそらく、再生機器の問題か、HDRの設定がうまくいっていないだけかと。 とにかく高精細、かつ、鮮やかです。 服の生地、手の血管など、驚きの映像です。 十数年経って、ようやく本物のACを見れました。 こちらは国内版よりはるかに安いのでオススメですが、日本語の文字が出る場面では、英語の字幕が付きます。 いろいろ設定をいじっていますが、今のところ消せていないです。