By Christopher Troy

Final Fantasy Seven: Advent Children
Square Enix/ Sony Pictures
Rated PG-13
101 Minutes
Directed by Tetsuya Nomura

Featuring the voices of Steve Burton, Rachael Leigh Cook, Mena Sulvari and Steve Blum

After what felt like forever (or 7 months, ironically), the long awaited follow up film to the legendary Playstation One game Final Fantasy Seven has reached American shores. Has it been worth the wait is the question at hand, seeing how the film industry is notorious for turning video games in to lackluster movies, especially when the last time Square and Sony Pictures teamed up, the fans were treated to a sub-par movie that that nearly put Squaresoft under, and eventually forced the company to be bought out by rival Enix and turned into the company it is today.

Luckily, fans of the game patience have been rewarded, because if you enjoyed FF7, chances are you’ll enjoy this film. Awesome visuals and a beautiful soundtrack consisting of old classics and new tunes keep up the tradition seen and heard in the games, as the once blocky video game characters seemingly come to life. Every essential character from the game returns, as the our protagonist Cloud Strife deals with a mysterious illness, new yet familiar looking foes, and several unresolved issues from his past. From the minute the movie begins with a revised version of the game’s ending and a recap sequence revamping Nomura’s character designs, fans are introduced to a FFVII generated with some of the CGI work done to date.

"Keep in mind that this is a 2 hour movie, and not the 50+ hour RPG you fell in love with."

But what about those viewers unfamiliar to FFVII’s world, or didn’t turn out 50 page thesis papers on the game plot? Will they be able to enjoy this film as much as say, your stereotypical Vincent Valentine cosplayer (Note: If you don’t know who Vincent is, the answer is no, you won’t)? That’s simply a matter of opinion. Yes, the visuals and music score will without a doubt impress you, but without being caught up to date on some of the plot elements and characters, you’ll loose track of the plot quickly, and eventually you’re interest.

Let’s discuss the plot for a second shall we? Anyone expecting this narrative to be a digital version of “Crash” will surely be disappointed. Keep in mind that this is a 2 hour movie, and not the 50+ hour RPG you fell in love with, so don’t expect the plot to be as deep, and still somewhat newbie friendly (This is based on a 9 year old video games after all.) To be honest, the plot barely surpasses that of an average Dragon Ball Z story arc in terms of dept, and relies heavily on fan service to get the job done. Like I said above, if the words “Limit Breaks” “Summons” and “Materia” aren’t a part of your vocabulary, chances are this isn’t the film for you. Of course, this is the type of movie made for the fans, so if you can name every variation of Cloud’s sword in a blink of an eye, the paper-thin plot with some light religious overtones won’t bother you as much.

And if you are one of those fans, chances are you’ve somehow seen the film before it came to America, one way or another. Is the American version worth your cash? In my opinion it totally is. Aside from a decent English dub of the film (some of the voice actors excel in their roles, others, like the voice of a certain dead flower girl, fail), you’ll get the Japanese audio, as well as a recap of the original FF7 which combines screen shots (with more accurate translations!) and cinemas from the first game with live action segments on the first disc alone, making a brief prequel of sorts. The 2nd disc in this collection gives the viewer a making of feature, footage of the movie’s screening at the Venice Film festival, trailers of the upcoming Final Fantasy VII spin off games as well trailers for the movie, and some deleted scenes, which to be honest, aren’t really worth your time. In addition to these 2 discs, some of you may have received a 3rd disc with bonus content featuring the voices of Cloud, Tifa and Aerith discussing their experience as voice actors in this film, so now you too can laugh when Mena points out the obvious fact that she has no experience in voice acting what so ever.

While it may not be the full blown 50 hour RPG epic game some fans were hoping for since 1997, Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children is still a lot of fun for fans of the game, the franchise and some anime junkies in general. It’s just not for everyone unfortunately, especially those who couldn’t tell the difference between a moogle or a chocobo. Or just hate FF7, which judging from hosting various panels at anime conventions related to the Final Fantasy series, may make up a decent percentage of you reading this review. Overall, it lacks the storytelling and charm seen in a Pixar film, but it’s visuals and score alone surpass half the crap studios try to pass as CGI movies now a days.