For almost three years I have been anticipating the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent
Children. After those three years I now finally have my hands on the DVD (and UMD)
of the movie, here is my take on it.
DVD Review
The Story
While the story of FFVII: AC is defiantly not the strongest part of the movie, it
is far from being bad either. For the length of the movie, SE managed to pull off
a rather impressive story line. A lack of information about critical parts of the
movie like the SHM (Silver Haired Men) and Geostigma however, marred the story to
some extent. If the movie had been even just 10 minutes longer though I'm sure that
it would have turned out perfect. Overall though the Story was very good.
9/10
The Animation/Graphics
It should be obvious that the graphics in the movie are outstanding, and possibly
the greatest any one has ever seen to date. The detail that went into the movie
is unfathomable to the point where every strand of hair can been seen on the characters.
Camera angles were extremely well done as well. Since this is an artificial world,
we were able to see camera angles that could never be seen other wise in a normal
movie, so it is all unique.
10/10
The Sound/Music
First off the music in the movie is excellent, each suits the scene and helps
to increase the intensity of the battles. Nobuo and "The Black Mages" did an excellent
job in the movie for all the battle themes. Also the new rendition of One Winged
Angel is flawless!
The sound in the movie is good, however there are parts which I believe have some
minor problems with. For example the sound when two swords colliding makes is not
what I expected to hear. In the movie it sounds to tiny of a sound, and its basically
the same sound for most of the movie, which gets rather repetitive. And also at
some points I noticed the music overpowered the voices and I could not quite hear
the characters speaking, although this might just be my speaker system doing this.
9.5/10<br />
The Voice Acting
The voice acting in the English version were actually quite well done. I won't
go an review each and every character, but I will go through the good and bad.
In my opinion, the worst voice actor is Marlene. She sounded too young, and the
voice acting hardly ever even fit the lips of the character. Tifa did well however
at times it just sounded like she was reading off the script rather than actually
saying what the character means. Aeris had good voice acting, however the voice
just did not suit the character. She was not happy and cheery enough for the Aries
personality.
Oddly enough, the majority of the better voice actors had very minor roles. Barret,
Reeve, Zack, Yuffie, Cid, Nanki and many more had excellent voice actors. I wish
I would have been able to hear more. Kadaj's voice actor did very well to portray
the craziness of the character, well done. Steve Burton did a decent job for Cloud;
not overly good, but it was passable. Sephiroth's was very good, but could have
used more emotion.
Overall the English Voice acting is pretty good, however it is always nice to have
the Japanese on the disc, because it is better.
English: 8/10
Japanese: 10/10
The Extras
There are quite a few extras on the two DVDs. The most interesting of all being
"Distance" (the Making of). This provides some very interesting information about
the movie, and some stuff you might never have known. "The reminiscence of FFVII"
is great to have for people who know very little or nothing at all about the game
as it covers some of the most critical parts of the game, so the viewer will know
at least something about the movie as they are watching it.
However there is a lot missing on the DVD. The two most major being the lack of
Dubs, and "The Last Order". All of the features on the DVD are not dubbed, but only
subbed, which is a disappointment since SE had seven months to get the English version
ready, but only dubbed the movie, none of the extras. Then the even bigger disappointment
is the fact that The last order was not included on the DVD. For those who don't
know, The Last order is a remake of the events leading up to FFVII (the game) done
in an anime style. For those of you who were lucky and managed to get the Japanese
special edition version, then you will have seen this included on there, but unfortunately,
it was not for the English version. This critically hurt the special features.
6.5/10
Overall (Not an average)
The movie was well worth the wait, and only makes me even happier to be an FF
fan. This new addition to my collection will forever be the most prized of them
all. All movies have their flaws even some of the best movies which win tons of
awards. This movie had it's share of flaws, however they were outnumbered by the
number of positive aspects of the movie.
9.5/10
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