The VIIth installment of the Final Fantasy series of RPGs was released in Japan sometime in January 1997. It went on to become a huge hit both at home and internationally. Final Fantasy VII set new standards in RPG gameplay and story-telling and it raised the bar so high that the other RPGs that followed later would only pale in comparison. It was the best of the whole Final Fantasy series and is now widely regarded by many gamers as "The best RPG ever made". Some even go as far as to say it is "the best game ever made", but that claim surely has many other worthy contenders like Half-Life, Quake 3 etc.
Now, after eight long and agonising years, Square Enix has come out with a sequel to this path breaking game. Only this time, you don't get to play as Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockheart or Vincent Valentine, but you get to watch them kick ass! The sequel to FF VII is not a game but a full feature length 3D CG animated movie.
FF VII : Advent Children released theatrically in Japan and is also being released on DVDs and UMDs (Universal Media Disc) for the Sony PSP.


Review

FF VII. The story so far...
Cloud Strife is a mercenary, formerly working as a SOLDIER member for the Shinra Corporation. Like most big corporations, Shinra Corp does more evil than good by harvesting the planet's lifestream to create energy. This affects the planets ecosystem and in a very Gaia thoery-esque way the planet retaliates to protect itself. Cloud leaves Shinra to join a band of mercernaries who fight against the evil and finally save the world from Sephiroth.

Final Fantasy : Advent Children begins with a couple of sentences in Japanese which translate in English as:

"To those who loved this world once before
and spent time with its friends,
Gather again and devote your time..."

Reading that assures you that Square Enix has made this movie for all the people who loved the world of FF. Contended, you settle down and make yourself comfortable, absolutely unprepared for one helluva ride.


Animation

From the opening shot showing Red XIII (Nanaki) bounding down a valley followed by some of his mates, you realise that the animation in this feature is going to be of the highest pedigree. And the credits sequence which follows soon thereafter will give you only a small taste of the hyper kinetic action-animation that will follow later in the film.
Due to the lack of adequate adjectives required, I will not attempt to describe the animation. Words like "Awesome", "God-Like", "Incredible" etc. will not do justice to the animation. Instead I will note that SquareSoft has certainly learnt a lot from it's last FF movie, Spirits Within. They do not try to create ultra human-like characters in this movie. Don't get me wrong. They are very life-like but they don't serve as replacements for human actors like Spirits Within. Instead, the characters in Advent Children are more elfin than human. Both the men and women are incredibly beautiful and this makes you think that you are watching a fantasy with beautifully animated characters instead of some almost-human looking characters (in Spirits Within) that emote like wooden dolls. I give a lot of points to the animation of hair, clothes etc. The attention to detail is unbelievable.
The only flaws that I noticed were some fast cuts and editing in the fight scenes. Since this flaw should count in the Action section and affects the animation only a bit, I will remove 0.3 points to give the animation a score of 9.7/10.
Animation - 9.7/10


Action
A couple of my favorite animated movies have scenes of ultra-fast bike racing. The first is "Akira" with it's depiction of the underground Bike racing in Neo-Tokyo. After that, "Wonderful Days" also has a lot of chase scenes in futuristic bikes. So, when Advent Children starts off with a credits sequence featuring Cloud Strife zooming away in his bike, the Fenrir, chased by a couple of baddies on their own bikes racing at unbeleivable speeds, it only takes a few seconds for this sequence to make you forget about Akira and Wonderful Days.
The actions slows down a bit for the first half hour to build the story. That does not mean there is no action during that time! Tifa Lockheart introduces herself in style, Cloud battles against Kadaj and his cronies where Vincent Valentine makes his appearance.
After the first half hour, it is one hour full of incredible action. From the word go, as Kadaj summons the Bahamut, and Cloud and his team members make thier stylish appearances, it is a rollercoaster ride of hyperkinetic action including but not limited to gunfights and swordfights on the ground, then the same while airborne and then more supersonic bike chase scenes (woot!) and some good ol' martial arts too.
The fast cut editing flaw pops up here too. I realise that this is a fantasy action movie with superhuman abilities and stunts but IMO some action scenes were made with too many fast cuts and constant changes in camera angles which might be disoreinting to some. So, I rate the action at 9.5/10.
Action - 9.5/10


Sound
The sound matches the quality of the animation. The background track is very good, changing according to the story and when the action appears on screen, the accompanying tracks are just perfect keeping up with the tempo of the kinetic action. I particularly liked the "Sephiroth" song that plays during the climax.
The voice acting turns out well. All the voices suit their respective characters.
The sound gets rated at 9.2/10.
Sound - 9.2/10

Story
The story takes off two years after the world changing events in the climax of the FF VII game. Strife and Tifa live together in a bar called the Seventh Heaven, taking care of orphans affected by a strange disease Geostigma.
A man named Kadaj, along with his brothers are on a hunt for their "mother".
What will happen when Kadaj finds his "mother"?
Watching FF VII Advent Children without playing the game might leave you clueless in some parts of the movie, but it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Adequate references are given to past events. However, since the mode of story-telling is different from Hollywood, it took me a second viewing to understand the plotline. I suggest two or more viewings to understand the story as the action will distract you during the first viewing.
I would rate the story temporarily at 8.5/10. After playing FF VII completely, the score will definitely increase. (I'm still struggling with FF VI).
Story - 8.5/10


Characters
This film features some of the best characters ever created. That's it. Nuff said.
Cloud, Tifa, Vincent, Yuffie, Cid, Barrett, Kadaj, Sephiroth...From the good at heart to the sinister badasses, you find them all here.
Characters - 9.5/10

Considering all scores, I rate FF VII Advent Children at 9.7/10.

Advent Children becomes the Final word in Fantasy with a near perfect score of 9.7/10

Reviewer : foogarky.

Suggestions :

This film is made for the big screen. Since that was impossible for me, I watched it on a 29" TV. It is still an awesome experience. Try to avoid watching it on a computer or worse on a PSP. God help the fool who buys this film on a UMD to watch it on his tiny screen PSP.