Advent Children So, thoughts on Advent Children?

[FF-N-Led-Zeppelin]

Before you read this, I want you all to know these are MY opinions, so dont get made and think Im bashing on the game to piss you off, I just want to see if anybody agrees with me on this. (By the way, its kinda long)

Ok, it's gotten on my nerves, Advent Children. Plenty of things, I guess I'll mention them along with this. So, Advent Children. Everybody loves the movie, and I always wonder why... I played FF7 for the first time a while while back and I absolutely love the game. I borrowed it from my cousin when I first started playing FF, which was after I beat X, and I fell in love instantly with it. Im sure Im not the only one. Anyways, I beat this game over and over and over, I never found a flaw personally, I couldnt ask for a more perfect game. Along comes Advent Children, and everybody loves it, Im thinking, "What the hell". I thought it was pure crap. Sure, graphics were awesome, fighting was cool, but the whole time I thought it really destroyed what I thought FF7 was. There were several flaws I think. To start, it was the Shin-Ra company. These guys were basically the main bad guys in the game, next to Sephiroth. They kidnap Aeris, they try to stop the team from saving the planet throughout the game...And then they team up? And with BARRET? Did anybody else not notice this? Barret, as far as I remember, HATED Shin-Ra, throughout the game. I haven't played in a while, but Im pretty sure that Barret showed no compassion whatsoever to Shin-Ra or Rufus or the Turks during the entire game. So why would he team up now? Did Barret all of a sudden not have a problem with them because of the Meteor incident? Anybody can think of a reason he'd do this, but I could never see him doing this. Along with Tifa too... wow. Well, I can get over that. But then I watch the english version. And the voices, dear god, could they honestly think that the voice acting in Advent Children was good? I thought it was horrible, the japanese isnt that bad, but the english was just awful. I mean, compared to Final Fantasy X, which I thought, the voices matched absolutely PERFECT to the characters. Then we have Kadaaj, ( Think I spelled it right ), and his little group of Sephiroth groupies. Wow I just cant say how much they ruined FF7 for me. Lets move on to Rufus. Ok, so if anybody remembers, Diamond WEAPON blew up Shin-Ra tower correct? Rufus was at the top, and you see the missles from the WEAPON hit him. How in the hell did he survive this? I am 100% positive when the game was being made, he was intended to die. (But I could be wrong). That was ridiculous. Then I also had a problem with Cid. A redneck? This makes me want to blow Squares head off! When I played the game, I figured Cid would be something like those old pilots you see in some movies. I guy with a rough beard, a cigarette, always working on a plane or (rocketship). But hes a redneck... I got over it, but it made me pretty mad. Despite these that I have listed (I do have more but I dont want to get into the small details), AT LEAST the character attitudes were pretty relevant to the games.

Ok, so thats my Advent Children rant. Now Im going to rant a little about Dirge of Cerberus, if you have played this game, I desperately hope you agree with me on this, because I thought that Dirge Of Cerberus, was an absolute disgrace to FFVII.

Dirge of Cerberus, oh boy where to start. Lets start at the beginning. Whats with the technology? I dont remember Final Fantasy 7 being technology loaded like FFVIII was. Yuffie flying on that thing with the little life detector or whatever it was. Gameplay was pretty fun at least, but I honestly didnt get a story from it. I mean, of course there was a story, but nothing near the likes of the original VII or VIII or X or any other FF game really. I dont see how you could really get a story out of a game like that, because you're more focused on upgrading your weapon or figuring out how to do the mission. Anyways, Im not gonna say anymore, since this was supposed to be about Avent Children, so simply put, DOC sucks, AC sucks, I hope square realizes that and doesnt do anything else rash with an already destroyed game.

 

[DL Clyde]

First of all, this is the wrong section but no worries as an admin will probably move it.

Secondly, I apologies that I'm not about to read all your post as it is after 1.00 am here in the UK and I am a bit tired.

Finally, I didn't like Advent Children that much. Mainly because at the end of an FF game I always think "I wonder what happened, what they are all doing now etc." and the good thing about the Final Fantasy series was there was no sequels to absolutely ruin my imagination. FFVII: AC is probably a good example of the worst kind of sequel. The fact that it wasn't planned from the beginning so they just made up a bunch of bull crap with things like Sephiroth pointlessly coming back at the end. It is different when sequels are already planned right from the beginning but this wasn't and it is just adding to the amount of crap that is bringing FFVII down.

I still think FFVII is great but I know people have begin to dislike FFVII a lot, mostly because of all the crap that has spinned off the game. I like it when I'm coming up with my own stuff on what happened, debate with other members and move on to a whole new FF title but it doesn't seem the FF titles will be like that anymore.

Anyway, that is me off to bed and after all that crap I have just said, I'm actually going to put on AC and try and follow it a bit more. Once again, my apologies for not reading your whole post. I'll read it in the morning as I am tired.

 

[FF-N-Led-Zeppelin]

Thats exactly how I feel, it was completely pointless to make a survey, and they really did just put a bunch of crap in there just so they could try to make a story, Square was probably just like, "Well lets make Rufus not die, and Sephiroth comes back! Lets put 3 stupid looking goons in the game for an excuse too!" Eh, its a load of crap, Im sorry for putting it here, it was one of my first threads, and I didnt know there was an AC forum, I should have looked int he beginning but I didnt, my mistake.

 

[Angel Valentine]

As already stated, this is in the wrong section so

*moved*

 

[Doc Holliday]

AC was good as it's own movie, but it ruined the FFVII Storyline.

 

[Onceman]

First of all, Square-Enix made AC ass-backwards. Remember, it started as a 20 minute short which was basically a visual showcase that was intended as a quasi-extension of FFVII. Then, someone got the idea that they should keep building on the ideas until it got to movie length. Another thing to remember: Even when the final product was released, S-E (wisely) refused to call this a proper motion picture, as in a film. They called it a "Visual Work," or some similar evasion. The story is basically just there as a segue between action sequences. The result is a lot of flash, but not a lot of substance.

And as for the original poster's comments about Rufus being blown up in FFVII? Keep in mind who made this: Square-Enix. These are the same people who, in FFIV, had Cid fall from an airship with explosives STRAPPED TO HIS BODY AND BLOW HIMSELF UP to close a passage between the underworld and the surface. Later, we find him convalescing in a bed.

Also, it's made clear that Rufus and the Turks' purpose in AC, post-Meteorfall, is to atone for what they had done. So, Barret and Tifa siding with them (at least tentatively), isn't altogether so far-fetched.

 

[Big Casino]

IMO the first time you watch advent children u think wow this fim was pretty fucking good/
The second time - hmmmm this film is ok
The third - this film is balls

My main problems bein the fact that your rushed into the story and then its all over far too quickly.
And the other main characters only get a 5 second cameo in the fim then its back too cloud.

Its a very below average film taken from a magnificent video game

 

[Aselia]

... I loved Advent children, i didn't like FF7 much at all but i thought AC made the game a lot better for me at least

 

[Cis]

Advent Children ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reasons: Tifa's abilities are improved.


By the way, Square Enix called it Advent Children because children are innocent. Sometimes they're the first to suffer. Like remeber when Kadaj and his gang took the children away from their parents? Yes well Kadaj told lies to the children. They believed they gave in. They wanted to be free of Geostigma. Kadaj has used the children as a weapon! Also in the end the little girl said to Cloud "See? Everything's alright. She was with you all the time" Or so I've herd from Tetsua Nomura in a bonus disc . Anyway AC is a great story SE also says that they might make another ac.




YOU MUST READ WHAT I WROTE!!!

 

[Onceman]

IMO the first time you watch advent children u think wow this fim was pretty fucking good/
The second time - hmmmm this film is ok
The third - this film is balls

And the other main characters only get a 5 second cameo in the fim then its back too cloud.

I agree, the more you watch, the more it's weaknesses are apparent. I also thought the cameos were pointless fanservice. I'm not saying they shouldn't have been there, just integrate them a lot less clumsily.

 

[Onceman]

PLZ Read what I wrote. Read it! *homer's voice*

Ummm...if you're begging for someone to respond to what you said, okay. Yes, Tifa is much cooler in AC than in the game. As far as everything about the children, I've watched all the bonuses, and that much about the story was already apparent. However, the "children" aspect of AC was very peripheral, and not integral to the actual story. Their part was basically being more prone to geostigma infection and being turned by Kadaj. That's kind of it. They made a circle around the Meteor memorial, but why? It didn't have anything to do with Bahamut Sin, as Kadaj summoned him on his own.

This is what I meant about S-E doing AC ass-backwards. The story should always be the focus of any movie (or even "visual work," especially if you're asking an audience to sit in front of it for an hour and a half), not half-thought-out filler between action sequences.

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate Advent Children in the least. I love it for what it is, but being as hardcore a FF fan as I am, I'm not about to put on blinders to its glaring flaws.

 

[Warbsywoo]

I thought Advent Children rocked, though the part I disliked the most after the second playthough was the realization that the whole movie was eye candy through and through. The plot really wasn't there, reminded me more of a kiddy show plot than Final Fantasy, but hey, most of you may beg to differ.

But the overall design of the thing was just spectacular. Graphics like that should be on every game.

 

[Casanova]

FFVII: AC helped me to understand FFVII alot better than what I already did because I refuse to play the game, it is a good movie in it's own right and even if some say it ruined FFVII that still dosen't take away the fact that most people would much rather buy the DVD than the game

 

[Warbsywoo]

I don't know what angle you would approach from by saying the movie ruined the game, because they're 2 different things, just tied together by the common history...
And besides, it's years after the game, nothing in that world affects the game. It's likely because, right, most people buy the movie than the game, then they play the game and get confused by everything so they say that.

But that's just me ranting...because I like the game better than the movie. >.> Two completely different entities, you can't compare them, just analyze them in terms of connection.

 

[Ph4nToM]

I think it wasn't long enough in my opinion and i think they could have gave the others more scenes like a few more fight scenes.

 

[~Crazy Chocobo~]

IMO the first time you watch advent children u think wow this fim was pretty fucking good/
The second time - hmmmm this film is ok
The third - this film is balls

Yeah, I agree with that in a way. When I first watched the film, I thought it was incredibly awesome and wanted to watch it again. After watching it a few more times, I started to think it wasn't as good. I watched it again recently and I think my liking for it decreased again. I like the film still but it is certainly not the best, some of the characters are way different and things are basically mucked up. I'm not the biggest fan of Final Fantasy VII so that doesn't worry me so much but I can't really stand the English voice acting, it's pretty bad in my opinion. I prefer watching it in Japanese, it makes the whole movie seem a lot better.

I like the film but I don't love it, it's too short and there are quite a few things that I don't like about it.

 

[eisprinz]

I liked certain aspects of Advent Children, but as a whole, I found it ridiculous.

My main problem is with the principal conflict, which is the appearance of Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. I found their group to be nothing more than a deus ex machina in reverse; they are an improbable existence whisked into being just to create a conflict. Yeah, yeah, there's some padding put in about the Sephiroth clones and whatnot, but the fact that these characters really have no merit except to create eye candy battle segments proves their weakness.

They are irrationally brought into the world to look hot and make a mess. Oh, and also to incite an anticlimactic and improbably Sephiroth cameo, just so the damn fanboys can have their masturbation fantasy of His Royal Badass. Puh-lease.

And also, there's the matter of all the other characters who were to have died in the original game, but come back.

Rufus... we're actually supposed to expect him to have survived because he ducked?! That can't possibly be the best that they came up with...

And neither do they don't explain Tseng's sudden revival. The game gives strong implication that he didn't just pass out at the Temple of the Ancients, but was definitely killed there... however I suppose since his death wasn't explicitly mentioned, the AC writers felt at liberty to bring him back - not that they have any trouble bringing explicitly dead characters back to life.

They might as well have pulled up a crappy fanfic instead of writing their own script... Except for the other aspects of the movie, which did work well.

While much of the reviving is getting much scorn from me, I actually applaud the one quasi-revival that I thought I would hate the most: that of Aeris. Her presence as a ghostly watching spirit works very well, considering it actually is implied by the original game (seeing her ghost in the church, her smiling face when the Lifestream saves the Planet, etc).

The concept of Geostigma was original and fitting. The ironic fact that the Lifestream saved the Planet, but also caused mass infection reinforces the strong theme of life and death being intertwined which was presented in the original. I also liked the idea of the infected children being taken in by demagogues who claimed a cure (the only part of the movie that the Seph-clones didn't get any eye-rolling from me).

I definitely liked Denzel's character. He proves to be a very useful symbolic incarnation of the suffering that the people of the world, especially Midgar, endure even after Meteor has been dealt with; he carries the Geostigma, and also is featured prominently in the parallel "baptisms" conducted first by Kadaj, and later by Cloud.

In the minutia of the movie, the symbolism was generally done pretty well. The scene where Cloud is propelled by his friends gives a very strong symbolic imagery, that is pretty blatant in meaning, but not heavy-handed because it can also be explained in terms of concrete action.

The grey wolf symbolism did seem a bit heavy-handed to me. It was somewhat ambiguous, but also in your face, which gave it a kind of tone of being a pretentious symbol. Whatever.

I think that Advent Children is exactly what people try to accuse Final Fantasy VIII of being: it's all meaningless drivel, but hey, eye-candy!

Advent Children is an homage - giving most every beloved character from the original game a short time to shine. Does it really add much dimension to the world of FFVII? Maybe. I'd honestly have liked a low-key movie revolving around the suffering caused by Geostigma ten times more than the movie-length music video that AC turned out to be.