Sunday, February 9, 2014

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children [PG]


Two years ago the former soldier Sephiroth attempted to absorb the energy deep within the planet: the Lifestream, and rule over mankind as the extraterrestrial Jenova once tried. He was defeated by a group of soldiers led by the mercenary Cloud Strife however, Sephiroth’s final spell still managed to leave the planet devastated. Now a mysterious disease called ‘Geostigma’ plagues the survivors and there are is group of Remnants out to find and reunite with the remains of Jenova and bring back Sephiroth. It falls to Cloud, who is also afflicted with ‘Geostigma’ and hiding from the world to come forward and fight again. 

I wouldn’t call myself a true fan of anime; I admit that I do enjoy indulging in the works of Hayao Miyazaki and anything from Studio Ghibli, but that’s really as far as my anime appreciation travels. This movie belongs to my brother so he could probably provide a much more thorough and indeed educational opinion of it than I can, but I’m going to give it a shot anyway and I apologise in advance if this review doesn’t give it justice where justice is due. 

Two years ago the former soldier Sephiroth attempted to absorb the energy deep within the planet: the Lifestream, and rule over mankind as the extraterrestrial Jenova once tried. He was defeated by a group of soldiers led by the mercenary Cloud Strife however, Sephiroth’s final spell still managed to leave the planet devastated. Now a mysterious disease called ‘Geostigma’ plagues the survivors and there are is group of Remnants out to find and reunite with the remains of Jenova and bring back Sephiroth. It falls to Cloud, who is also afflicted with ‘Geostigma’ and hiding from the world to come forward and fight again. 

The storyline is a continuation of the plot of the Playstation game and it’s fair to say that the movie is understood and appreciated better if you’ve played the game before. I’m not a gamer myself so this explains my struggling with the film’s plotline and not understanding many of the references, flashbacks, and in general a rather large chunk of the story. I could only piece together a very rough plotline from the jagged bits of information that I could decipher however, it really wouldn’t be fair of me to blame this on writing when a large number of the audience probably would understand everything. So I won’t. 
Instead, I’ll have a bit of a rave about the things that made this movie very enjoyable for me: because I actually did enjoy this movie. The CGI right off is something to marvel at. I’ll admit that it took a while to get used to because it really is like watching the plot points of a game, but when you consider the world created here and particularly the fight sequences, it’s all very mind-blowing and captivating. 
What usually appeals to me most about anime is that practically all of its characters are unearthly beautiful beings with sexy voices and AMAZING hair: so amazing in fact that they can wear it out during fights and battles and it never seems to annoy them! They never have to brush their hair of their eyes and I am so envious of that! For the girls and ladies out there, there are many sexy men to perve on here: both good and evil, which makes it all the more delightful. 
I do also want to draw attention to the action sequences because they are pretty damned kick-arse! If you can image the harder rock soundtrack accompanying the fights in Sucker Punch and then mix that with the highway chase from Matrix Reloaded and the alien battle in The Avengers, then you’ve got the fight sequence from this movie. 
Featuring the voice talents of Steve Burton, Rachael Leigh Cook, Steve Staley, Wally Wingert, Quinto Flynn, Crispin Freeman, Dave Wittenberg, Fred Tatasciore, Steve Blum, Beau Billingslea, Chris Edgerley, Grace Rolek, and Benjamin Bryan, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a highly enjoyable movie filled with action, science fiction, power, drama, and memorable characters. It’s always a pleasant surprise when you enjoy a movie that you didn’t think you’d really like and this is what this film was for me. 

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