Visuals: 10/10

Graphically, this movie was stunning. The movements and details of the characters seemed lifelike, except for the fighting sequences of course. This movie is based around the action scenes, which were beautifully choreographed. Though the camera does move a little fast, it emphasizes the characters' supernatural abilities well.

Sound: 7/10

The music is just a regurgitation of the game's soundtrack. Some of the tracks are used from the Final Fantasy VII Piano Collection, such as Aeris and Tifa's themes. The music is superb of course but that fact that they just recycled it keeps the movie from getting a perfect score.

The sound effects were done well. The clashing swords and the exploding bombs roared out of the screen, harmonizing perfectly with the fast-paced action sequences. Of course, this made for very enjoyable fight scenes.

Story and Characters: 3/10

Here is where the movie falls apart. Of course, the movie is designed for people who have played the game before. Though they briefly explain the world of Final Fantasy VII, it's hardly enough to cover the game's complex story. The movie make no mention of what Materia is and the movie doesn't even introduce "Tifa's friends." They all just randomly come flying in to save the day against what seems to be Bahamut.

The movie's story had no coherent plot. Sephiroth's revival at the end was cheesy and seemed to be put in there simply because the story writers couldn't think of a more interesting antagonist. The shots of Aeris were also randomly placed. Though these scenes did reveal Cloud's guilt about letting her die, the director definitely overused the scenes.

The transitions to the fight scenes look like they were written by a drunk fourth grader. There was absolutely no point to Kadaj's engagement with Cloud at the beginning other than for the sake of fighting. He sends his two goons to go rattle Cloud's feathers then calls them back just before he's about to get hurt. Quite the same happens in Tifa's fight with Loz. Loz doesn't even clarify what it is he's looking for. All he does is say "let's play" then on comes the fight scene. These sort of transitions pretty much continue all the way until the hero is victorious and everyone is happily celebrating.

The characterization is absolutely terrible. Kadaj doesn't seem to have any clear cut ambitions; he only wants to "see his Mother and have her tell him what to do." In the first half the movie, Cloud just seems to be bumbling around until he magically develops his will to fight in his meeting with Vincent at Ajit. Tifa remains a static character, apparently serving to help Cloud to change himself to do whatever it is he needs to do. As for the rest of Cloud's party, we know nothing about them except what they look like and how they fight. Red XIII says only one line during the entire movie.

Reno and Rude of the Turks made for nice comic relief though their appearances were random. They too were static characters. Rufus was a little too mysterious in his dialogue and appearance, especially when compared to his personality in the game.

There are some continuity errors, if the movie is supposed to be a sequel to the game. In the movie, Cloud is confused and depressed. In the end of the video game, however, he is exactly the opposite of that. It seems like the movie writers decided to take his character transformation from the game and duplicate it in the movie. Also, I was under the impression that Midgar was pretty much destroyed by Meteor almost hitting it. I guess a few parts of the city survived despite having a moon sized rock come almost crashing into it.

Overall: 6/10

It's not a bad movie for those who have played the game. It's a nice visual aid to see how the battles are fought in real time and what the characters really look like (aside from blocky polygons). However, I don't recommend this movie at all to those who haven't enjoyed the game. You will be absolutely lost since the video game's plot is extremely complex in and of itself.

For those who have enjoyed the video game's excellent story, this movie will visually blow you away. If you want some good old action, this is the movie to watch. If you want anything more than that, look elsewhere.

Just watched it then. It is pretty damn awesome. The fights are fantastic and the magic is really cool! It's totally like a video-game in parts, with some amazing hand-to-hand combat in there.

This film is for the fans: "To those who loved this world once before and spent time with its friends, gather again and devote your time..." Besides this ominous opening, the story was not very hard to follow, and Ihave never played a Final Fantasy game. I think it pays to be familiar with Role Playing Games in general; knowledge of the genre kinda helps you grasp some of it better. I think though that if you pay attention, and accept what the film throws at you, it's quite easy to understand. There is a lot that isn't explicitly explained, and if you demand that it should be then you will probably be confused and irritated.

Watching the film is like being dropped into the middle of some grand saga, and having to put as much of the puzzle together as possible. I like that approach; you get caught up in the mystery and confusion that all the characters are going through. But like I said, just be accepting. If a weird red lion thing that talks, turns up and starts kicking ass and taking names, and the other characters just say he's an old friend, accept it and move on; you don't need a biopic flashback, or a tell-all sit-me-down. You are an observer here, of something beyond your experience and undestanding.

So: fantastic graphics and animation, great voice acting, cool video game styled music, involving story and characters, and maybe some of the coolest fights you'll see in a while. It's worth seeing, and while it IS for the fans, it is perfectly accessible for people like me that have never played the games.

If you didn't play Final Fantasy VII, you're not going to know what's going on in this movie.

And if you did play Final Fantasy VII? You're also probably not going to know what's going on in this movie.

Advent Children is two hours of manic fight sequences, innumerable flashbacks, and a plot that looks deep on the surface but is otherwise quite shallow. A new team of bad guys has emerged to finish what Sephiroth started back in the original game, and most of the movie is spent doing battle in order to stop them from bringing about the end of the world.

Why do they want to bring about the end of the world? Because that's what Sephiroth wanted to do, and these guys want to continue his work for... some reason, I guess? Sephiroth had many motives in Final Fantasy VII, but Advent Children's Kadaj and crew don't get any back story. They literally materialize out of thin air, and that's all you get. We're told they are "remnants," as if we're automatically supposed to know what that means. They use "remnants" like it's some kind of group name, or a term for something that existed in the game. As far as I know, it's not. They're just one-dimensional villains for the sake of our heroes having something to fight.

And fight they do. Fight sequences are frequent and long, with the movie's back-to-back-to-back final battles taking up nearly a solid hour of the overall run time. Unfortunately, fights lack any impact -- thin, wispy characters fly around environments totally weightless, somehow punching each other with enough force to send the recipient sailing across city blocks. Mostly, this damages property more than it causes any real physical harm. Anime-style action like this can be done well, but this is like watching a child play with action figures.

The real culprit that destroys this movie is just how much it relies on flashbacks. I am not exaggerating when I say almost every other scene in Advent Children is a flashback, either showing a scene from the original Final Fantasy VII video game, or something that happened off-screen earlier in the movie. There are so many that one flashback will interrupt another, and at one point, a character's cellphone seems to experience its own flashback. After long enough, it became hard for me to keep it all straight in my head, to the point where I lost track of what was a flashback and what was currently happening. I've never had that happen with a movie before.

It's a mess, basically. Non-linear storytelling at its worst, with flashy-but-vacuous fight scenes, and zero motivation for anyone's actions other than to invoke a navel-gazing sense of nostalgia.

I put more than 100 hours in to the game back in 1997, and Advent Children is a struggle for me to watch. It is exclusively focused on being "cool" and "epic" leaving everything else to fall by the wayside.