Watch Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children For Free

Wow! Such a good movie.

So much average

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

To the jaded film goer with no interest in playing a masterpiece story of the video game world, this film is probably worthless, confusing, and a waste of time. But for the wide eyed, imaginative, and profoundly curious, this movie is an adventure ripe with mystery and emotion.It begins with a fantastic and intriguing world enduring the aftermath of some world altering cosmic event only vaguely addressed in an opening monologue, delivered to uniquely beautiful music and iconic imagery that makes it clear what exactly such a horrible trend of opening monologues in cheap anime and terrible B-movies were going for, and it's pretty awesome to see it done right. And that's a great picture of the film-making throughout: It's beautiful, enticing, and ethereal. On sight and sound alone, this film is utterly astounding; but on a story front, it can be either or.For someone who has no idea about the events of the game, the opening is played masterfully as a mystery; and for those who know the game's events it serves as a charming callback. For some outside the know, this is an infuriating tease, especially in an age where information is a prized as it is. We live in an age where people feel entitled to know the answers to mysteries that, while often held up in nostalgic memory, are ultimately cast down as lazy writing and incoherent story-telling if not answered within the context of their own story. But for the rest of us, this serves as a hook - teasing us to find out what happened, letting us know there's more to be known. The coherent framing makes for apparent yet unclear meaning to everything we're shown.For me, seeing this movie was the beginning of a journey that would end where it began. It's like the first episode of a long running series that ends up being the last episode in the chronology. It's vague allusions become deeper meanings and satisfying conclusions to character arcs as you emerge from the other side to watch again; wholly engrossed as you were the first time, if not all the more so.After playing the game, this movie goes from a solid 7 to a sterling 10. Watching this movie with the game as context makes for an emotionally touching close to a fantastically inspiring story. Without that context, action sets are just spectacle, rather than the giant allegorical externalized inner demon wrestling they become with the full context. With it, mysteriously gripping scenes become a continuation of something sorely lacking at the end of the game... closure with the characters - a happily ever after.It's not the most accessible movie, but it is very much so as a gateway to a larger world. You can't watch this movie and just be done with it. You can easily enjoy this movie without the game if you have the imagination, but the intent of the movie is to get you to play the game and then come back and enjoy the feature as the masterpiece it is. It's difficult to feel satisfied after watching it when there's so much more behind it and through it that you aren't seeing.Recommended for people who are interested in playing the game. It will be a film that makes you feel tons of wonderful and difficult things. It's a great movie and a great marketing tool for the game, at least from a narrative setting standpoint. It's pretty impressive, if you aren't a cynical critic who judges everything they see on a first viewing basis.

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? Well, there's a less-than-zero chance 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 thin. 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? Just because, apparently. Sephiroth's motives were many in Final Fantasy VII, but Advent Children's Kadaj and crew don't really have any motivations or even any actual back story. They literally materialize out of thin air and that's all you get. We're told they are "remnants," as if that actually means anything in the context of this movie or the game (it doesn't). They're villains for the sake of having something for our heroes 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 -- characters fly around environments totally weightless, 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. It's like watching a child play with action figures.But the real culprit that destroys this movie is how much it relies on the non-linear delivery of information. I am not exaggerating when I say almost every other scene in Advent Children is a flashback, either cutting to a scene from the Final Fantasy VII video game or to a scene that happened earlier in the story that we only see through a character's memory of it happening. There are so many that one flashback will interrupt another, and at one point, a character's cellphone seems to experience its own flashback. Not only is it hard to keep all of this straight in your head, at one point I wasn't actually sure if what I was seeing was actually happening in the present or if I was seeing another flashback (I eventually deduced it was the latter).It's a mess, basically. Non-linear storytelling at its worst, with flashy-but-vacuous fight scenes, and zero motivation for anything other than to invoke a navel-gazing sense of nostalgia. I put more than a hundred hours in to the game back in 1997, and Advent Children is a struggle for me to watch. It is 100% focused on being "cool" and "epic" leaving everything else to fall by the wayside.

Before I begin my review I should probably point out that this film is the reason why I got into Final Fantasy in the first place. My review here focuses on the Extended "Complete" Blu-ray release of the film; not the original version. To be perfectly honest, I didn't like the original version, but the Complete version solves many problems that the original had.Pros:Visuals - This is one of the most visually stunning examples of animation I've ever seen. Not only does it create that video game "feel", but the animators managed to make the characters seem realistic while avoiding the uncanny valley.Audio - This film has some excellent audio and sound quality to accompany each on-screen situation. Both the English and Japanese versions have good voice acting and dialogue (Cloud and Tifa for example).Story - Now, I've heard a lot of fans and critics criticize this film's story line for being a repeat of Final Fantasy VII's story. However, this is not entirely true. The story - being about three remnants of Sephiroth who plan to bring him back by finding the remaining Jenova cells might seem uncreative, but it's actually a good thing because it's simple enough for non-FFVII-gamers to understand, while also allowing FFVII gamers to experience a story similar to the game in a new way.Characters - I think the characters in this film are well scripted. Cloud and Reno's attitudes have changed from the game, but I think that's beneficial. Plus, two years had passed, so God only knows how people can change over that time frame. I think Cloud's character development and the support he receives from his friends is one of the highlights.Action - I know some people have criticized the film for being too action heavy, and I agree, but I think that criticism applies almost entirely to the original version. The Complete version however, has enough new plot footage to make the film seem less like one giant fight scene and more like a story. It's still action-heavy, but this is a movie tie-in to a video game anyway. The Complete version has the perfect balance between action scenes and story detail.Cons:Lack of Character Backstory - While the Complete version does explain the main premise and the relationships between characters, it could have done a better job of explaining exactly who the characters are, and the significance of their roles. Thus, non-FFVII gamers should probably do some research on the main characters before watching the film.Rare Goofy Moments - There was a scene where 9-year-old Denzel runs angrily towards an enormous monster. I know that movies have a habit of making child characters do stupid things, but this one scene was so ridiculous that I cannot excuse it. Seriously, what was he thinking?Also, while most of the comic relief provided by Reno & Rude was pretty good, some of it just wasn't funny due to the otherwise serious and realistic tone to the film. For example, the scene where the sign falls on top of Rude would have been funny if he just fell over instead of stumbling around like in a cartoon.While the cons did make this film seem a bit cheesy or irritating at times, they were a minority. Overall, I think most of the film was handled fairly well, and it's a good example of a video game movie. If you have a Blu-ray player, and can understand the characters and storyline, I would highly recommend this to those who love animated films and intense action.

Let me start by saying that, yes, it seems like Square tries to milk the money out of all the FF7 fans by making a movie based on the very successful game. The story is set 2 years after the events of the game and some disease have struck many persons. Cloud (English voice by Steve Burton, excellent) and Tifa (English voice by Rachel Leigh Cook, also excellent)now runs a sort of delivery company, but as expected, they will have to get back into battle after some bad guys attack (English voices by Dave Wittenberg, Fred Tatasciore and Steve Staley, excellent). Sure, the lip-sync isn't the best but the voice acting in general is great and the animation is fantastic! The story doesn't always make sense at some points, but this movie is still amazing! I recommend this movie to anyone who loves either Final Fantasy, animated action movies or just wants a great movie in general. I give it my personal 10 out of 10!