Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children [Blu-ray] [2009] [Region Free]

In arguably the most anticipated game-to-movie sequels of all time and being a huge fan of FFVII I didn't waste time in buying this film. To begin with I doubted the film for even being able to compare to the immensely deep storyline that runs through the game.For those who aren't familiar with the game, here is a brief background. The game starts with an unlikely cocky hero called Cloud joining a group called Avalanche in taking down a corrupt organization called Shinra Inc. who are draining the planet of "life energy". The game takes a hell of a lot of plot twists including brief flashbacks from Cloud, the troubled main character who interestingly finds himself aligned with the main villian, Mr Sephiroth himself. An insanely powerful villain that is one of the toughest villains in any game I've played other than the Final Fantasy games. The game continues down a winding path, introducing more and more characters as the plot thickens further.After finding out Cloud is merely a 'puppet', a failed clone of Sephiroth, the story really picks up into an action-packed game. Without giving too much away, to fully understand the story of the film I strongly recommend you buy the game and unravel the mysteries that may be plaguing your mind after watching this film. If not, the bonus material on the DVD 'revisiting VII' is an excellent source to do your homework and if you have no ideas about the story, watch this first...I cant stress this enough.What sets this game apart from the other final fantasy games? The passion you develop for the characters and the interesting twist of humour, love and action all thrown together in a very satisfying game spills over to the film.Watching this film, I was regularly questioning myself as to whether this really was CGI throughout the film or whether 'real-time' screenshots of Japanese towns had been thrown in for good measure. To full appreciate the time and effort spent on this film it really is a masterpiece.The film is a huge success in my opinion and has lived up to the expectations if not exceeded mine.I would strongly recommend everyone to watch this film as it really is well worth the money. Obviously every film has its downfalls and the only things I can question here is the character of Barrett. He was a huge part of the game and supplies only a few lines. His body work is also questionable as in the game he seems to me to be extremely muscley with a big physiche. However, in the film he looks far too skinny to be Barrett! The only other flaw I can find here is that too few of the main characters from the game say more than 2 or 3 lines through the film but hey, can't please everyone right?BUY this film now it is well worth the money!

The movie starts with a white text: "To those who loved this world and knew friendly company therein: this Reunion is for you" and that's true. If you love Final Fantasy 7 then this movie is for you. You can watch it for the amazing visuals and intense action scenes if you haven't played FFVII but to truly understand the movie, you have to be a fan of the game. Some moments in the movie are better than others and the story itself is more of a spin-off to the original game but it is also an important end to Cloud's story where Zack and Aerith play a big role in. All the playable main characters from FFVII appear in the movie but aside from Cloud, Tifa (and Vincent) they don't have much to do for the story, but it's lovely to see them fighting together once more. The few lines Cid gets to say will make you smile but I wish he had more screen time. The new main character Denzel is sympathetic and brings an emotional kick to the story. Still I would have liked to see more of the main characters of the original game.The movie looks just fantastic. I watched the movie from a big screen and there are some aliasing problems (outlines have almost unnoticeable jagged distortions) which didn't bother me at all. Again some scenes don't look as sharp as some others but it's still so good-looking movie that you don't really care about the little imperfections.The movie includes Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and (even though it doesn't say that in the cover) English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and they sound awesome, the English-dub is actually pretty good. Subtitles are English Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, English, Finnish (with a few wrong translations), Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Swedish and Turkish.Extras: An animated short "On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel" which is drawn anime. It tells the story of Denzel and I think it's pretty good. It's in Japanese like all other extras and only subtitles seem to be English and Italian.Then theres two "Story Digests", first showing important story clips from the original FFVII with amazing music (wich appear to be from the "Distant Worlds"-albums) and short live action scenes with cloud speaking to his phone, reminding the credits of the main movie. It's pretty cool and surely nostalgic to those who have played FFVII. Then there's another story digest about the other games in the FFVII universe including Before Crisis, Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus which is still pretty fun but it's not as good as the first story digest."Legacy of FINAL FANTASY VII" is a featurette that tells the really really basic history of the Final Fantasy VII franchise. It's not completely bad but you probably already know everything it has to say, it doesn't really tell much.Then there is trailers for the Advent Children but only for the new "Complete" version of the movie.THERE IS NO MAKING OF DOCUMENTS OR THE "LAST ORDER" ANIMATED SHORT!!!

Warning: Despite the title, this is the 'complete' version of the movie, which is with additional special effects, modified music and additional scenes.In contrast to Final Fantasy The Spirits Within, Advent Children is the sequel that follows Final Fantasy VII the video game and the other media. This means that you will need to either play or read about the story of the original Final Fantasy VII video game in order to understand fully of the plot of this film.The story of the film is the final conclusion of our hero Cloud Strife overcoming his guilt for letting two of his closest friends died. Therefore if you are a fan of Final Fantasy VII the video game, you should really watch this. Plot wise there are some disappointment in the relationship between Cloud and his childhood friend Tifa, but the audience would rejoice upon seeing almost all of the characters from the game (including one of the most evil villain ever existed in video games!)Action scenes in this film is similar to most of the other Japanese media - overly exaggerated and unrealistic fights. Whether that is a good thing or bad, that is up to you. However, the music is very well-known and indeed is scored by non other than the legendary Nobuo Uematsu, composer for majority of the Final Fantasy game. No doubt any music lover would appreciate greatly. Audience can also identify high quality visual effects in this movie, making this fantasy even more enjoyable.Overall it is highly recommend you watch this movie if you are a fan of Japanese media (video game, anime, novels...etc) and if you are just curious, do give it a try. But as mentioned above, you will need some preparation before watching this or else you will find it hard to accept the overall movie comparing to watching western movies.