One of the best openings in a Final Fantasy game ever....that wasn't the amazing FFX intro. Jesus, I can already remember seeing it for the first time at my friends house when I was 12
Liked it much overall, story is simple but good. The last 30 mins were awesome. Hype for the game increased a lot (the focus of the movie after all, so i think it's a success). Going to rewatch it until november.. D:
I'm wondering if I want to watch this with Japanese or English VO. I was thinking Japanese, but watching the Japanese trailer it seems like the lip sync is not great - because these characters are modeled after English actors? So even though the movie was made in Japan (I think?), Japanese is actually the dub in this case?
Hmm I didn't think the quick editing of action scenes was all that prevalent or bad throughout the movie. I'd say the sheer amount of...stuff on screen was more distracting. Like there's just too much that's going on. The big fight in Insomnia especially at the end, where are you supposed to be looking? It's technically impressive, but there's information overload. Btw I thought some of the close quarter fighting was weirdly stiff at times.
Hmm I didn't think the quick editing of action scenes was all that prevalent or bad throughout the movie. I'd say the sheer amount of...stuff on screen was more distracting. Like there's just too much that's going on. The big fight in Insomnia especially at the end, where are you supposed to be looking? It's technically impressive, but there's information overload. Btw I thought some of the close quarter fighting was weirdly stiff at times.
Like I've pointed out before, the "editing" being a problem is only a symptom of the poor direction. When making an animated work, everything is supposed to be deliberately designed, so if people can't tell wtf is going on, that means it was badly made from ground up. The biggest issue is how poor the composition of the film is. Shots are not elegant, the camera does not communicate geography and focus well at all. If the audience doesn't know what they're supposed to be looking at and following in a scene, they end up following nothing.
I was right - Nyx is the best all around lead of the XV series. I wish he was the lead of the game.
Dialogue was pretty horrendous, as reported.
Also hated the inconsistent polish throughout. Sometimes the characters looked half-baked as if they needed more time in the render oven. This goes for the dense detail in the city as well. It never looked as great as it did in the very beginning of the movie.
But all is forgiven, every last cinematic sin, for that final battle. HOLY SHIT did they fucking deliver. It was all worth it just for
full CG KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND.
That was their half-court buzzer beater. Unbelievable.
The review where they listed Aaron Paul, Lena Heady and Sean Bean as pros for the film was surprisingly accurate. lol.
With the exclusion of a few action sequences and stunning shots, the film was mediocre at best. The soundtrack was also underwhelmingl; the little snippets we got before the film's release were basically the only highlights.
With that said I enjoyed the film as a prologue to the game and has induced some much needed hype(for me at least).
Pros:
- Nyx's ass & Johan Akan.
- King Regis
- Luna's face & casual attire
I was right - Nyx is the best all around lead of the XV series. I wish he was the lead of the game.
Dialogue was pretty horrendous, as reported.
Also hated the inconsistent polish throughout. Sometimes the characters looked half-baked as if they needed more time in the render oven. This goes for the dense detail in the city as well. It never looked as great as it did in the very beginning of the movie.
But all is forgiven, every last cinematic sin, for that final battle. HOLY SHIT did they fucking deliver. It was all worth it just for
full CG KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND.
That was their half-court buzzer beater. Unbelievable.
I saw it. I feel a little less excited for FFXV now. I don't really know what to say about the movie. It certainly wasn't worth removing the Insomnia invasion from the game.
I think I might cancel my pre-order of the Deluxe edition and just grab the normal one.
I'm sure I could show this to some of my old school friends and they wouldn't pick up the references unless I specifically tell them... which is kind of a shame, because it would be quite a hook for a certain type of lapsed fan.
I'm sure I could show this to some of my old school friends and they wouldn't pick up the references unless I specifically tell them... which is kind of a shame, because it would be quite a hook for a certain type of lapsed fan.
What difference does it make? If you can't recognize what it looks like, why would it mean anything to you if they actually said it? Isn't it meaningless? It's just a design homage. You either recognize it or you don't. It has nothing to do with the story.
Yeah, this wasn't great, but it's certainly watchable.
First impressions: This is a big step up from Advent Children, that much is absolutely certain. The downside of that is that it makes the amateurish direction and editing really pronounced and somewhat less forgivable.
Cinematography and the imagery in general are great as you'd expect, but when things start moving or characters start talking it gets really uneven. The script is rather poor, with none of the characters in this movie explored in any real depth, which really blunts the impact of the more 'emotional' scenes, and makes it hard to decipher the motives for some of the things they do. One thing I can think of off the top of my head:
Libertus is clearly relying on some kind of substance (painkillers?) to dull the pain throughout the movie, something which other characters comment on a few times. Near the end, we see him abandon the substance after coming to his senses regarding Nyx/Lucis and the Kingsglaive. So, clearly, there's some sort of symbology related to his character arc — yet, it's not communicated particularly well how exactly that substance abuse is related to his arc. So, somehow realizing that fighting for the future is more virtuous than settling old scores/home is where your friends are/??? (whatever the big takeaway here is) is related to substance abuse? Huh? I mean, if I think about it, there are some connections that can be drawn here, but none of them are clearly connected to his arc.
Just one of the things that really stuck out to me.
It's late, and my thoughts are a little jumbled here before bed and in the wake of my first viewing. I'm interested to see what other posters think, and how my own impressions might change on a second viewing and with a clearer head.
LOL, I instantly noticed something strange when the camera showed him from the side. Looked like he had implants that turned upside down like you see sometimes happen. Actually had to double check.
SE even acknowledged it in one of the recent live streams, though I'm not sure what the fan question was they were answering
What difference does it make? If you can't recognize what it looks like, why would it mean anything to you if they actually said it? Isn't it meaningless? It's just a design homage. You either recognize it or you don't. It has nothing to do with the story.
There's a design axiom which is "make sure the quality is really there".
I'm not sure the references to previous FFs are really there. Only eagled eyed hyper-nerds will get it. Otherwise, it's wiki trivia at best. Aren't people familiar with
Emerald Weapon, Ultros and Knights of the Round
supposed to "get it"? Well, they probably won't just from watching the film.
A lot of this movie would have been improved by elaboration in a similar sense. The plot points are cryptically rushed through. Things just happen and the audience isn't caught up. Paradoxically, I think this movie would have come across as smarter if they dumbed it down by definitively stating what the transitions in the plot mean. That's what Hollywood does. When something happens, they tell you what it means and why. Even though it's "dumbing it down", it comes across as smarter because it's telegraphing what it actually means for the development of the story.
I don't understand your point. They're just design easter eggs. They are absolutely meant only for people who are familiar with those monsters to "get it", but otherwise to everyone else, it is just a monster in the FFXV setting. It's not meant to be intrusive. This isn't a FF crossover movie, it's a FFXV movie. I don't see how not recognizing the easter eggs makes it a worse film. It's a bad enough film on it's own. Doesn't need any help being worse.
I saw it. I feel a little less excited for FFXV now. I don't really know what to say about the movie. It certainly wasn't worth removing the Insomnia invasion from the game.
I think I might cancel my pre-order of the Deluxe edition and just grab the normal one.
I don't understand your point. They're just design easter eggs. They are absolutely meant only for people who are familiar with those monsters to "get it", but otherwise to everyone else, it is just a monster in the FFXV setting. It's not meant to be intrusive. This isn't a FF crossover movie, it's a FFXV movie.
They're not exactly background elements. They feature quite heavily in the plot. God forbid more of the audience who is supposed to get them, gets them.
All I know is that if I were in the design team, I'd advocate that they are made clear. Argue me if you like, I'm sure people on Square's team feel the same as you, and that's why it's like this, and no one will get it, and they'll get lots of hipster martyr points for making such a subtle and non-intrusive reference.
My opinion is that most of the shit in Kingsglaive will be disregarded. The big deal in FFXV is running around the world looking for magical swords, not trying to get some silly ring, which has never been ever mentioned in a single trailer
Ring is in loads of trailers.
Anyway watched movie last night, I was really enjoying it, but the last 1/3 is a proper slog.
its not a good movie at all if you are not into ffxv though.
The person who supervises the event scenes in the game which include all realtime cutscenes, text interactions, the scripting and triggers of events flags, etc.
Basically the breakdown is like this:
Event Director - In charge of overall team handling story events in-game.
Map Director - In charge of overall team handling level design for towns, dungeons, fields, and world map
Battle Director - In charge of overall team handling battles, enemy AI, balance, skill systems, etc.
Movie Director - In charge of the overall team handling CG sequences.
The person who supervises the event scenes in the game which include all realtime cutscenes, text interactions, the scripting and triggers of events flags, etc.
Basically the breakdown is like this:
Event Director - In charge of overall team handling story events in-game.
Map Director - In charge of overall team handling level design for towns, dungeons, fields, and world map
Battle Director - In charge of overall team handling battles, enemy AI, balance, skill systems, etc.
Movie Director - In charge of the overall team handling CG sequences.
He has quite a cinematic flair and his direction is always compelling. In X as he wasn't in charge of the script, music or content it came together well because other talents ensured those areas were relatively top notch...and he kind of was able to direct cut scenes well to bring that across.
Finished watching it. A solid 3/5, but a 4/5 for someone like me who's just really into this world and have been following the game since 2006. Honestly, treating this as the prologue to the game is the best way to view this. It's obviously that's what they were going for with that after credit scene. While I don't think you'll need to watch this to understand the plot of FFXV, it'll definitely have more of an impact especially in scenes like the newspaper one from the game, cause without that scene lacks any emotional impact. Sort of like you can play KH2 without CoM but it'll make things better if you did. This will piss some people off which I totally understand.
Some thoughts/question on story and character:
- Insomnia is beautiful and Ardyn put it will that it having it be ruin is such a pitiful waste. No way they could have ever given it justice in the actual game since it would need a whole game just set in it to really appreciate it. Either way, I loved the look of it all.
- I liked most the main cast. King Regis is great, Nyx is cool, Libertus is alright, Luna is great, Ardyn is great, Aldercapt is good, Crowe is hot (not much to say here).
- God the body count in this movie must be higher than Man of Steel.
- Drautos is
such a confusing character. So he's Nif general but is from some other home? Wouldn't he be the fucking cause of losing his own home since he was with Nif for at least 12 years? His back story makes no sense which in turn makes his motivation weak which in turn makes the final battle weak. It's like they wanted a character to betray the king but forgot to actually write everything out.
- On the other hand,
the kingsglaive betraying one another was fine with me.
- Were the KotR the
Lucii kings that Nyx speaks to or are they the statues that come alive? Are they one in the same?
-
Luna leaving Libertus behind seems dumb. Like she must know Nyx is pretty much dead so that means Libertus is left with nothing. Like it couldn't hurt her duty to have him drive her all the way the Altissia. They could have a little road trip to themselves. This won't be an issue if Nyx and Libertus actually show up in the game, but I doubt it.
- I hated that Kingsglaive used those daggers to warp around. Kind of a dumb weapon to use when fighting huge ass insects and dudes with greatswords.
- Biggest disappointment is probably Ravus.
He definitely doesn't have any of that mystery from the old trailers. I don't like to cling on to Versus like some folks do, but Ravus saw some unfortunate changes I think. He doesn't come off as villain material. Hopefully he redeems himself in the game.
- Honestly I did get a little nostalgic seeing some of the Versus imagery. I know it's pathetic.
Thoughts on the technical aspect:
- Visuals are amazing. However, there are some scenes where you can tell they didn't have enough money or time. Still, some scenes can be breathtaking.
None ever blew me away like the CGI scene from the 2011 Versus trailer.
- Editing is the biggest weakness to this movie. TOO MANY FADES. They do not know how to transition well and it can fuck up the pacing at times. It's a bigger problem in the beginning when it feels like they're trying to establish a lot.
- On the other hand, I didn't think the action was hard to follow until the
statues wake up
. No way near as bad that Taken 3 gif though.
- VO on some of the characters are bad. Crowe, Libertus, and Drautos in particular. You get used to after a while but it was jarring. I still think someone else should've been Nyx but after a few scenes I got used to Pinkman. Bean is great, that is unfortunate he won't be voicing him in the game (
which is weird cause Regis dies anyway so I doubt he'll have a lot of lines in the actual game. They couldn't sneak in a few pages from the game? I think this was an issue of them having Jim Perri already for the game but once it came time to the movie they wanted someone with more star power.
) Lena is good but I'm not gonna miss her in the actual game.
- Soundtrack was lacking. Nothing bad but nothing noteworthy. Also I thought we were gonna get the actual Somnus, not the instrumental version.
Some thoughts in relation to the game:
- The biggest thing watching this is that it pumped me up more for the game. I love the lore and setting already but this showed us a glimpse of what's in store for the full game.
- Man do they hype up Noctis. I love it when media does this, so having it done on a character that I've been wanting to play as for 10 years is exciting.
-
The game better explain how the fuck Luna gets to Lestallum before the crew does and how she even gets to Altissia before them. It would make sense if she left with Libertus, but she's literally on foot the whole time. Probably Genitianna.
-
Also does Ardyn tell Aldercapt to just drop him off at Galdin Quay just so he can fuck around and follow the main crew? Cause the time of events he should be heading back to Niflhiem with Aldercapt.
-
Where the fuck is Cor in all of this. I want to see what he was up to. Probably the reason he's explained as being full of regret.
- I hope we get to visit Galhad.
So yea overall i enjoyed it. Not a bad movie in any means. If you're an aspiring director don't try to do the action scenes or editing this way.