Just finish the movie this morning and let it sink for few hours and I think it might be a good time to write an impression about this movie. Let's start that I did watch the movie for the 1st time when it was release in Japan and manage to download it once it was fansub it at that time. All I remember is the battle scene and don't care the rest of the movie (hell, I just skip the just go to the battle scene as that's how much I care about this movie).
Now, I have the chance to re watch this movie but this time, try to analyze the movie a bit more. Is this movie still good after 10 years after it release? Let's found out.
The main story of Advent Children took place two years after the ending of the ps1 game. People are slowly trying to live they life as normal as they can after what have happened. A disease called Geo-Stigma (a very weird name I have to say) is spreading around the children in the town which look like it affect them somehow but never really discuss (make them tired or sick?). As this going on, three men come into the stories, looking for mothers which actually mean Jenova as they want it to resurrect Sephiroth (I didn’t heard the reason why they want resurrect Sephiroth in the first place). With this two big issue, Cloud and his friend come together one more time to stop this three men from getting this mother while at the same time try to find a cure of the disease that plague toward children (except for one for some reason). That’s all I can gather from the story of this movie as from there the story start to get difficult to understand. Explanations of what is happening in the movie start to get uneven while characters in the movie didn’t really clarify their intentions. A good example is when the three men talk about trying to find their mother and want to be with her. You eventually found out the mother they’re talking about is Jenova. Unfortunately, they never really explain why they want to see their mother to the audience. Is it because they want to be empowerment? Is it because they want to see the creator who create them? None of this was explain to the audience and I guess it was left to us to decide why.
Also, the sickness (Geo-Stigma) was poorly explained to the audience and it’s the same when a cure was produced, making this whole issue really nothing when you think about it. How this disease was born? Is it cased by the incident of what happened near the end of the game? What happened to the person if their got the disease? Will they die quickly or slowly? Also, how the cure of the disease work? Do they have to go to that small water pond in the church? Is the cure is inside the water itself? If so, why not just bottle the water and bring in the city to help cure the disease? No explanation about this part of the story which is suck.
As for character development……...um, they isn’t to tell the truth. Literally, almost all the character in this movie have very little to no character development at all. The only one that have some development is Cloud which is weird as he didn’t talk too much in the entire movie. For Cloud, it look like he have some sort of depression of what happened two years ago and kinda feel like it’s his fault for what happened. For this reason, you see him kinda cold and try to not get closed to the people who love him like Tifa. Thankfully (which is thank god Cloud isn’t emo anymore) he realize the problem and solve it completely, just in time to fight the big monster battle in the city.
As for the sick children in the movie, it feel like they’re just there as an object which need to be use to push the story forward and with no development with any of the children (even the young boy and girl) you don’t really care about them at all. For the three men, they’re one dimensional with little info of their reason of why they want to find Jenova. To me, they’re there so they can somehow get Sephiroth back from the grave and into the screen for a bit so you can the epic battle. I guess this is where the movie shine.
The fighting scene in this movie is great to the tell the truth and still look good since the last time I watch this movie 10 years ago. The only minor gripe is maybe the 1st time Cloud fight the three men. For some reason, the quick change scene in the battle make it hard to see what is happening. That is the only gripe I have as the rest look good to watch. Hell, the big battle with Sephiroth vs Cloud might be enough for quite a few people to go watch this movie only as it’s really good to watch. Suck that it isn’t as long as I hope for.
Another strength I see in this movie is the animation. After 10 years, it still look great to look at (mostly on the character animation). As for the background animation, it still look good but you start to notice a big aging design here and there in the movie which isn’t something you will notice unless you’re trying to find it. Very eye candy I would say.
For the music side, it sound great to hear and match quite well in the scene when it’s playing. Make the mood of the scene even more powerful. Also, they do bring back the famous music in Final Fantasy 7 game and remix it and work quite well. Hell, the famous music that is play when Sephiroth is fighting with Cloud near the end make the mood of the scene more great to watch. Even outside the movie, the soundtrack is great to listen to.
Overall, I like the movie. It’s like those popcorn flick movie. Tons of action in the movie but need to leave your brain outside as anything they try to tell you in the story will most likely bounce away from your brain. If you’re fan of the game, I think you will like it more mostly for the fight scene and seeing all the people you like in the game come back one more time. If you’re not, I guess it’s still fun to watch but don’t expect too much in the storyline department. I did heard another version of the movie Advent Children Complete try to fix some of the issue I have in this movie. I guess it might be better to watch that for a slight better explanation of the story but as of now, I will be going to my next anime in my collection.
