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Monday, September 19, 2005

Review: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Final Fantasy VII was my introduction to the Japanese variety of role-playing game and a very enjoyable introduction it was too. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is the lovely looking CG movie sequel to the game. Things are not right in the world, there’s some kind of disease running rampant and three blokes on bikes have arrived with a connection to Cloud, Sephiroth and Jenova. Thankfully the plot stays reasonably coherent and doesn’t drift off into impenetrable explanations of spiritual things, plus it actually resolves itself in a rather straight forward manner.

Advent Children is quite obviously an exercise in fanboy/girl gratification. The scene where the game’s entire surviving playable cast arrive to do battle with the summoned creature (a slightly odd version of Bahamut, it appears) is just a classic grab from “101 moments of smug feel-good enjoyment to be included in fiction”. It’s cheesy, clichéd and not quite as dramatic as it could have been, but it’s to be expected. The entire film is full of these kinds of giggle-inducing pleasers for the game die-hards. Cue Cloud whipping out an insane multi-part sword. Cue Tifa kicking seven shades of shit out of someone with her bare hands. Save the complete Aeris scene until as close to the end as possible. Cue Sephiroth. Cue limit break resolution.

Despite all of this, it was fun. I’m not a Final Fantasy VII fanboy but I do have a healthy appreciation for the characters & universe created in that very enjoyable “game”. I did giggle guiltily at some of the clichéd “look, it’s this person/action/object!” moments. I also have a surprisingly high tolerance for fiction that can convince me it’s quite fun, despite any other flaws. Without this tolerance I would be hard pressed to say anything better than “it was ok, I suppose”. With this love of The Fun I quite enjoyed the experience. It’s not something I see myself watching time and time again but it didn’t induce spasms of embarrassment at its cheesy wish fulfilment. Above average fun, I thought.

(As a postscript, I thought the End Of Fight jingle from the game being used as the ring tone was an amusing nod and play with our expectations. They had me worrying that we were about to descend into some kind of stark game/movie amalgamation.)

Posted by Alex Hopkinson @ 3:15 PM

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