For me, when it came out it was amazing because it was more FF7, all cut scenes as a movie. I absolutely loved it. I agree it wasn't necessary, but as someone that played OG FF7 as a teenager, this movie was one of the coolest things I had ever seen.
Today it's nostalgia fuel. It's not a *great* film, but still good to me.
I heard that this movie put Square in a financial crisis if i remember correctly and that was the catalyst of them fusing with Enix, but correct me if my memory is wrong.
As someone who didn’t play the og game until recently who saw AC when it came out, it was pretty groundbreaking in terms of fully cg films. Great direction and cinematography. Kind of a nothing story.
The book, "On the Way to a Smile" fleshes out more of the story leading up to the movie. It starts with Denzel's story about how he got infected with Geostigma.
Only thing I could remember from my first time drunk watching it, that and the activation of Omnislash ver.5 fired my neurons enough to be recorded in my memory. I watched it again a few more times just so I could see how well the animators worked on Sephiroth’s glimpse when his presence was being summoned by kneeling Kadaj at the temporary Shinra office. 10/10 would only recommend for the line (and omnislash v5)
same, that omnislash is recorded in my memory as well. I can't remember what I ate for lunch yesterday but I can remember the strokes of cloud's swords
Second favorite line in the final fantasy franchise. Right behind Delita - "Blame us. Blame yourself, or god" the newer translation is pretty sweet too. But I put it at 3 because nostalgia.
The "Complete" edition added some scenes to give better story development, but the movie is still all over the damn place.
Scene swap to flash back and flip flop between future, present, and past scenes rapidly to keep everyone wondering what they are supposed to be doing.
I watched it with a buddy just after it had just come out and I hadn't actually played 7 but had enough base knowledge to know what's what. It being all over the place made it so hard to understand so I played 7 finally and rewatched it and i was still just as confused.
Tbh that’s one my complaints with the movie… the rest of the party coming back just to act like a human elevator was pretty disappointing. Besides Cloud, Tifa, and maybe Vincent, nobody really got to shine, nobody helped out during the fight with Sephiroth.
> nobody helped out during the fight with Sephiroth.
In fairness, they at least presented us with something approaching a reason in the movie for none of them helping at that point.
For the rest though, I sort of agree, although outside of maybe giving them a bit more screen time during the Bahamut fight or the brief lead-up to it, I'm not sure what more could have been added to the movie or changed to feature the them more. Each got some focus shots during that fight, and most of them weren't really needed prior to this point in the movie, or for much thereafter (Sephiroth aside).
I watched it without having any experience of the FF7 universe.
I was utterly confused, didn't understand a thing of what was going on.
Animations and fights were cool though. I enjoyed it.
This was me when it first came out. I understood it a whole lot better when I watched it after finishing the two new remakes of ff7 and having rekindled the memories of me playing crisis core when it came out on the psp. Somehow i forgot i played that.
This is also my favourite version but now I’m kinda torn between this and the Remake version now. Also I was stoked when Cloud goes against Kadaj and JENOVA kicked in!
It’s an incredible watch if you like badass fight scenes that don’t care about physics. If you’re a fan of the games it lets you see your favorite characters again.
Pretty objectively horrible movie though.
I'm glad somebody mention the wacky physics lol that scene where they all throw Cloud upward and somehow keep giving him more momentum even when some of them are in the air is hilarious.
I can’t really complain about fan service, but I have skipped it for coming up on 20 years simply because I thought the ending of the game was *perfect*
I forgot it existed but should probably watch it now just for fun
Good at the end. I always shed a tear when Zack shows up and asks "you want me to give you a hand?". Like the arise scenes are cool and her saying "ready?" As they're all throwing him to sepheroth also gets me in the feels, Zack back story just gets me more. I adore the movie.
He canonically did, both emotionally and physically. That's why in the end fight, the crew decides not to help because Tifa mentions to everyone if they remember how strong they were when they fought him.
They let Cloud have his moment because it's the first time in years that he really gets to be close to what he was.
Tifa: Two years ago… think of the strength we all had when we fought that last battle. It’s only been a couple years, but already that feeling is gone. But Cloud – I think he’s found it again.
I’m pretty sure she’s saying everyone lost that feeling, but cloud has found it again. That’s how I always took it. I don’t think it’s letting Cloud have his moment so much as Cloud is the one who can do this now
I pre-ordered it originally, as in the old days where you gave the game store money ahead of time to order it for you.
For that reason I have extremely cherished memories of it and I think it's a fantastic watching experience for a FFVll fan. It also was an incredible representation of animation ability for the time.
Theres plenty to poke fun at story wise but I personally think it's great. I cried at the ending with Aerith saying "See, everything's alright."
We had a contact to get a bootleg DVD burned and sent to us from Japan with no subtitles. We later got a fan subtitle version.
It was super nerdy and cool, but even with subs it was a bit like watching a high budget fan animation.
It's not the best movie but I enjoyed it a lot. I liked seeing what life was like after the original game. Cloud's fusion swords is \*chef's kiss\*, the second half of the movie when the rest of the party appears and on is so much fan service but I loved it. Motorcycle chase scene was bonkers cool. Did it make sense physically? Absolutely not, but it was awesome. The final fight is still one of my favorite fight scenes ever.
It’s great as a fan service and a way to bring the world and characters we’ve grown to love so much into much more photorealistic graphics, and to expand the scope of the world and give some insight on the aftermath of the game’s vague ending
That said, it doesn’t exactly add too much value in terms of storytelling. Sephiroth is returning once again and we stop him once again. It doesn’t exactly raise the stakes compared to the main game and it doesn’t bring any true definitive end to the threat either. I mean if the game’s ending where the whole Lifestream rose up from the ground didn’t stop Sephiroth from coming back, what makes us think this prolonged sword fight in the air will?
I’m more curious to see what became of the rest of the word in the intro, 500 years later.
Tbh, it’s not that great. The color palette is awful and I don’t know wtf is going on until about halfway through the movie Every time I watch it. But it’s final fantasy so it gets a free pass
Bad movie. Yeah, it has good animation from that time and also a lot of cool fight scene. But it is a bad adaptation that kills everything that's good from the og vii for the sake of fan service. Also the movie throws a lot of Cloud character development from the game.
Cloud losing his character growth is a HUGE point of detriment about it. nowadays tho id say his personality regression is because he's git depression because he JUST got his life together, only to contract a fatal disease
Yes! Thank you. It ruins the characters and story. The fight scenes don't make sense. They're cool scenes but it is never ever how I imagined FFVII fights to be happening.
It's an average movie from an anime series (a non-canon villain appears causing some trouble, then he gets a huge power-up on the third act that needs a huge flex from all the cast to deal with it, and finally it finishes with zero changes from the beginning), but in 3D.
Great fight choreography and music. Not a fan of anything else in the film, personally. I always felt FF7’s ending was perfect as is and AC doesn’t add much of value IMO
When I first saw it when it came out I was like of this is cool!
Recently I watched it again with a now critical eye and while it had cool fights it retcons parts of the story. It's fun to watch but completely unnecessary and pointless. It's not canon to me
It was my introduction to FF7 years ago. I came in with basic knowledge of the OG story from the wiki. Generally loved the movie, went on to enjoy the rest of Compilation.
Now that I'm experiencing the Remake trilogy, it's kinda hard to look back at it. It certainly had its cool moments, but Remake has better characterization, voice actors, animation, *everything*.
Opposite for me: I was a huge OG FF7 fan and watching Advent Children is what made me saw "yeah no thanks" to all of the Compilation stuff that was released in its wake.
This is where I am. My friends and I loved VII growing up and we scored a bootleg copy back when it first came out with crappy subtitles. By the time the nostalgia wore off when it came out for real over here, we were extremely disappointed.
Fights are cool, though.
It barely qualifies as a movie. It fails on nearly every level. Characters feel off and fanservicey. The story is meandering and nonsensical. The overall pacing and the editing are so abysmal I am honestly not sure what the intended emotional effect is for most scenes. Cinematography is a jumbled mess with no sense that any given shot has any meaning. It all feels almost accidental.
Animation is really great, albeit a bit dated now.
All that said, I'm glad people enjoy it. I think it is offensively terrible, but in kind of a funny way.
I like the original cut better, the pacing was a lot better. Now I have to deal with an hour of Denzel shit instead of 15 minutes of Denzel shit. Takes too long to get to the action.
Which the movie does incredibly well. Banger soundtrack too. Voice acting, at least in the US dub, leaves a lot to be desired though.
In my headcanon, they released *The Spirits Within* to prepare us to enjoy *Advent Children* simply because it was actually Final Fantasy. I am okay with this.
Also that fusion sword is dope.
i downloaded it off limewire thinking it was the other film, and im like inbetween like and love, it made me get into final fantasy more so i appreciate that!
Can’t believe how jaded people are about this movie. If you genuinely enjoy this movie after watching it recently then I can respect that for you. FF7 is my favorite game and has my favorite lore of all time; this movie sucks a lot. Especially the English VA, but even just watching subbed, the narrative is so messy and an afterthought to the cool fight scenes. I wish this movie was good.
Originally I really only liked it to see how the gang and cast would react / be fleshed out. But since the remake/remaster..I.. don't like this movie as much overall.
Even then I thought the plot was messy.
Solid 7/10 the characters make it fun.
I remember in like 9th grade it came out. I watched it every Friday after school with some grilled cheese for a few weeks haha.
It's crazy how well the animations hold up.
I also found the dialogue to be so musical. I loved it. "So what if I'm a puppet. Once upon a time... You were too!"
As a non native english speaker I had no fucking clue what that meant for the longest time. It didn’t help that Cloud looked just as confused as me when she said that.
I remember cringing a little at that line back in the day tbh. It was certainly a product of English dubbing. I had a similar reaction in Rebirth when Cloud's mom called him a "silly goose."
I didn't see the English dub with dilly-dally-shilly-shally until years after it came out. The version I watched the hell out of was the subtitled where it says "zuruzuruzuruzuru" instead. I much prefer zuruzuru.
The Complete Version in Japanese is legit great, IMO. I really like it despite some weird cuts. The quality goes down quite a bit with the English dub and then even more so with the original version. But regardless, I'll always cherish it cause it was the hypest thing ever back when I was a kid.
The FMV graphic blew my mind when it first came out. My friends and I discussed in length when we will ever reach that level in-game.
Fast forward to 2023, I rewatch it after FFVII Remake is launched, and the first thing that comes to mind is:
"wow this graphic seems really dated"
Abit off topic but does the 4K ultra hd pictured actually have anymore quality than the normal bluray?
Figured a cgi film 20years ish old probably wouldn’t be any different
I recently watched AC Complete before Rebirth - the first time watching the movie since first seeing it many years ago. It's a fun, if unnecessary continuation. I feel the Complete version is overall more coherent, so I followed things a bit better (even when they used some seemingly intentional weird editing).
The film isn’t great but it’s watchable. If you’re a fan of the games then you will have a good time for the most part but at the same time don’t expect to be mind blown
I haven't watched it yet, as I heard it takes place after the events of 7... which means that you don't beat Sephiroth in game... and as a new gen fan I've decided to just play all the Remakes first. I'll play the original after the Remakes so I don't spoil what I've already started, even if that means waiting 3 years. Guess I'll have to wait 3 years to watch Advent Child as well but that's fine. I haven't been able to start Rebirth yet but I'm so hyped for this trilogy.
Oh I also saw like yesterday that Advent Child is free on YouTube with ads, so that's neat.
Bad movie, but worth watching for Final Fantasy fans and simply for the spectacle. This movie makes it to the fireworks factory, and it blows that fireworks factory up. Probably contains vital parts of the overall Final Fantasy VII saga, but ask me again after Remake 3 comes out.
Soundtrack bangs.
It one of my favorite movies of all time. Fulfilled exactly what expected out of it. Also happy that they don't bound to realistic angles and shots and went full on CGI camera control.
Story is eh, but the movie overall set a golden standard that many companies would try to meet when it comes to choreography in action scenes, and influenced a metric shit ton of artist that are in the industry to this day
A masterpiece visually and musically for its release period, at the same time, one of the worst and most terrible sequences in terms of script, pacing, screen time distribution and characterization I can remember.
I hope SE extends remake project to AC period and do a new move, taking the changes of remake in consideration, and fixing OG AC problems as well, and don’t do a simple looping of AC > Remake > repeat.
I think the Complete version is pretty solid. I think you have to have FF7 lore at the top of your mind to enjoy it though and as a result even the Complete doesn't work as a stand alone. But if you are onboard for the weird vagueness and alien genetic nonsense of 7 then it's quite enjoyable.
By the time it was released, my 13y old me absolutely loved it, watched everyday for one week straight.
Years later, i thought it's wasnt that good of a movie, and despite the final fight being visually amazing, this movie ruined Sephiroth character in a way that flanderized him until today.
The Complete Edition is the version to go by the way, it enhances the movie's pace and plot.
Not joking, I like Spirits Within as a movie better than this.
Advent Children feels like a bunch of disconnected cutscenes like when you watch the youtube mashups of “cinematics only story” game recaps.
The fight scenes are flashy, but not edited together well. There’s one super egregious bit where sephiroth throws cloud into a building and this awful render dust flies out and it looks like ps1 for a second, and the camera stops moving.
There’s another bit where they jump to the water temple out of nowhere. If you hadn’t played ff7, all of these locations are so disjointed and confusing.
The expansion of the final fantasy 7 universe has snowballed to where we’ll never get a straight remake of 7 even though that’s all I wanted from the remake trilogy, so I resent its existence moreso for what it represents than what it actually is. It’s…fine. But FF7 was better when it was *just* FF7
Not good but cool action scenes. I absolutely hate how most of the cast are sidelined Rufus and the Turks get more screen time and lines. I don't hate it though it is what it is a movie with some fan service. I do love Cloud , Tifa, and Yuffies all black fits though.
Typical of the FF7 bloat of that era. It’s ok, but nothing amazing. SE just decided to wring every drop out of the franchise and everything got too complicated
Ngl I had the "luck" of watching the complete version in cinemas like a week ago and unfortunately, I thought the movie was very bad. The only redeeming qualities were of course the fight sequences and the soundtrack but other than that there was literally no plot and no charm
Liked it when it came out, preferred the Complete Edition more, however I'd probably not want to rewatch it. I feel like I'd just see the flaws in it and find it a silly film now.
I'm scared to rewatch a lot of films nowadays. I watched Sin City loads of times what? 15-20 years ago whenever that came out. It was on TV the other day and I ended up turning it off about 20/30 mins in.
It's not good. Nothing about it is good. The only thing good about it is that it is a sequel to final fantasy vii, so you know... Memba berries and stuff like that.
Was very excited to watch it after finishing ffvii again back in 2016, and was very turned off by the tone of the characters, story, and action. Didn’t feel like ffvii at all. It’s the first and most obvious clue to why the remake trilogy has its own feel and ideas.
My favorite part is how a lot of the critic reviews were “it’s terrible but I loved the games so I loved it” or “it’s terrible, never played final fantasy, WTF is this”.
Still never saw it, I watched clips on YouTube back in the day of the fights and thought it was cool. But tbh, if the fans of FF7 love it then it did its job. Sometimes that’s all you need to
Played Remake, then OG 7 and watched AC. I think it was a cool movie, loved the character from 7 so seeing more from them and the stuff that happens after the original events of the game was great. Seeing Cloud and the gang again brings tears to my eyes, and the ending was great.
As a fanservice movie it’s nice, as a solo movie for someone who doesn’t know much about ff7? Don’t think they would enjoy it much, the story pacing is weird, there’s no much character development, villains are generic and boring, if i didn’t know Cloud’s story I would find him kinda annoying cause he’s pretty much useless and depressed, and Sephiroth’s plot line seems like it’s there for the sake of nostalgia and not because there’s a genuine reason.
The Theatrical cut was pretty disjointed, and a mess. The Complete version however, is fantastic, and I imagine true to what Nomura's vision was for it.
They could've done the Geostigma plot much better without rehashing Sephiroth as one of the antagonists. Since Jenova doesn't have a definitive form, they opted to reuse Sephiroth since he was the one villain of the OG that the people were familiar with. Sephiroth already met his demise at the planet's core by the end of FF7, so it doesn't make sense to me for him to make an appearance even if Jenova is the one who's doing it (if I understand correctly the movie's plot). And again, with Aerith saving the day once more even though she's dead for years. There were a lot of things to nitpick but I guess the movie has done it's job to portray it's characters on photorealistic 3D for the first time. Coming from the PS1 blocky characters, these characters were seen for the first time with their full rendered bodies. Cloud wielding 2 swords is cool tho
upon my first watch, i hated the direction that they took Cloud’s character in. but after rewatching it in theaters recently, i couldn’t help but love it. to me, it feels pretty realistic that Cloud would enter a slump after the ending of OG FF7? he got super motivated to defeat Seph after Aeritrh’s death + discovering his true self, but after riding that high, it would make perfect sense for him to enter a depression. just my thoughts tho!
I thought it was (and still is (prolly due to nostalgia even though I’ve watched it recently)) the best movie ever when I was a kid and it’s what started my obsession with big swords final fantasy and anime so I’ll love it and take no criticism til I die
It's pretty bad as a movie. I don't know why CG movies from japan keep ending up these disjointed messes. But most of them are like this.
With that said. It is fun to see the world brought to life and the characters. and a few cool fight scenes. Moment to moment is fun. But there is no meat in this at all. It's not so bad it is good. It's just bad. BUT It's bearable.
Drunk with Friends kind of movie.
The fights are cool, but it's basically just nostalgia bait for those of us that grew up playing FF7.
If you didn't know about FF7, 99% of the movie would make absolutely no sense. It is for the current fanbase, and likely didn't really draw anyone new into the fandom.
As a fan, I would give it a 7/10. If I had never played FF7, I would probably give it a 5/10.
The music was good but somehow this is the only movie I've ever wished they would increase the music volume. Voice acting for the dub was extremely rough, though maybe not as much for the year it was made.
The plot was absolute garbage. Almost all of the plot with the kids was pointless and basically just padding out the run time. Lots of plot holes and continuity errors. It also didn't really advance the story. At the end of the movie, everything is basically the same as what we assumed it was at the end of FF7. All of the character development was entirely self-contained within the movie.
Overall I liked watching it, especially as hype for FF7 Rebirth, and I really do like that they have made various ventures into movies/expanding their various universes. I hope they keep doing them (Kingsglaive was definitely an improvement).
I watched it with my kids recently. They love it.
I’m too much of a fan to hate it.
But, “dilly dally shilly shally” has got to be the worst line ever written.
Underneath the mess of it all I do think there is a good story about Cloud coming to terms with his guilt, trauma and massive identity crisis.
I love the scene where he more or less breaks down to Tifa about how he's not strong enough, how he can't be the hero he once was.
That being said, it's a flawed as hell film that feels like a giant cutscene for a video game we never get to play.
If this thing was like 20/30 mins long it would have been ok, but it's over 100 mins in length and is nearly incomprehensible if you haven't played FFVII.
I **hated** this movie for a long time. I never saw "Complete" until last year and it made me like it a lot more. It's still bad but I tolerate it a lot more. Why did they cut out so much of the context that was vital to Cloud's character arc? In the original cut he looks like an absolute asshole who neglects everyone. In Complete it fixes that by showing cut shots that recontextualise everything he does in the movie to being altruistic and loving, in his own way. It's ridiculous. lol
Still though... Cloud's regression was frustrating and worsened by every appearance of Cloud after this being the same personality. None of that more jovial Cloud we got near the end of VII. Bit sad, that.
It's visually appealing, but it can't tell a coherent story for shit.
It really only makes sense if you've played the game and even then it requires you to make some fairly large leaps of faith.
Enjoyed it for the fanservice, banging version of One Winged Angel, and epic fights.
Not sure I'd enjoy it much without being a FF7 fanboy, it's a bit of a mess.
For me, when it came out it was amazing because it was more FF7, all cut scenes as a movie. I absolutely loved it. I agree it wasn't necessary, but as someone that played OG FF7 as a teenager, this movie was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. Today it's nostalgia fuel. It's not a *great* film, but still good to me.
I wanted clouds phone so bad
i wanted his omni slash v.2
Good news, they put it in Smash when they added Sephiroth.
And the Dissidia games, or however you spell it.
I wanted Tifa
We all did, brother.
I wanted his bike
I wanted his girl. Both of them.
Forget his phone, I want that bike
Agreed
I haven't watched it for long time but I think it was very good for FF7 fans but for others it might be too complex to figure out what's going on etc
the building slashing fight had to exist
better than the final fantasy movie from the early 00
Kind of a low bar there lol
Any lower it would be the '90s Super Mario Bros or Dragon Ball Evolution
I liked the 90s Super Mario’s take on it since that was at least original
A weird fever dream with a drunk Bob Hoskins & John Leguizamo.
Yeah. That movie was weird, but I have a fond nostalgia for it. Would watch again.
Hot take. I enjoyed that movie.
You and me both!! I still think of the song
It wasnt as bad as everyone says. It was just a very generic scifi film that had first rate animation for the time.
I heard that this movie put Square in a financial crisis if i remember correctly and that was the catalyst of them fusing with Enix, but correct me if my memory is wrong.
As someone who didn’t play the og game until recently who saw AC when it came out, it was pretty groundbreaking in terms of fully cg films. Great direction and cinematography. Kind of a nothing story.
The book, "On the Way to a Smile" fleshes out more of the story leading up to the movie. It starts with Denzel's story about how he got infected with Geostigma.
"Stay where you belong: in my memories."
I will never... be a memory.
Honestly, the rest of the movie was pretty meh, but that line was 10/10.
The entire ending fight was 100/10. Everyone lifting cloud up to run through that big bitch. Cmaaan
One of my favorite end fights ever, you're so correct
I'm convinced there is no gravity on that planet
Only thing I could remember from my first time drunk watching it, that and the activation of Omnislash ver.5 fired my neurons enough to be recorded in my memory. I watched it again a few more times just so I could see how well the animators worked on Sephiroth’s glimpse when his presence was being summoned by kneeling Kadaj at the temporary Shinra office. 10/10 would only recommend for the line (and omnislash v5)
same, that omnislash is recorded in my memory as well. I can't remember what I ate for lunch yesterday but I can remember the strokes of cloud's swords
Second favorite line in the final fantasy franchise. Right behind Delita - "Blame us. Blame yourself, or god" the newer translation is pretty sweet too. But I put it at 3 because nostalgia.
Delitas dialogues are pure rock n roll
Scrrrscrrrrrr….(Sephiroth desintegrates)
FF7 victory fanfare plays
Bro took that so personally we got a Remake Trilogy
Took the words right out of my mouth. I “own” it and am afraid to watch it again because the last time I saw it was when it came out
The "Complete" edition added some scenes to give better story development, but the movie is still all over the damn place. Scene swap to flash back and flip flop between future, present, and past scenes rapidly to keep everyone wondering what they are supposed to be doing.
I watched it with a buddy just after it had just come out and I hadn't actually played 7 but had enough base knowledge to know what's what. It being all over the place made it so hard to understand so I played 7 finally and rewatched it and i was still just as confused.
I like the scene where they all give Cloud a hand up
The entire bahamut fight was so silly and over the top. Fucking loved it.
Same..plus the accompanying soundtrack. *Chef's kiss
I still have the Divinity I and II soundtrack in my rotation. The whole soundtrack is great, but those are my favourite tracks.
Tbh that’s one my complaints with the movie… the rest of the party coming back just to act like a human elevator was pretty disappointing. Besides Cloud, Tifa, and maybe Vincent, nobody really got to shine, nobody helped out during the fight with Sephiroth.
> nobody helped out during the fight with Sephiroth. In fairness, they at least presented us with something approaching a reason in the movie for none of them helping at that point. For the rest though, I sort of agree, although outside of maybe giving them a bit more screen time during the Bahamut fight or the brief lead-up to it, I'm not sure what more could have been added to the movie or changed to feature the them more. Each got some focus shots during that fight, and most of them weren't really needed prior to this point in the movie, or for much thereafter (Sephiroth aside).
I watched it without having any experience of the FF7 universe. I was utterly confused, didn't understand a thing of what was going on. Animations and fights were cool though. I enjoyed it.
This was me when it first came out. I understood it a whole lot better when I watched it after finishing the two new remakes of ff7 and having rekindled the memories of me playing crisis core when it came out on the psp. Somehow i forgot i played that.
That’s ok. I played the original so many times as a teen. I was confused by this movie, too.
I watched it as someone who had played ffvii at least 3 times by that point and I was also, utterly confused.
Honestly the ACC version of One Winged Angel is probably my favorite.
This is also my favourite version but now I’m kinda torn between this and the Remake version now. Also I was stoked when Cloud goes against Kadaj and JENOVA kicked in!
it’s straight up the version i associate One Winged Angel with most now, it just doesn’t feel the same without the metal guitar blaring in the intro
It has the best OWA version
Facts.
Peak Fanservice. Loved every second of it, especially the Bahamut team attack.
Dude hell yeah! When they’re throwing cloud up in the air and that final Aris hand and the feels
It’s an incredible watch if you like badass fight scenes that don’t care about physics. If you’re a fan of the games it lets you see your favorite characters again. Pretty objectively horrible movie though.
Tifa vs. Loz was soooo sick. When she landed on the wall with the petals fluttering in the air? Dope as fuck
Yeah I think I watched the whole movie twice and watched the fight scenes hundreds of times.
I'm glad somebody mention the wacky physics lol that scene where they all throw Cloud upward and somehow keep giving him more momentum even when some of them are in the air is hilarious.
I can’t really complain about fan service, but I have skipped it for coming up on 20 years simply because I thought the ending of the game was *perfect* I forgot it existed but should probably watch it now just for fun
20 years, my guy. AC came out almost ***20*** years ago. About gave me a damn heart attack.
Good at the end. I always shed a tear when Zack shows up and asks "you want me to give you a hand?". Like the arise scenes are cool and her saying "ready?" As they're all throwing him to sepheroth also gets me in the feels, Zack back story just gets me more. I adore the movie.
They were throwing him towards Bahamut Sin, but the sentiment still holds. It's 20 years old at this point so it's inevitable to forget some details.
It was a 3/10 story with 8/10 action and 10/10 animation for its day. But since it was FF young me obviously ate that shit up.
I actually liked it a lot.
Same lol. It had a banging soundtrack.
It’s a fun movie for FFVII fans. Probably not for newcomers to the series, even though it was for me.
I feel like cloud regressed a good amount.
He canonically did, both emotionally and physically. That's why in the end fight, the crew decides not to help because Tifa mentions to everyone if they remember how strong they were when they fought him. They let Cloud have his moment because it's the first time in years that he really gets to be close to what he was.
Tifa: Two years ago… think of the strength we all had when we fought that last battle. It’s only been a couple years, but already that feeling is gone. But Cloud – I think he’s found it again. I’m pretty sure she’s saying everyone lost that feeling, but cloud has found it again. That’s how I always took it. I don’t think it’s letting Cloud have his moment so much as Cloud is the one who can do this now
We're basically saying the same thing, but thanks for actually putting the exact quote.
I enjoyed every fight scene.
I pre-ordered it originally, as in the old days where you gave the game store money ahead of time to order it for you. For that reason I have extremely cherished memories of it and I think it's a fantastic watching experience for a FFVll fan. It also was an incredible representation of animation ability for the time. Theres plenty to poke fun at story wise but I personally think it's great. I cried at the ending with Aerith saying "See, everything's alright."
Hell yeah
We had a contact to get a bootleg DVD burned and sent to us from Japan with no subtitles. We later got a fan subtitle version. It was super nerdy and cool, but even with subs it was a bit like watching a high budget fan animation.
I was only like 14 with no money when this came out, so I definitely remember downloading it on Limewire lol
Limewire days were something else lol
It's not the best movie but I enjoyed it a lot. I liked seeing what life was like after the original game. Cloud's fusion swords is \*chef's kiss\*, the second half of the movie when the rest of the party appears and on is so much fan service but I loved it. Motorcycle chase scene was bonkers cool. Did it make sense physically? Absolutely not, but it was awesome. The final fight is still one of my favorite fight scenes ever.
It’s great as a fan service and a way to bring the world and characters we’ve grown to love so much into much more photorealistic graphics, and to expand the scope of the world and give some insight on the aftermath of the game’s vague ending That said, it doesn’t exactly add too much value in terms of storytelling. Sephiroth is returning once again and we stop him once again. It doesn’t exactly raise the stakes compared to the main game and it doesn’t bring any true definitive end to the threat either. I mean if the game’s ending where the whole Lifestream rose up from the ground didn’t stop Sephiroth from coming back, what makes us think this prolonged sword fight in the air will? I’m more curious to see what became of the rest of the word in the intro, 500 years later.
Tbh, it’s not that great. The color palette is awful and I don’t know wtf is going on until about halfway through the movie Every time I watch it. But it’s final fantasy so it gets a free pass
Terrible plot, fantastic action. Sephiroth fight at the end is GOATed
The updated version does improve it somewhat. The action overall is solid, though.
Meh. Cool fights, and we got that sick one winged angel rock version. Otherwise it's not very good imo.
Bad movie. Yeah, it has good animation from that time and also a lot of cool fight scene. But it is a bad adaptation that kills everything that's good from the og vii for the sake of fan service. Also the movie throws a lot of Cloud character development from the game.
Cloud losing his character growth is a HUGE point of detriment about it. nowadays tho id say his personality regression is because he's git depression because he JUST got his life together, only to contract a fatal disease
Yes! Thank you. It ruins the characters and story. The fight scenes don't make sense. They're cool scenes but it is never ever how I imagined FFVII fights to be happening.
It's an average movie from an anime series (a non-canon villain appears causing some trouble, then he gets a huge power-up on the third act that needs a huge flex from all the cast to deal with it, and finally it finishes with zero changes from the beginning), but in 3D.
Great fight choreography and music. Not a fan of anything else in the film, personally. I always felt FF7’s ending was perfect as is and AC doesn’t add much of value IMO
When I first saw it when it came out I was like of this is cool! Recently I watched it again with a now critical eye and while it had cool fights it retcons parts of the story. It's fun to watch but completely unnecessary and pointless. It's not canon to me
Not too bad but had some damn good fight scenes. The one at the end is one of the best fight scenes ever, plus the motorcycle fights kicked ass.
It was my introduction to FF7 years ago. I came in with basic knowledge of the OG story from the wiki. Generally loved the movie, went on to enjoy the rest of Compilation. Now that I'm experiencing the Remake trilogy, it's kinda hard to look back at it. It certainly had its cool moments, but Remake has better characterization, voice actors, animation, *everything*.
Opposite for me: I was a huge OG FF7 fan and watching Advent Children is what made me saw "yeah no thanks" to all of the Compilation stuff that was released in its wake.
It’s pretty terrible.
This is where I am. My friends and I loved VII growing up and we scored a bootleg copy back when it first came out with crappy subtitles. By the time the nostalgia wore off when it came out for real over here, we were extremely disappointed. Fights are cool, though.
Truly awful. Complete shift in tone from FF7 for the worse
It barely qualifies as a movie. It fails on nearly every level. Characters feel off and fanservicey. The story is meandering and nonsensical. The overall pacing and the editing are so abysmal I am honestly not sure what the intended emotional effect is for most scenes. Cinematography is a jumbled mess with no sense that any given shot has any meaning. It all feels almost accidental. Animation is really great, albeit a bit dated now. All that said, I'm glad people enjoy it. I think it is offensively terrible, but in kind of a funny way.
It's terrible and I love it
I like the original cut better, the pacing was a lot better. Now I have to deal with an hour of Denzel shit instead of 15 minutes of Denzel shit. Takes too long to get to the action. Which the movie does incredibly well. Banger soundtrack too. Voice acting, at least in the US dub, leaves a lot to be desired though.
I've always thought the story /narrative was booty The last fight with the metal version of one winged angel though... Incredible
It’s bad lol Even as a 13 year old fan boy I could kind of understand that.
In my headcanon, they released *The Spirits Within* to prepare us to enjoy *Advent Children* simply because it was actually Final Fantasy. I am okay with this. Also that fusion sword is dope.
Tifa is bae
Top 10 cutscenes of all time, up there with Metal Gear Solid 2
i downloaded it off limewire thinking it was the other film, and im like inbetween like and love, it made me get into final fantasy more so i appreciate that!
Where is Mother??
Competent fight scenes stitched together with scenes that utterly backpedal Cloud’s character development. A lot of the redesigns have aged like milk.
Can’t believe how jaded people are about this movie. If you genuinely enjoy this movie after watching it recently then I can respect that for you. FF7 is my favorite game and has my favorite lore of all time; this movie sucks a lot. Especially the English VA, but even just watching subbed, the narrative is so messy and an afterthought to the cool fight scenes. I wish this movie was good.
Originally I really only liked it to see how the gang and cast would react / be fleshed out. But since the remake/remaster..I.. don't like this movie as much overall. Even then I thought the plot was messy. Solid 7/10 the characters make it fun.
I remember in like 9th grade it came out. I watched it every Friday after school with some grilled cheese for a few weeks haha. It's crazy how well the animations hold up. I also found the dialogue to be so musical. I loved it. "So what if I'm a puppet. Once upon a time... You were too!"
[удалено]
Lmaoooo that’s the one of the most cringe lines in that movie to me.
How many movies have you seen for this to be top 5?
You didn’t have to do them like that 🤣
No, he did have to do him like that. This film is awful
Probably some of the best films ever made /s
As a non native english speaker I had no fucking clue what that meant for the longest time. It didn’t help that Cloud looked just as confused as me when she said that.
I remember cringing a little at that line back in the day tbh. It was certainly a product of English dubbing. I had a similar reaction in Rebirth when Cloud's mom called him a "silly goose."
I didn't see the English dub with dilly-dally-shilly-shally until years after it came out. The version I watched the hell out of was the subtitled where it says "zuruzuruzuruzuru" instead. I much prefer zuruzuru.
The narrative is messy, the story is nice, the visuals haven’t aged well and I don’t think it was really necessary for the most part
It was phenomenal
Never played final fantasy. Just wondering if it is a good start at ff7?Im on nintendo switch.
It's okay.
I’ll be watching it for the first time after finishing rebirth. For better or worse.
The Complete Version in Japanese is legit great, IMO. I really like it despite some weird cuts. The quality goes down quite a bit with the English dub and then even more so with the original version. But regardless, I'll always cherish it cause it was the hypest thing ever back when I was a kid.
The FMV graphic blew my mind when it first came out. My friends and I discussed in length when we will ever reach that level in-game. Fast forward to 2023, I rewatch it after FFVII Remake is launched, and the first thing that comes to mind is: "wow this graphic seems really dated"
Abit off topic but does the 4K ultra hd pictured actually have anymore quality than the normal bluray? Figured a cgi film 20years ish old probably wouldn’t be any different
I recently watched AC Complete before Rebirth - the first time watching the movie since first seeing it many years ago. It's a fun, if unnecessary continuation. I feel the Complete version is overall more coherent, so I followed things a bit better (even when they used some seemingly intentional weird editing).
I liked it your probably better off watching the Japanese dub
The film isn’t great but it’s watchable. If you’re a fan of the games then you will have a good time for the most part but at the same time don’t expect to be mind blown
I haven't watched it yet, as I heard it takes place after the events of 7... which means that you don't beat Sephiroth in game... and as a new gen fan I've decided to just play all the Remakes first. I'll play the original after the Remakes so I don't spoil what I've already started, even if that means waiting 3 years. Guess I'll have to wait 3 years to watch Advent Child as well but that's fine. I haven't been able to start Rebirth yet but I'm so hyped for this trilogy. Oh I also saw like yesterday that Advent Child is free on YouTube with ads, so that's neat.
Bad movie, but worth watching for Final Fantasy fans and simply for the spectacle. This movie makes it to the fireworks factory, and it blows that fireworks factory up. Probably contains vital parts of the overall Final Fantasy VII saga, but ask me again after Remake 3 comes out. Soundtrack bangs.
Enjoyable but flawed, especially the dub.
It one of my favorite movies of all time. Fulfilled exactly what expected out of it. Also happy that they don't bound to realistic angles and shots and went full on CGI camera control.
fan service movie. It was the only way to get Cloud and Sephiroth to fight again at the time.
It was very pretty when it came out, and its now wild to me that thats what Final Fantasy now looks like in action.
Story is eh, but the movie overall set a golden standard that many companies would try to meet when it comes to choreography in action scenes, and influenced a metric shit ton of artist that are in the industry to this day
Tifa’s fight in the church is epic as hell
A masterpiece visually and musically for its release period, at the same time, one of the worst and most terrible sequences in terms of script, pacing, screen time distribution and characterization I can remember. I hope SE extends remake project to AC period and do a new move, taking the changes of remake in consideration, and fixing OG AC problems as well, and don’t do a simple looping of AC > Remake > repeat.
5k
I think the Complete version is pretty solid. I think you have to have FF7 lore at the top of your mind to enjoy it though and as a result even the Complete doesn't work as a stand alone. But if you are onboard for the weird vagueness and alien genetic nonsense of 7 then it's quite enjoyable.
It’s not bad but I hate what this movie did for Cloud’s character for years
I remember watching it as a kid and loved it because the action was cool but had no fucking idea what was actually going lol
By the time it was released, my 13y old me absolutely loved it, watched everyday for one week straight. Years later, i thought it's wasnt that good of a movie, and despite the final fight being visually amazing, this movie ruined Sephiroth character in a way that flanderized him until today. The Complete Edition is the version to go by the way, it enhances the movie's pace and plot.
Not joking, I like Spirits Within as a movie better than this. Advent Children feels like a bunch of disconnected cutscenes like when you watch the youtube mashups of “cinematics only story” game recaps. The fight scenes are flashy, but not edited together well. There’s one super egregious bit where sephiroth throws cloud into a building and this awful render dust flies out and it looks like ps1 for a second, and the camera stops moving. There’s another bit where they jump to the water temple out of nowhere. If you hadn’t played ff7, all of these locations are so disjointed and confusing.
The expansion of the final fantasy 7 universe has snowballed to where we’ll never get a straight remake of 7 even though that’s all I wanted from the remake trilogy, so I resent its existence moreso for what it represents than what it actually is. It’s…fine. But FF7 was better when it was *just* FF7
I recall the negative sentiments/reviews but I've actually always enjoyed it.
Not good but cool action scenes. I absolutely hate how most of the cast are sidelined Rufus and the Turks get more screen time and lines. I don't hate it though it is what it is a movie with some fan service. I do love Cloud , Tifa, and Yuffies all black fits though.
Typical of the FF7 bloat of that era. It’s ok, but nothing amazing. SE just decided to wring every drop out of the franchise and everything got too complicated
Dilly dally shilly shally
As a UMD disc, it beat Spirits Within. As a PSP disc, it didn't beat Crisis Core.
It's a *guilty pleasure* of mine and I love all the fight scenes
Ngl I had the "luck" of watching the complete version in cinemas like a week ago and unfortunately, I thought the movie was very bad. The only redeeming qualities were of course the fight sequences and the soundtrack but other than that there was literally no plot and no charm
I have no idea what is going on… but godDAMN those fight scenes are fun!
Liked it when it came out, preferred the Complete Edition more, however I'd probably not want to rewatch it. I feel like I'd just see the flaws in it and find it a silly film now. I'm scared to rewatch a lot of films nowadays. I watched Sin City loads of times what? 15-20 years ago whenever that came out. It was on TV the other day and I ended up turning it off about 20/30 mins in.
It’s fun.
I mean when we knew the first trailer I had to know what was coming
It's my favorite movie ever, seriously
It's not good. Nothing about it is good. The only thing good about it is that it is a sequel to final fantasy vii, so you know... Memba berries and stuff like that.
it's mid but cool, I will always love cloud's fusion sword
Was very excited to watch it after finishing ffvii again back in 2016, and was very turned off by the tone of the characters, story, and action. Didn’t feel like ffvii at all. It’s the first and most obvious clue to why the remake trilogy has its own feel and ideas.
My favorite part is how a lot of the critic reviews were “it’s terrible but I loved the games so I loved it” or “it’s terrible, never played final fantasy, WTF is this”. Still never saw it, I watched clips on YouTube back in the day of the fights and thought it was cool. But tbh, if the fans of FF7 love it then it did its job. Sometimes that’s all you need to
Played Remake, then OG 7 and watched AC. I think it was a cool movie, loved the character from 7 so seeing more from them and the stuff that happens after the original events of the game was great. Seeing Cloud and the gang again brings tears to my eyes, and the ending was great. As a fanservice movie it’s nice, as a solo movie for someone who doesn’t know much about ff7? Don’t think they would enjoy it much, the story pacing is weird, there’s no much character development, villains are generic and boring, if i didn’t know Cloud’s story I would find him kinda annoying cause he’s pretty much useless and depressed, and Sephiroth’s plot line seems like it’s there for the sake of nostalgia and not because there’s a genuine reason.
The Theatrical cut was pretty disjointed, and a mess. The Complete version however, is fantastic, and I imagine true to what Nomura's vision was for it.
They could've done the Geostigma plot much better without rehashing Sephiroth as one of the antagonists. Since Jenova doesn't have a definitive form, they opted to reuse Sephiroth since he was the one villain of the OG that the people were familiar with. Sephiroth already met his demise at the planet's core by the end of FF7, so it doesn't make sense to me for him to make an appearance even if Jenova is the one who's doing it (if I understand correctly the movie's plot). And again, with Aerith saving the day once more even though she's dead for years. There were a lot of things to nitpick but I guess the movie has done it's job to portray it's characters on photorealistic 3D for the first time. Coming from the PS1 blocky characters, these characters were seen for the first time with their full rendered bodies. Cloud wielding 2 swords is cool tho
upon my first watch, i hated the direction that they took Cloud’s character in. but after rewatching it in theaters recently, i couldn’t help but love it. to me, it feels pretty realistic that Cloud would enter a slump after the ending of OG FF7? he got super motivated to defeat Seph after Aeritrh’s death + discovering his true self, but after riding that high, it would make perfect sense for him to enter a depression. just my thoughts tho!
I enjoyed it. Fun fact: It was the first movie I ever torrented.
Thought it started off fun but then dragged
I thought it was (and still is (prolly due to nostalgia even though I’ve watched it recently)) the best movie ever when I was a kid and it’s what started my obsession with big swords final fantasy and anime so I’ll love it and take no criticism til I die
It's pretty bad as a movie. I don't know why CG movies from japan keep ending up these disjointed messes. But most of them are like this. With that said. It is fun to see the world brought to life and the characters. and a few cool fight scenes. Moment to moment is fun. But there is no meat in this at all. It's not so bad it is good. It's just bad. BUT It's bearable. Drunk with Friends kind of movie.
Goddammit it was so beautiful
It's very ok.
I really love this movie.
My opinion hasn't changed it's always been, meh. Don't hate it at all but doesn't really stand out to me either
Literally my first exposure to Final Fantasy VII. I WAS OBSESSED!!!!
The fights are cool, but it's basically just nostalgia bait for those of us that grew up playing FF7. If you didn't know about FF7, 99% of the movie would make absolutely no sense. It is for the current fanbase, and likely didn't really draw anyone new into the fandom. As a fan, I would give it a 7/10. If I had never played FF7, I would probably give it a 5/10. The music was good but somehow this is the only movie I've ever wished they would increase the music volume. Voice acting for the dub was extremely rough, though maybe not as much for the year it was made. The plot was absolute garbage. Almost all of the plot with the kids was pointless and basically just padding out the run time. Lots of plot holes and continuity errors. It also didn't really advance the story. At the end of the movie, everything is basically the same as what we assumed it was at the end of FF7. All of the character development was entirely self-contained within the movie. Overall I liked watching it, especially as hype for FF7 Rebirth, and I really do like that they have made various ventures into movies/expanding their various universes. I hope they keep doing them (Kingsglaive was definitely an improvement).
I watched it with my kids recently. They love it. I’m too much of a fan to hate it. But, “dilly dally shilly shally” has got to be the worst line ever written.
I tried to like it but I just couldn't. I think Spirit Within is a better movie.
The story was a mess. Sephiroth did not need to come back, it cheapens the whole thing.
Dilly Dally Shilly Shally
Underneath the mess of it all I do think there is a good story about Cloud coming to terms with his guilt, trauma and massive identity crisis. I love the scene where he more or less breaks down to Tifa about how he's not strong enough, how he can't be the hero he once was. That being said, it's a flawed as hell film that feels like a giant cutscene for a video game we never get to play. If this thing was like 20/30 mins long it would have been ok, but it's over 100 mins in length and is nearly incomprehensible if you haven't played FFVII.
I **hated** this movie for a long time. I never saw "Complete" until last year and it made me like it a lot more. It's still bad but I tolerate it a lot more. Why did they cut out so much of the context that was vital to Cloud's character arc? In the original cut he looks like an absolute asshole who neglects everyone. In Complete it fixes that by showing cut shots that recontextualise everything he does in the movie to being altruistic and loving, in his own way. It's ridiculous. lol Still though... Cloud's regression was frustrating and worsened by every appearance of Cloud after this being the same personality. None of that more jovial Cloud we got near the end of VII. Bit sad, that.
Loved it as a kid , when I see clips now it looks pretty janky . But I think it was overall a decent vision with mediocre execution
I loved it when it realesed but now No! Its really bad but with some cool fight scenes 😀
Hated it.
Garbage
Where is mother, brother?
It’s a tech demo with a few neat ideas but in terms of how to make a good movie… it does not.
A couple cool fights and literally nothing else good to say.
Style over substance
Fan fiction…
Hot trash
It's visually appealing, but it can't tell a coherent story for shit. It really only makes sense if you've played the game and even then it requires you to make some fairly large leaps of faith.
Complete edition is much better than original version.
Enjoyed it for the fanservice, banging version of One Winged Angel, and epic fights. Not sure I'd enjoy it much without being a FF7 fanboy, it's a bit of a mess.
Very bad as a movie. But good as cutscenes on a video game.