Post
by W i l l o w » Fri May 05, 2006 1:59 pm
I would totally love to see SQUARE ENIX remake all of their FINAL FANTASY video games for the PSII/PS3 and not just the over-rated Final Fantasy VII. If anything this game in particular gets far too much attention and there wasn't that much attention to detail in the game nor the movie: (See my thoughts below).:
As usual with big budget CGI Animated movies from Japan in the form of BOOTLEG - SELECTED THEATERS - COMPLETELY CGI - and - IMPORTS, the Japanese have once again beaten the second to last of their dead 'Final Fantasy VII' house and conjured up the two year follow up of the first Playstation game, "Advent Children." This movie suffers from the natural flaw that most films of this format from Japan suffer; Trying to be too philosophized within itself when there's not that much complexity within this evergoing series of video games and mini movies that seems to suffer from the George Lucas syndrome. In all reality its as straight forward as "APPLESEED" is, only its not as interesting. Fan boys and rabid fangirls will ignore the fact that Advent Children has no plausible storyline and simply revel in the presence of the major, minor and cameo characters just because it tickles them to them again. In truth the movie could be called a sort of nostalgia piece of sorts for them. Newcomers are better off just playing the games past VII. And hardly after a year has past, Advent Children has finally arrived on U.S. borders in the form of its official DVD release. While the storyline is still pretty non-exsistent but the official subtitle translation and English dub somehow made the movie more enjoyable and a lot easier to understand compaired to a fan translation.
The planet has begun healing itself from the devastating attack of the meteor (Jenova) and the Lifestream. A strange disease known as "Geo-Stigma" has arisen in its wake. As far as the people know there is no obvious cure, and children seem to be at greater risk. Cloud Strife, who is also infected with the disease, has secluded himself from the world, haunted by the demons of his past. Beforehand he established a delivery service with Tifa and once lived in the bar. Tifa's bar [Seventh Heaven] is now an orphanage for the infected children where she and Cloud have taken care of the children before his absence. Marlene Wallace, Barrett's adopted daughter, is entrusted to the care of Tifa. With them is a boy named Denzel, who Cloud, Tifa, and Marlene have taken in as their own. Elsewhere three villainous pretty boys [Clones of Sephiorth of an unknown origin], Kadaj (the jubilant seeming and twisted ringleader), Loz (the big strong guy who cries), and Yazoo (similar to Kadaj in appearance with the exception of longer hair, but more acrobatic and straight forward with killing) plans to revive Sephiroth or 'mother' as they have come to call him. They attack Cloud -or "bother/traitor"- under the assumption that he has what their looking for. From there proceed to kidnap all the children from Tifa's bar turned orphanage under the false pretense that they will cure them of their illness. Cloud is practically forced out of his seclusion, feeling responsible somehow but still thinks himself unable to others he cares for.
The storyline is basically as straight forward as that. Advent may rivial SPIRITS in the animation department but Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within wins in terms of storyline/plot, inspite of its departure from the game. As mentioned above many of the characters from the game make cameo appearances throughout the movie, in Sailor Moon and Power Ranger styled appearances. They appear just when a dangerous situation looks bleak and stand together in a dramatic pose before rushing off into the fray. All of them ready to back Cloud Strife in his battle again the three brothers and their plan to revive their original counterpart. The movie is more action than story. It impresses you with over the top action scenes that are fast and furious, equally dazzling but a bit clunky in most places. It was obvious from the start that ENIX was inspired by various Hong Kong and Jet Li films. To my delight most of the battles are indeed eye catching and thrilling to watch. With the exception of the Tifa vs. Loz battle. In the trailer it made the battle look very cool. It ended up being erratic and choppy at best. The score chosen for the battle was a let down as well. I was expecting this fight to be second best at least. Of course when the action stops, the movie lags on until it begins again. Thus creating a sense of jet-lag, apparent in movies like 'Soldier' and the 'Harry potter' series to name a couple.
The obvious humor of the movie was not so lost on me like I had originally thought; The characters Reno and Rude are excellent comic relief but do turn out to be the more likable secondary male characters. I did laugh when Loz's ringtone was the silly victory song played during the game. Reno getting locked out his own building was a riot. Scenes concerning Cloud and Kadaj are bearable at best. A majority of the time you'll be trying to figure out what's going on within the erratic-blipping flashbacks or the close ups on Kadaj's eyes in certain scenes. Most of the scenes with Cloud will confuse you as you try to figure out whether if he's dreaming, or having flashbacks or if he's in the present. This is most obvious when a white screen appears and his talking to the late Aerith or is unconscious. Its rather confusing to those who don't have speed-vision.
SQUARE ENIX shows off that they've recovered from their self-induced Bankruptcy from their first attempt at an CGI movie via "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," by providing their viewers with beautiful CGI animation that does surpass its predecessor on many levels. They paid a lot of attention to the surrounding backgrounds and character models in the film. The clothes look like clothing and actually movie and shift like the material it imitates. The hair, faces, skin features, eyes animation is more life like and realistic while still maintaining the GCI look. Its actually pretty, but has its problems if you look hard enough. The motion capture is better than it was in "Spirits Within" - capturing movement with flawless ease, thus awing the viewer. However, there are still problems in terms of running and reaction motion. I also noticed a few problems with the motorcycles; They can be clunky sometimes. Probably because they defies logical limits of reality. The score plays like video game themed music; Instead of looping of course, the music is lengthy and with ending. Naturally, amateur gituar styled rock blares in the background during the heat of combat, makes me want to shoot the BMG composer. Its less than impressive and while it does offer a good point now and then, it doesn't deliver like it should've. While cool the ways of the gituar composers, the revamped Sephiroth theme 'Advent: One Winged Angel' made me chortle because it sounded like something out a b-horror movie when paused to make the 'phsyco stabbing' sound effect. Once again the rock invades the theme (its less annoying) half of way through the song and the Latain vocals did impress me.
The translation of Japanese in the subtitles compared to the BOOTLEG subtitle version of ADVENT CHILDREN my sister got me, is so much better in terms of understanding the very little story. There are eight subtitle formats to choose from, with English and Japanese Audio (to my knowledge) only. I'm basically netural when it comes to Japanese dubs in anything concerning Japanese cartoons and films. Mostly because with films like these, they usually get horrible English dub treatment (see: Appleseed). But to my surprise, the English Dub is brillaintly transferred on this CGI film like silk on skin. It practically rivials SPIRITS to a major T. It also brings to light how little dailouge there is in the entire movie itself. The voice actors really put their all into the characters --with the exception of some hiccups in most characters (Loz for instance)--- and give turly convincing performances. While its a bit strange at first to watch the movie in English ---the mouths are clearly matched for Japanese--- it steadily becomes less eerie. With familar (and not so familar) English casts this should please anyone who gets a bit tired of reading subtitles.
While her role is relatively small, Mena Suvari plays the late Arieth well. Christy Carlson Romano (Kim Possible/Even Stevens) reprises her role as Yuffie from "KINGDOM HEARTS" -- and gives what charm she can to a character very few lines. Crispin Freeman (Wolf's Rain) and Quinton Flynn as the Turks Rude and Reno, were amazing actors for the characters; they were good during the comedic moments too. Former? Soap Opera star, Steve Burton's (whom I almost mistaked for Mark Hildreth) voice is the embodiment of Cloud's character in the movie. His broody voice fits the character so well, its easily my favorite voice actor in the film ("Well, I'm gonna try,"). Steve Blum gives a excellent performance as a deep voiced and wise Vincent Valentine, whose plight seems to be to the lack of a cell phone. Beau Billingslea whom I know from Orgemon of "Digimon: Digital Monsters," was an excellent choice for Barret Wallace. His gruff voice, however, did nothing to fix the silly expressions they gave the tough man.
Much like Mena Suvari, Rachael Leigh Cook (She's all that) as Tifa ---Cloud's potiental love interest and caretaker of the childen in 7TH Heaven--- was an excellent choice on SQUARE's side. Her voice lends a sort of charm Tifa lacks in the Japanese language. The child voice actors, Benjamin Bryan and Grace Rolek - as Denzel and Marlene Wallace amazing, almost as good as the voice actor in ROD: THE TV. Espically when Denzel swears. Steve Staley - (Kadaj), Fred Tatasciore - (Loz), and Dave Wittenberg (Yazoo) were practically identical matches for their Japanese counterparts; espically in the grunting department. However, Fred Tatasciore was probably the weakest out of the three of them; His characterization made Loz sound kind of lame and whimpy ("Meanie!"). Lastly George Newbern (Wolf's Rain) as Cloud's arch nemesis, Sephiroth, was at first a big surprise. His voice matched the pale and meanacing appearance of the villain so well it made me grin just listening to him. Once you watch the Cloud vs. Sephiroth scene a couple more times though, you begin to notice that Newbern's voice is just a tad bit on the soft side to be all that villainous, but it doesn't detract from the character too much though. Other actors that lend their voices to the film are as equally good as the core VAs, if not better.
So all in all, "ADVENT CHILDREN" wasn't a bad movie, but it suffered from all the flaws "APPLESEED" did. That being trying to cram too much into a short amount of time or having little or no plausible story to go with the CGI. It also suffers from the usual 'I will stop you fiend!' Japanese demeanor (like everything else doesn't). The characters managed to be interesting despite the lack of development and the action was great entertainment. I'm no Final Fantasy VII fan, but SQUARE did a good job with the movie despite its problems. ----- [a 3 out of 5]
Its the stronger who create the weaker; it was the strong earth that created the weak colonies and almost drove them to destruction!
. (Seriously, if they put them in just a little less arubtly, then I would be happier.)