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 or
followers of the Final Fantasy games, "Advent
Children" comes as a reward for those long
hours spent in front of the TV pushing buttons and
ignoring a social life. For everyone else, this is
pure eye candy, especially since the film has a
story continued from the game, with no background
setup whatsoever for anyone not already familiar
with the movie's world. Since I have never played
a "Final Fantasy" game, the only
question running through my mind after the movie
finished was, "Uh...what just happened?"
The plot of "Advent
Children" takes place two years after the
events of "Final Fantasy VII", wherein a
disease called 'Seikon-Shoukougun', or
'Geostigma', believed to have been caused by the
body fighting off foreign material from two years
earlier, is becoming a pandemic, and has affected
many orphans. An ex-soldier named Cloud Strife
(Takahiro Sakurai) has also been afflicted with
the disease, resulting in his decision to live a
secluded, solitary life away from many of his
friends, although he does continue to work at
"Strife's Delivery Service", located in
Tifa Lockheart's bar, the Seventh Heaven.
Tifa (Ayumi Ito) is Cloud's
love interest, and tries to understand Cloud's
guilt-ridden behaviour while at the same time
operating a bar that also serves as an orphanage
for children stricken with the Geostigma. She also
keeps an eye on Barret's six-year-old daughter,
Marlene (Tsuduruhara Miyuu), while
Barret searches the planet for an alternative
energy source to the fossil fuel Mako. After a
confusing battle with some gang members claiming
to be looking for their "mother", Cloud
receives a phone call from the former Shinra, Inc.
president Rufus (Toru
Ôkawa), asking him for protection from
a mysterious man named Kadaj (Shotaro Morikubo).
Kadaj and brothers Loz (Kenji Nomura) and
Yazoo
(Yûji Kishi) are the ones
searching for their "mother", believing
that Cloud knows where to find her.
If the plot sounds
complicated, that's because it is. And I haven't
even mentioned a talking dog, a magic
"lifestream", and some psycho orphans
yet. However, the fault does not lie with director
Tetsuya Nomura, who shows a deft hand at capturing
the battles by not opting for frenetic camera
movements and quick-cuts as a matter of course.
The film's highlight is an action scene between
Tifa and one of the brothers, even if the scene in
question has camera techniques borrowed from
"The
Matrix" movies. Then again, who hasn't
borrowed from "The Matrix"? The blame
for the film's ultimate failure goes to
screenwriter Kazushige Nojima, who
elects to alienate everyone but the core Final
Fantasy fans by simply refusing to provide proper
exposition for anyone not already familiar with
the movie's history.
On the plus side,
"Advent Children" is the product of
Square Company, who has been responsible for most
of the Final Fantasy games, and has a knack for
creating sumptuous visuals. In the case of
"Advent Children", Square has succeeded
once again. The futuristic planets in the film are
marvelous to look at, and the vehicle designs very
interesting, including a motorcycle that looks
like a pod-racer from "Star
Wars: The Phantom Menace."
When reviewing "Advent
Children", it is impossible not to mention
two other movies, the Japanese sci-fi action film
"Casshern"
and the CGI movie "Final
Fantasy: The Spirits Within". Although
those two movies are very much derivative and
unoriginal themselves, they at least had something
"Advent Children" didn't, which were
storylines beyond the games. And besides a script
that actually bothered to explain itself, they
also had great popcorn value. "Final Fantasy:
Advent Children" doesn't even have those
things, mainly because trying to understand the
plot means giving the movie a certain level of
thought and attention. However, with characters
that are hard to care about and a story that seems
tailored for fans only, what's the incentive for
non-fans to spend the effort to understand it?
So yes, "Final Fantasy:
Advent Children" is great to look at, and has
some of the best CGI action scenes you're liable
to see all year. Unfortunately, that's about all
the movie has going for it. Which is a shame,
considering the time, money and effort spent on
the production values, which at this moment is the
only thing about the film worth paying attention
to. |
