This is at it's heart a fan service, with little plot; but lots of action this is definitely still worth seeing FF fans.
I was almost dreading having to see the film in English as I was worried the voice acting would not be up to par with the suberb work done by the Japanese crew. While the VA was not outstanding, it was nothing to scoff at either.
The only complaint I have about the VA is Red. Why does he have a Scottish accent? To me this seemed terribly out of place. That being said, Red has extremely few lines in the film so it does not hamper my final view of the film.
As for the visuals, what can I say? You have seen the trailers, the film is absolutely breathtaking, from the grime on Zach's sword, or to each characters individual hairs moving in the wind; it is absolutely spectacular. The scene between Cloud and Sephiroth is very memorable to me with many bright flashes and some very nice work with contrast. Absolutley no complaints from me visually, simply breathtaking.
For plot, which I will rank as Gameplay; there is not much. To recap, Kadaj and his brothers (look alikes of Sephiroth in their own ways) are trying to gather everyone with Jenova's cell's to wreak havoc on the planet. While this may seem like a good idea; it came out very rushed in the film. There was next to no character development; even for the new characters. If you did not have at least a solid grasp on the story line of Final Fantasy VII, you would be utterly lost. While as an avid FFVII fan, I was enthralled to see Cloud and Sephiroth duke it out in beautiful CG, I was dissapointed by how rushed it seemed. It almost seemed like they needed a way to fit Sephiroth in. I won't let plot details go but suffice to say I was not impressed with how quickly the scene between Cloud and Sephiroth was developed, or how quickly it ended. Plot was not a strength in the film.
Grudges aside, this movie is not about the plot, it is about the action and the beauty of it, and on those fronts is does not dissapoint. While technically not a very 'solid' movie, for any FF fan with a good grasp on FFVII's plotline, this is definitley at least a must see if not a must buy.