Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children not only has stunning action and beautiful presentation, but it is also fun to watch.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children takes place two years after the events of the original game, Final Fantasy VII. Cloud, the main character, has cast aside his past and is now a delivery boy for his new job. Soon, three silver haired "men", Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz, are trying to bring back Jenova, the original power source of Shin-Ra Corp. and their "Mother", and spreading a new disease called Geostigma, the Jenova cells. Soon, he is reunited with his old friends such as Tifa, Barret, Yuffie, and Vincent, to take them down, as well as an old friend in his memories.
If Advent Children has been hyped for one reason, it would be the graphics. Each Final Fantasy product, movie or game, has always had one thing that would never change: hardware defying visuals. Advent Children is no different. Unlike some other shoddy adaptations to the big screen (i.e. Bloodrayne, Alone in the Dark), Advent Children uses the same Tetsuya Nomura character designs and makes them so realistic, you may begin to ask if you are watching pixels at all. While Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within set the benchmark of lifelike visuals, Advent Children takes them two steps further. When it is calm, you can see every single detail that they strained out of current CG technology, from the strands of Cloud's spikey hair, to even the simplist fabrics on Aeris' shirt. When it's super fast, you can see all of the excellent animations that Nomura and his team worked so hard on. These animations stand out the most in the chapel and final battles. That's not to say that there is no great artistry as well; the artwork in the movie is equally beautiful. When you look at some of the great effects that they created, you almost feel like you are playing a brand new FF game with all of the vibrant colors that you expect. Even the lesser characters like the citizens stand out as well. Sure, there may be a little bit of lip synching that could have been fixed up during all of the delays, but this is more of a blemish on Advent Children's fine face instead of a scar.
The visuals may have been the most hyped, but the audio has been given just as much attention to. This is probably the best audio that I have ever heard in my life. The music is an excellent mix of orchestra, hard rock, and soft keyboard. The sound effects have also been given the same Squenix treatment that has been present for many years. From the crumbling of collapsing buildings to the chime of the victory fanfare on Loz's cell phone, every object has been made to sound how it would in real life. The American dub has been spared no expense either. All of the actors that were in Kingdom Hearts II are in here as well, but the real catch is that Mena Suravi actually sounds like Aeris in Advent Children than she ever did in KHII. Some actors may not fit the part at first, but when you get deeper into the story, they fit the part perfectly.
Unlike all of the other crappy movie adaptations that have come out before, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a groundbreaking achievement, not only because it has stunning action and beautiful presentation, but it is also fun to watch. The characters have emotions pulled off excellently due to the visuals, the sound is crystal clear, and the story is actually connected to the FFVII storyline (take that, Bloodrayne!). Now if we can just get a hand-animated Kingdom Hearts movie with the same Tetsuya Nomura treatment, the gods will have truly arrived.