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THE MOVIE:
Now is a good time to own a blu ray player Final Fantasy fans.

In 2001, Squaresoft made their first foray into the motion picture industry with Final Fantasy: The Spirits With. With their gorgeous cinematics within the games they made, surely a film made by them would be a phenomenal piece of work? Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Though Spirits Within had some dazzling CGI, its plot and script left a lot to be desired, and ultimately becoming a box office disaster for the company. Though it has its share of fans (like yours truly), even they agreed that Square could have done something a little bit more true to the game universe (or universes) that they created. Cut to 2005, Squaresoft, now Square Enix, announces a new Final Fantasy movie, this time, a direct sequel to their most beloved game of the series, Final Fantasy VII. Fans were ecstatic, but others were unsure. Japan first got the film in September of 2005, while America had to wait a full 6 months before we got to see the film. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, was met with mixed reviews. Though once again, the animation was praised, along with the nostalgia factor, the story and script were panned for its incoherency and out of character actions of its lead character. As someone whole played the game beginning to end, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, though its flaws were there. But even with all its hiccups, it’s still the best video game based film ever conceived.

Tokyo Game Show, 2006. Square Announces a brand new Director’s Cut of the film to be released on Blu Ray. It would contain at most 26 minutes of extra footage that would make the film darker, and would clear up some of the plot issues fans had. This time, we had to wait 3 whole YEARS for this cut to come out. And now, we finally have it. Does it fulfill its promise? Or is it just more flash and little substance?

Advent Children takes place 2 years after the events of the game. Midgar has been all but destroyed by the meteor that threatened to destroy the planet, but was stopped by the very spirit of the earth (the Lifestream). The survivors created a new city called Edge and now live there. Unfortunately, the Lifestreams actions may have caused a disease known as Geostigma, something that is only given to people who had Jenova cells inside of them (long story), this mainly attributes to children(who have weaker immune systems), but a few adults as well. One of these adults is Cloud Strife, now a depressed loner due to his inability to find a cure for Denzel, a child who is in his and best friend Tifa’s care. On his way back after making a delivery (he runs a delivery shop), he is ambushed by three men who demand to know where their “Mother” is. After this ambush, Cloud is called upon by once evil, now neutral corporation President known as Rufus Shinra, to dispose of this gang. Cloud refuses, but soon has no choice when Tifa is wounded by one of the trio’s members, and Denzel, along with another child in their care, Marlene, is kidnapped by the gang. Now Cloud must take back up the mantle of being a hero and stop this gang, but he might need some help from a few old friends.

The plot is a little complicated sure, and even this new cut would require explanations from die hard FFVII fans, but not as many as the original version, as Complete clears up quite a few things. Which brings me finally to the review that I’m sure quite a few of you have been wanting to read. Here goes. *Ahem* Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete is a vast, and I mean VAST improvement over the original version. It’s longer, has more story, scratch that, ADDS a story, and has a much bigger arc for Cloud. In the original version, no real reason was given as to why he went back into depression mode. While he said that he “wasn’t good to anyone”, it wasn’t really much of a reason. Here, they give him a reason. That bit of him trying and failing to find a cure for Denzel in the synopsis I gave a paragraph ago? That was new. There is also more emphasis on his deceased best friend Zack, who now makes two big appearances in the film, incorporating a couple bits from the ending of Crisis Core. The film even decides to go back and give a reason as to why the Turks, who were rather morally grey/evil in the game, became more than willing to help out Cloud in the movie. That’s dedication right there. They even managed to give us a pay off to Cloud’s promise to Tifa. He made a promise to her in the game, but it finally pays off in the film. It’s pretty bad ass the way it’s handled.

Geostigma, more of a minor annoyance in the first version, is now a full fledged death disease in Complete. Ooze pours out of the head, inducing black ooze vomiting; it was disgusting to say the least. It makes the virus more threatening in this version, rather in the first cut, where it was just a nasty looking skin rash. Denzel has been given a character overhaul, as a story as to how he ended up in the Strife “Family” has been added into the film. Another new addition to the film is surprisingly, blood. In the first cut, Cloud got hurt, yet he seemed fine, here….my god. I’m not going to spoil what happens to him, but let me tell you, his final battle with Sephiroth has been extended, and it’s brutal.

The additions had up to about 26 minutes, and because the film is longer, it surprisingly adds something to a character who doesn’t get any new scenes at all. That character is Aerith, another one of Cloud’s dead friends who show up to help him. In Advent Children, she appeared pretty often throughout the movie, almost like an active player in the proceedings. Now that the film is longer, her bits are now spread out more evenly, turning her into a presence more than an active player. It works beautifully now, and her appearances now have a ton of more weight to them. Also working to the films advantage are the appearances of Cloud’s many allies in the 2nd half of the film. Like Aerith, no new material is given to them, but the build up to them is now much stronger with the added running time.

Before I can go any further praising this new cut of the film, I’ll stop here, but with a nice conclusion. Earlier, I called Advent Children the best Video Game Based Movie ever. It still is. But Complete the best anime film I’ve seen in quite some time. It’s epic, action packed, and is greatly more satisfying than most animes out there. Watch it as if your life depended on it.

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The Video:

Advent Children comes to Blu Ray with a near perfect transfer. The picture pops off the screen, the CGI is vibrant and utterly beautiful. It’s the best the film will probably ever look. However, the transfer has a minor hiccup that prevents this from being the best Blu Ray transfer ever. The new scenes are absolutely stunning to look at, but the scenes from the regular version of the movie, while also looking quite great, and a noticeable improvement over the DVD, isn’t quite as perfect as the new scenes are. There is a slight softness to the scenes, as if the original footage wasn’t rendered as well as the new stuff. However, this is extremely minor, as it blends almost seamlessly with the new footage, and is only noticeable in scenes with a lot of light (the church scene is probably the biggest example of this). This is still a great transfer, just not perfect.

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The Sound:

The Blu Ray comes in three different flavors audio wise. All of them in truHD sound. You got Japanese, English, and French. I don’t know why French is there, but hey, someone out there probably wants to hear Vincent’s sexy voice in French. There’s also a boatload of subtitles, but I’ll get to that soon. For the purist, like me, you would want to listen to the Japanese dub, which is the best choice. The audio is loud and dynamic, surrounding you in its aural glory. The 2nd half of the film is a speakers heaven, with every crash, bang, and boom heard on every channel. This one will be a work out for your sound system, I guarantee it. It’s the best audio mix I’ve heard since the Blu Ray of Akira earlier this year. If you don’t want to read those pesky subtitles, or if you don’t want to learn Japanese, the English dub isn’t too bad either. It’s not as aurally amazing as the Japanese dub, but it’s still dynamic enough that it’s definitely worth a listen. It also helps that the voice acting isn’t ear shatteringly awful. Cloud’s voice actor (Steve Burton) comes off the best of the bunch, and even Rachel Leigh Cook is pitch perfect as Tifa, which surprised the hell out of me. Mena Suvari is a mixed bag, as I liked the Crisis Core actress the best. While not horrible, doesn’t quite have the innocent and heavenly voice that I imagine Aerith would possess. Steven Blum rocks as Vincent, and George Newbern is friggin awesome as Sephiroth. Overall, both tracks rock. Didn’t bother with the French one.

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A Word About The Subtitles:

These are dubtitles. Meaning that they are word for word the English dub. Those hoping for a direct translation of the Japanese dialogue will be sorely disappointed. So if you hated “Dilly Dally, Silly Shally”, it’s not changing here. However, it is still an improvement over the original DVD’s subtitles. I’m sure Sony learned their lesson and shot the guy who did the subtitles for Cat Sith, cause his subs are readable here, and make a hell of a lot more sense. Even though these are dubtitles, the fact that the dub is great, makes it fine. Even with a couple weird bits. Cloud says “Never tried” twice in Japanese, yet the subtitles only pick it up the 2nd time, with the first time being translated as “You mean…?” Still, not a HUGE deal.

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Bonus Features:

The original, and later Limited edition DVD releases came nearly packed with bonus materials. Books, scripts, deleted pieces of animation, and interviews with the English cast. Unfortunately, almost none of these materials ended up on the Blu Ray release. Except one: the story digest.

Here are the bonus features for the Blu Ray release:

• On The Way To A Smile: The Case Of Denzel OVA
• Reminiscence Of Final Fantasy VII
• The Legacy Of Final Fantasy VII
• Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII Compilation
• Trailers
• Sneak Peak at Final Fantasy XIII

It would have been nice if the OVA Last Order, that was in the Limited Edition DVD, was included as well, which brings the disc down a tad. The Case Of Denzel is a short 2D animated film covering the origins of Denzel. It’s a rather dark and bittersweet short film that also adds depth to the character of Denzel. A small note: this is an adaptation of a novella of short stories that has been only released in Japan, with this being one of them. I hope one day that novella makes it over here, or even if Nomura (the director) decides to make shorts out of all the chapters and decides to double dip the Blu Ray (probably not though).

Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII and of the Compilation is exactly what they suggest. The first one details all the events of the game in 23 minutes, to either help people who haven’t played the game, or people who don’t remember it too well and need a refresher. It works for both, but the latter more than the former. Compilation details the prequel and sequel games that came out, Crisis Core and Dirge Of Cerberus and others. This one is for die-hards only, as new comers will just scratch their heads.

The Legacy Of Final Fantasy VII deals with the history of the game, and how it got to where it is now. Mainly a fluff piece, as it only runs about 7 minutes.

Trailers are self explanatory, from the first trailer of Complete to the last in chronological order.

The Sneak Peak of FFXIII is self explanatory too. While Japan got a demo, we just got a video. Kind of a bummer, but oh well. Game looks great, and should be an improvement over the crushing disappointment that was XII.

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OVERALL

This is a disc that every Final Fantasy VII fan should own. If you didn’t like the first cut, you will definitely appreciate this new version of the film. If you loved the original version, prepare to adore Complete. While the extras aren’t as grade A as the sound, picture (A- in the videos case), and film, it’s still very much a full price recommendation.

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