![]() ![]() This too is topped by a massively exciting climactic swordfight sequence with Cloud and Sephiroth fighting in mid-air as a building collapses around them, a sequence that is surely about as exciting as it is possible for anime to get. This is topped by a breathlessly exciting motorcycle chase and fight sequence with combatants racing through the city and around a tunnel that comes with a dizzying kinesis and flips into Bullet Time slow-motion. There are some enormously exciting scenes with the various members of the Avalanche force taking on a monster over the skies of Midgar and Cloud being tossed from hand to hand up into sky to enter into a giant blue ball of energy. Tetsuya Nomura directs some amazing action sequences, albeit borrowing heavily from The Matrix (1999) in attempting to conduct the animated equivalent of Bullet Time moves. The animation style follows on from the pioneering photorealistic quality that we saw in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which gives a stunning depth of texture to characters’ faces and skin. However, the film is take no prisoners when it comes to making concessions to anyone who is not up with the (computer) game, which is something that you can only admire (in between scratching your head at trying to follow the plot). It is only thanks to the miracles of Wikipedia and some people with far too much time on their hands who have gone and detailed biographies for every character in the game and film that I did eventually figure out who was who. The major minus about this is that, not having played the Final Fantasy VII game and in that the film is a direct sequel to the events there, I found it extremely difficult to work out the milieu that we are meant to be in, who many of the characters are or frequently what was meant to be going on. (It should also be pointed out that the two Final Fantasy films are made by entirely different companies and production personnel and are not related beyond the name). Director Tetsuya Nomura had worked as a character designer on Final Fantasy VII and other incarnations of the game, and had not directed a film prior to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. It is, for instance, a film that has been made by the people behind the game rather than a standard film adaptation of a videogame made by people who were fans of the original or looking for a film product that came with a built-in audience as most videogame-to-film adaptations are. One must keep in mind that Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a film made for the gamer crowd in order to fully understand it. ![]() Hero Cloud Strife goes into action with sword even bigger than he is This gives clear indication that the filmmakers have made Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children directly for the gaming crowd, not for anime fans or the casual sampler of videostore shelves – Final Fantasy VII is a title that can surely only have significance to people who come to it from the game. To next come across a film entitled Final Fantasy VII in videostores provides some confusion to non-gamers with many assuming that they had missed some five other sequels in between Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Advent Children. The Final Fantasy series had earlier given birth to an anime film with the excellent Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), even though the film bore no relation to any of the games. Further such confusion was created by the subsequent film adaptation Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016). Final Fantasy VII was celebrated when it came out for its incredible graphics and the complexity of its storyline over what had gone before in gaming. Final Fantasy VII takes place inside the futuristic city of Midgar where one can play a variety of characters with different powers as they tackle the totalitarian Shinra Electric Power Company and as the hero Cloud Strife takes on the evil Sephiroth and his plans to damage the planet in order to gain godlike powers. (Although, trying to follow the numbering of the games is confusing as some of the games have their own sequels and none are tied together particularly well in terms of plot, as witness their ability to change between fantasy and science-fiction with differing instalments). So far, the series extends all the way up to Final Fantasy XIV (2010). Final Fantasy VII (1997) was the most popular of the Final Fantasy computer games from the Japanese company Square. ![]()
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