Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)

An ex-mercenary is forced out of isolation when three mysterious men kidnap and brainwash the city's children afflicted with the Geostigma disease.

Directors:

Tetsuya Nomura, Takeshi Nozue (co-director)

Writers:

Kazushige Nojima, Brian Gray (English screenplay)

Stars:

Takahiro Sakurai, Ayumi Itô, Shôtarô Morikubo

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Takahiro Sakurai	...	Cloud Strife (voice)
Ayumi Itô	...	Tifa Lockhart (voice)
Shôtarô Morikubo	...	Kadaj (voice) (as Shoutarou Morikubo)
Maaya Sakamoto	...	Aerith Gainsborough (voice)
Keiji Fujiwara	...	Reno (voice)
Taiten Kusunoki	...	Rude (voice)
Yûji Kishi	...	Yazoo (voice) (as Yuuji Kishi)
Kenji Nomura	...	Loz (voice)
Shôgo Suzuki	...	Vincent Valentine (voice) (as Shougo Suzuki)
Masahiro Kobayashi	...	Barret Wallace (voice)
Kazuyuki Yama	...	Cid Highwind (voice) (as Kazuyuki Yamaji)
Yumi Kakazu	...	Yuffie Kisaragi (voice)
Hideo Ishikawa	...	Cait Sith (voice)
Masachika Ichimura	...	Red XIII / Nanaki (voice)
Miyû Tsuzurahara	...	Marlene Wallace (voice) (as Miyuu Tsuzuhara)

Storyline

Two years after the events in "Final Fantasy VII", a disease called 'Seikon-Shoukougun', or 'Geostigma', is spreading through the planet. This disease is believed to have been caused by the body fighting off foreign material that invaded the body two years earlier, at the end of "Final Fantasy VII". Guilt-ridden and haunted by his past, ex-SOLDIER Cloud Strife has decided to live a secluded, solitary life away from his friends while maintaining "Strife's Delivery Service", whose headquarters is located in Tifa Lockheart's bar, the Seventh Heaven. Tifa's bar serves as an orphanage for children stricken with Geostigma. Here, Tifa keeps an eye on Barret's six-year-old daughter, Marlene, while Barret searches the planet for an alternative energy source to the Planet's energy, Mako. One day, Cloud receives a phone call from the former Shinra, Inc. president, Rufus, asking him for protection from a mysterious man named Kadaj. Kadaj, in the meantime, along with his brothers Loz and Yazoo, ...

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Plot Keywords:

based on video game | profanity | disease | silver hair | phone | 

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Taglines:

I won't just be a memory...

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Drama | Family | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action violence

Did You Know?

Trivia

The creators of the film had no prior knowledge of how to make a movie, so it was based on their knowledge of in-game movies.

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Goofs

During the bike chase sequence, Kadaj bursts through a barrier reading: "WARNING: Authorized Parsonal Only." "Personnel" is the correct spelling. This error only appears in the original version, and is corrected in Advent Children Complete.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Elena: Tseng! Look at this.
Tseng: Pay dirt.

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Crazy Credits

For the first half of the credits, the credits are formed by a bunch of letters joining together. In the second half of the credits, when the video comes on, the credits spiral upwards towards the screen in English with the Japanese credits moving sideways besides the English credits.

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Alternate Versions

'Advent Children Complete' contains 26 minutes of additional footage. This includes:

• An opening scene with Kadaj talking to Rufus and asking why humanity even bothers to continue on.
• Marlene's opening monologue features new effects for the Lifestream, Meteor, and the background fire for Sephiroth.
• Numerous new shots have been added to the introduction to Edge City, including a scene showing a man dying from Geostigma in an alley while some children watch.
• A new radio voice-over during Tifa's opening scene.
• When Cloud first meets with Rufus, a scene is shown from Elena's point of view, which explains what happened when Reno's helicopter landed in North Cave and where Kadaj and his brothers originally came from.
• A small scene between Reno and Rude, where Reno wonders if they'll ever be forgiven for the things they did for Shinra in the past, and if they'll be able to find Tseng and Elena.
• A flashback showing how Denzel first met Cloud.
• As the girl with the moogle is carrying her brother through the streets, some people try to help her, but when they see that her brother is in the advanced stages of Geostigma, they back away. She drops her moogle and Denzel picks it up and holds it out to her. She angrily takes it back and continues on.
• Extended flashback sequence of Zack, including his death, where he tells Cloud, "You'll be my living legacy," and gives him the Buster Sword.
• Dirt, blood, and bruises are added to Tifa's fight with Loz.
• The young girl later apologizes for getting angry with Denzel, and tells him that her brother is dead. She then notices that he is infected with Geostigma, and tells him that someone has found a way to cure it, taking him to where the children are being loaded into the back of Yazoo's truck.
• Another flashback, where Cloud puts Denzel on his bike and leaves the church.
• A scene of Denzel and the girl talking in the back of the truck.
• When Kadaj loads his new materia in the Forgotten City, he tries it out by destroying a tree, scaring Marlene and shocking Loz.
• A scene of Cloud and Marlene arriving back in Edge City, where she asks him why he left and whether or not there is a cure for Geostigma.
• Dirt, blood, and bruises are added to Reno and Rude's fight with Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz.
• A scene where Denzel defeats one of the monsters by breaking a fire hydrant which shoots out a stream of water.
• During the fight between Tifa and the monsters, Cloud rushes in to save her and Denzel at the last minute.
• During the chase out of Edge, Reno and Rude's helicopter crashes and they are picked up by Elena and Tseng.
• The fight between Cloud and Sephorith is longer, and includes a scene where Sephiroth stabs Cloud in the stomach and holds him in the air on his blade, mirroring the famous scene in the game. A lot of blood has also been added.
• During the battle with Sepiroth, Cloud has a vision of Zack.
• After the battle, all the children of Edge afflicted with Geostigma receive a phone-call telling them to go to the Sector 5 church.
• After the credits roll, Cloud takes Denzel to the cliff where Zack was killed. Flowers are growing on the spot Zack died, and Denzel asks if it is a grave. Cloud says no, that it is where a hero began his journey. We then cut to the altar of the church, where the Buster Sword has been restored and placed in Aeris' flowerbed.

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Connections

Spun-off from Final Fantasy VII (1997)

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Soundtracks

Tatakau Monotachi/Let the Battles Begin
(uncredited)
Composed by Nobuo Uematsu
Arranged and performed by Tsuyoshi Sekito & Keiji Kawamori
Mixed by Yoichiro Kano

User Reviews

Sadly overrated

First of all, Advent Children is a movie telling a story 2 years after the events of the ever successful Adventure Rpg Playstation and PC game: Final Fantasy 7.

The reason Advent Children fails to deliver, is mainly because of it's heavy title. Final Fantasy 7. A movie supposed be the succession of the greatest story ever told. It's simply an impossible task. What makes it really bad though, is that in this movie, the story is bland, incoherent with the past and simply boring. It's as if they realized how paltry any attempts would be, and simply gave up on the idea of trying to do something that would at least look like a sequel to FF7.

The movie did look very pretty, with Square Enix's best CG animators taking pride of their work, rightfully so. The action scenes are beautifully coordinated and overall it's an original piece. The musical score, mostly a remix from the tracks of the original game, fits well with the action and keeps the pace up. Although some of the calmer music isn't as well composed, it still serves it purpose. Keep in mind, however, that this is a Japanese movie. Expect some unrealistic content, anime-style. The editing is well done, and exciting. Now if only they could fix the story.

The saddest thing about this movie is how die-hard fans of the original game accepted this movie even before it was released. But while some loves it beyond comprehension, so does also some despise the movie for all that it didn't live up to. A supposed sequel to FF7. It made a lot of people have sky-high expectations, for naught. If you've played ff7, then you might want to see this. There's a 50-50 chance you'll like it or hate it. If you haven't played the game and are completely unfamiliar with the pre-existing story of Cloud and his friends, then the movie will makes less sense, but might still be interesting to watch, as it has fight scenes that are pleasing to the eye.

If any mediocre to professional reviewer without bias would rate this, it certainly wouldn't get a grade above 6.

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

14 September 2005 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Company Credits

Production Co:

Square Enix Company, Square USA

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min 126 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1