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, Shotaro Morikubo

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Takahiro Sakurai	...	Cloud Strife (voice)
Ayumi Itô	...	Tifa Lockhart (voice)
Shotaro 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, ...

---

Plot Keywords:

based on video game | profanity | cellphone | disease | children | 

---

Taglines:

2 years later...

---

Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Official Square Enix Advent Children Site (English) Official Square Enix Advent Children Site (Japanese)

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

In this movie, Kadaj use a shinny blue materia/support materia instead of red materia/summon materia (like in the original game) to summon Bahamut Sin.

---

Goofs

After everybody has gathered to fight Bahumut Sin, they are all on or near the ground. This is followed by a short scene lasting no more than a minute. Cloud then proceeds to jump up the tower, aided along the way by his companions, all of whom were stood around him on the ground only seconds previously.

---

Quotes

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

---

Crazy Credits

During the last half of the end credits, as the credits roll there's a video of a CGI cloud zooming along real roadways on his motorcycle. At the very end, there's a shot of his delivery service office desk, with a new photo on it.

---

Alternate Versions

A 23 minute 'Special Edition' was shown at the Venice Film festival.

---

Connections

Referenced in Third Rate Gamer Show: Super Mario Bros./Super Mario Bros. 2 NES Review (2010)

---

Soundtracks

Divinity
Lyrics by Tetsuya Nomura
Latin Translation by Taro Yamashita
Composed by Nobuo Uematsu
Orchestrated by Kazuhiko Toyama
Conducted by Taizo Takemoto

User Reviews

Awesome spectacle and great adventure

Just watched it then. It is pretty damn awesome. The fights are fantastic and the magic is really cool! It's totally like a video-game in parts, with some amazing hand-to-hand combat in there.

This film is for the fans: "To those who loved this world once before and spent time with its friends, gather again and devote your time..." Besides this ominous opening, the story was not very hard to follow, and Ihave never played a Final Fantasy game. I think it pays to be familiar with Role Playing Games in general; knowledge of the genre kinda helps you grasp some of it better. I think though that if you pay attention, and accept what the film throws at you, it's quite easy to understand. There is a lot that isn't explicitly explained, and if you demand that it should be then you will probably be confused and irritated.

Watching the film is like being dropped into the middle of some grand saga, and having to put as much of the puzzle together as possible. I like that approach; you get caught up in the mystery and confusion that all the characters are going through. But like I said, just be accepting. If a weird red lion thing that talks, turns up and starts kicking ass and taking names, and the other characters just say he's an old friend, accept it and move on; you don't need a biopic flashback, or a tell-all sit-me-down. You are an observer here, of something beyond your experience and undestanding.

So: fantastic graphics and animation, great voice acting, cool video game styled music, involving story and characters, and maybe some of the coolest fights you'll see in a while. It's worth seeing, and while it IS for the fans, it is perfectly accessible for people like me that have never played the games.