Preview: FFVII: Advent Children

We take a look at this epic CGI movie, including the most recently added trailer in widescreen format.

Just before Square-Enix geared up for the release of its feature-length film, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, we took a quick look at what some lucky Japanese moviegoers got to enjoy during a private threatrical showing in Japan. The film debuted in Japan during TGS last month on both DVD and UMD, and will be heading to our shores soon, so let's take a closer look at what we can expect.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is the movie-based follow-up to the highly acclaimed Final Fantasy VII, Squaresoft's first game release for the PlayStation console back in 1997, and one that set the gaming world on fire. Since that time, the game has developed quite a following with fans clamoring to relive the seminal experience of Final Fantasy VII in future installments of the series, but to no avail. Square-Enix has finally seen the light, and is now set to offer fans exactly what they want: MORE Final Fantasy VII.

With Advent Children, Square-Enix puts its super-advanced CG skills to work once again, in crafting a feature-length sequel to the story of Final Fantasy VII. This certainly isn't Square's first time venturing into the CG movie realm; who can forget the visually stunning (but oh-so boring) Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - a movie whose true-to-life digital actors and actresses did nothing but perfect the art of bad acting. In the end, the movie bombed at the box offices, and Squaresoft's Honolulu studios shut its doors.

With Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Square-Enix foregoes the idea of a theatrical release and makes a beeline straight to DVD and UMD (for PSP). This time, Advent Children looks primed and ready to be their best CGI effort yet, with some of the action sequences looking a lot more promising than anything that appeared in The Spirits Within. Advent Children promises to right the wrongs of the previous movie and provide fans with a memorable adventure.

The movie's storyline is set two years after the major events that transpired at the conclusion of FFVII, which brought peace to the world but left Midgar in ruins (as will be shown in recaps during the movie). As the surviving citizens attempt to rebuild their once great city, a new major threat looms on the horizon and a mysterious and fatal illness known as geostigma plagues Midgar, with several of its denizens falling to the fast-spreading illness.

Of the infected is Cloud Strife, the hero of the previous story. Continuing to battle his own personal demons, Cloud has since left the hero's life behind and enjoys a life of solitude. But now with these mysterious events occurring, he is called into action once again to put his hero skills and larger-than-life sword (larger than anything on the planet?) to good use, setting out to uncover the mystery behind the fast-spreading illness and the planet's involvement.

Along with Cloud, various other familiar faces, both friends & foes from the original game, will appear throughout the movie in some fashion. There will also be some fresh faces, including a troublesome silver-haired new villain named Kadaj, Advent Children's resident badboy.

Visually, Advent Children looks to be a fantastic showcase of Square-Enix's amazing CG talents. While you won't be counting individual hair follicles and marveling at the pseudo-realism of its CG characters like you would in Spirits Within - which had a development team at least five times greater than that of Advent Children - the visual quality of Advent Children still looks great, with incredibly sleek character designs and a gorgeously detailed CG representation of Midgar. A lot of the animation sequencess we've seen so far appear to be a touch better than Spirits Within, whose characters often lacked emotion and expressiveness.

Advent Children looks to be an intense, action-packed ride, with some pretty cool high-speed motorcycle sequences, and memorable battle scenes, including our current favorite which shows the summoning of Bahamut and an awesome battle sequence that follows as Cloud and company engage in battle against their gargantuan foe, which incinerates his surroundings with thermonuclear blasts. Rad!

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is our now in Japan on DVD and UMD. Unfortunately the North American release was delayed from its original September 13th release date (like we didn't see that one coming from a mile away) with no new specific release made available as of yet. Hopefully, the wait will not be too long. Stay tuned for firther news, and in the meantime, check out the trailer below.

Joseph Jackson
Staff Writer, Kikizo Games