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Even though all of you who care have moved on from this by now....
I finally got around to watching "Advent Children" today. Never mind that it's been in the house for several weeks, and that the library copy came several days before that. (Yep, I talked my boss into ordering "Advent Children" for the library. It's an art school, we have programs in animation and game design, it was a natural fit. I had to convince her that it was something different from "The Spirits Within", but after that it was an easy sell. Why yes, I do love my job. Anyway.)
I was entertained. Very pretty, excellent animation, gorgeous fight sequences. The plot was basically nonsensical and spent way too much time on Cloud for my tastes, but I expected that. Okay, so he is the star, but there could have been a tad more balance, yes? However, hints of canon Cloud/Tifa certainly make me happy.
I enjoyed many of the fight scenes but the big group battle with the summon (was that meant to be Bahamut? I'm not familiar enough with FFVII to be sure) was the best, closely followed by Tifa's fight with Loz -- that felt the most like a game battle, but in a good way. Complete with a victory fanfare at the end! (Which completely cracked me up. Is that wrong? And is it wrong that I totally want that ringtone now?) I also enjoyed Cloud's motorcycle as sword carrier, and of course that final move on Sephiroth was a classic.
Bringing back Sephiroth was well done (I never got used to hearing Nooj's voice coming out of his mouth, though) -- the moment when he morphs back into Kadaj might have been the most visually appealing scene in the whole movie, which is saying something. "I'll never be just a memory"-- brr.
The whole Aeris-as-mother-goddess thing was a little heavy-handed, but appropriate to both the story and her character arc. Seeing her walk into the metaphorical sunset with Zack, restored to Cloud as a bittersweet but no longer crushing memory really worked for me as an ending, and under-credits scene aside I prefer to think of it as truly ending that way.
Did enjoy the scenes with Rufus Shinra and the Turks. I understand why Reno and Rude have become such fan favorites. I will never argue with some good snarky ass-kicking. Rufus hiding the MacGuffin -- I mean, "Jenova" -- in plain sight was excellent, even if not completely well-thought out at the end.
It was worth watching. I'll probably check some of the special features -- any of them particularly worth watching? -- and I expect T will want to watch it at some point. He'll ask for the subtitles, so that will make for an interesting comparison.
I was entertained. Very pretty, excellent animation, gorgeous fight sequences. The plot was basically nonsensical and spent way too much time on Cloud for my tastes, but I expected that. Okay, so he is the star, but there could have been a tad more balance, yes? However, hints of canon Cloud/Tifa certainly make me happy.
I enjoyed many of the fight scenes but the big group battle with the summon (was that meant to be Bahamut? I'm not familiar enough with FFVII to be sure) was the best, closely followed by Tifa's fight with Loz -- that felt the most like a game battle, but in a good way. Complete with a victory fanfare at the end! (Which completely cracked me up. Is that wrong? And is it wrong that I totally want that ringtone now?) I also enjoyed Cloud's motorcycle as sword carrier, and of course that final move on Sephiroth was a classic.
Bringing back Sephiroth was well done (I never got used to hearing Nooj's voice coming out of his mouth, though) -- the moment when he morphs back into Kadaj might have been the most visually appealing scene in the whole movie, which is saying something. "I'll never be just a memory"-- brr.
The whole Aeris-as-mother-goddess thing was a little heavy-handed, but appropriate to both the story and her character arc. Seeing her walk into the metaphorical sunset with Zack, restored to Cloud as a bittersweet but no longer crushing memory really worked for me as an ending, and under-credits scene aside I prefer to think of it as truly ending that way.
Did enjoy the scenes with Rufus Shinra and the Turks. I understand why Reno and Rude have become such fan favorites. I will never argue with some good snarky ass-kicking. Rufus hiding the MacGuffin -- I mean, "Jenova" -- in plain sight was excellent, even if not completely well-thought out at the end.
It was worth watching. I'll probably check some of the special features -- any of them particularly worth watching? -- and I expect T will want to watch it at some point. He'll ask for the subtitles, so that will make for an interesting comparison.
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Yes. Also in Kingdom Hearts II, where it is also somewhat jarring. ;)
I can see that, but I also think it would be bizarre to have all the characters voices be wrong. And they'd have to cut out *a lot* to get it down to movie length. Still, interesting thought.
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From here on it's pointless:
The special features--the "reminescense of FF7" thing is long, but a good refresher on the game (and fun to watch after all the gorgeousness; remember when Cloud's arms were dumbells!?). The bonus disk itself had a long, fairly dull interview with the creaters (seriously. dull.), some trailers for other FF7 spinoffs... there's also a less polished movie of the movie on it, from an earlier release? There were also some early trailers for Advent Children, which I liked--that first one? XD Can you just imagine being in that audience of that game thing and all of a sudden seeing CLOUD walking pretty? Then again, I'm a sucker for trailers. :P
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Thanks for the review on the special features! I like trailers too. ;)
Parron? Concise? NEVAR!1
Part of the reason the Gippal-Zack thing didn't screw me up as much is that I watched it in Japanese first, probably (it's still the same thing--same guy for both in both languages). I'm not as familiar with the sound, so it wasn't as jarring (just, "this voice is somewhat familiar"). Rick and Josh Gomez have fairly distinct voices in themselves, so it would probably be weirder the first time in English. Of course... there's also the matter of the characters. Zack and Gippal sharing a VA doesn't strike me as so odd (a friend of mine, the biggest Zack fangirl ever, commented that it was even "kinda fitting", which might be high praise)--they're kinda alike. Whereas Nooj and Sephiroth? XD Look, you can say he's a serious guy all you want, there's no way you can convince me Nooj is anything like Sephiroth.
(I guess it's a matter of opinion, like "it fits the character". In the first Kingdom Hearts, the whole Angel-Squall thing didn't bug me at all--well, it made me laugh--but in some cases that sort of thing will annoy the crap outta me.)
Re: Parron? Concise? NEVAR!1
I'm not? /sarcasm ;) No, I am mostly with you there. Nooj =/ ultimate evil supervillian. Although I don't think the voice actor was inappropriate for the role in and of himself. I just associate him so strongly with Nooj that I can't think of him as anything else. I had a little bit of the same problems with Rude sounding just like Axel. I guess it's generally a problem, the small pool of VA's for Japanese imports.
Re: Parron? Concise? NEVAR!1
...Rude and Axel? Did you mean Reno? *crosses fingers* I really didn't notice that, actually, but thinking back on it I guess I can see the resemblance (in sound). It's true that I associate that VA with Nooj very strongly, however. It's also true that I very much appreciate the Japanese VA, which is undoubtably a biased thing. I think I've mentioned it before, but the small pool is highly amusing. In a painful way. You hear that woman who played Shelinda all the time, too... in Japanese there's a larger pool, but you still get some funny crosses, of course. The Zack-Gippal thing was still true in the Japanese Advent Children, and several of the other VAs I've heard around in my other anime. :P Ahh, voice acting...
Re: Parron? Concise? NEVAR!1
Yes. Oops, duh. The red-headed one. That's Reno, right? Hmm, red hair, quippy, dedicated to his friend, part of an organization that clothes its members in black and has suspcious motivations... nah, he's nothing like Axel. ;)
Re: Parron? Concise? NEVAR!1
irratatingKH2 character, yo.(...Ignore the yo's. Reno just does that to me. Yo.)
They really are kinda alike, aren't they? Cept Reno's probably more of a jerk. XD
and cooler...Re: Parron? Concise? NEVAR!1
Re: Parron? Concise? NEVAR!1
it wasn't so much that I hated Axel--he just seems to me a little overrated. everyone was going, "canon slash!" and "awesomeness!" and i guess i was kinda expecting someone cooler. XD he just bugs me a little, is all...
Re: Parron? Concise? NEVAR!1
WTFEVER. YOU GUYS LIE.
...
*has to play now* shit.
Re: Parron? Concise? NEVAR!1
But really the games are awesome and you should play them anyway. ;)
Re: Parron? Concise? NEVAR!1
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"Wait, what's Gippal doing in the afterlife with Aeris?"
^__~ I wouldn't put it past him, actually. This is Gippal we're talking about. "Hey, look! A spikey guy and a kinda cute dead girl! Mind if I hang out with ya? :DD" *on crack*
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BEST LINE EVER! XD
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