Animonday: Final Fantasy VII – Advent Children
This movie spin off from the long running Final Fantasy game series is doubtless essential viewing for fans of the games but for everyone else it’s almost completely incomprehensible. Characters pop up without explanation and the film assumes the viewer will already have knowledge of the protagonist’s relationships and motivations. It’s a bit like watching Return of the Jedi having never seen Star Wars or The Empire Strikes Back.
Visually though the film is a treat, with some of the best computer generated animation I’ve ever seen. The design work is unique and the battle scenes spectacular, although there are only so many sword fights you can watch before it gets repetitive, and without the grounding in the mythology and characters it’s hard to really care about anyone.
In fact the final half hour feels like you’re watching someone else play a visually impressive video game. It’s “big fight, followed by motor cycle chase, followed by big fight” structure is like the levels in a game, it feels like you should be hitting “save” at the end of every big action sequence.
Interesting more than enjoyable, the film does show what’s now possible with computer animation and during one big action sequence, featuring a very big beastie, I was struck by how good a Godzilla film would be if animated in this style. Now that’s a film I’d really like to see…
