Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a 2005 film that continues the events of the game Final Fantasy VII, released in 1997 by SquareSoft. for the Sony Playstation console and for PC. This film is part of a series of installments whose goal is to complete and expand the story of Final Fantasy VII, which is collectively called Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was released on DVD and UMD in original version in Japan on September 14, 2005 and on January 30, 2007 it was released in Spain by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Movie plot

Previous Story (Final Fantasy VII)

Two years earlier, during the events of Final Fantasy VII...

Sephiroth, the "greatest soldier that ever lived", has invoked the ultimate destruction technique, "Meteorite" to cause maximum damage to the planet that allows him to stand up to all that release of energy and become a god. The protagonist of the game, Cloud and his friends manage to stop the villain, but not in time to prevent Meteor from reaching the planet.

Plot

Notice:The story of this movie serves as a continuation of the story that occurred in the game Final Fantasy VII, assuming it has ended with the defeat of Sephiroth using Cloud Strife as the main character and having unlocked Vincent and Yuffie.

The three attackers and the search for "Mother"

Due to the enormous collision of energies when the Lifestream emerged from the planet to stop Meteor, the cells of JENOVA, the evil entity trapped on the planet and who had guided Sephiroth, have become spread across the planet and have infected many people, particularly children. Those who suffer from this disease, collectively known as Geostigma suffer great suffering and JENOVA cells spread like a tumor in their bodies.

Two years after the events of the game, the characters have disbanded to continue their lives. Tifa and Cloud take care of Marlene and also adopted a young orphan Denzel, settling near Midgar, but Cloud is increasingly distant, taking a job as a delivery boy to get away from the city. A short time later Denzel falls ill from the Geostigma.

Barret has gone in search of new sources of energy that do not rely on Mako (the concentrated stream of life). Yuffie has returned to Wutai, her land. Cid Highwind has returned to his city to start construction on a new airship. Nanaki ("Red XIII") or Vincent have not been heard from but Red XIII can be seen with two cubs near Midgar.

The remaining members of Shinra Inc. the powerful company that controlled power generation based on Mako (Lifestream crystallization), are sent to the North Crater to search for traces of JENOVA to bring carry out an investigation, but are attacked by strange figures at the moment they find the container of 'JENOVA'. Tseng is injured and Elena calls for him. The Turks' vehicle escapes with only Reno and Rude.

Survivors of the disaster have moved to the outskirts of the city creating a mega-suburb called Edge. Cloud lives alone, having isolated himself from his classmates, particularly Tifa and Marlene, due to his depression at not being able to save Aeris, the world, "or anyone else.". As he leaves the city, he is attacked by three strange guys who accuse him of hiding & # 34; Mother & # 34;, but Cloud doesn't know what they're talking about. After surviving the attack, Cloud receives a call from Tifa, who sends him a message from the Turks to meet at a northern hospital for an assignment.

Upon arrival Cloud is confronted by Rufus Shinra, the last president of the company and who in the game played a vital role in the latest attack on Sephiroth. Rufus is confined to a wheelchair due to the Arma attack on the city of Midgar, as well as being infected with Geostigma. Rufus claims that "someone" he has stolen 'something' from them. important related to "some" investigation that Shinra carries out on the effects of the Meteor: JENOVA and the Geostigma. It is his responsibility to collaborate with the planet by making restitution for all the evil that his company caused, and he tries to convince Cloud to work as a bodyguard for being & # 34; the last SOLDIER & # 3. 4;. Cloud doesn't want to cooperate, much less when the Turks confirm that Shinra is trying to rise from the ashes.

Returning to Midgar, Cloud passes the spot where Zack's Buster Sword is stuck, which he left behind to mark the spot where his best friend and mentor died trying to save his life. Cloud reaffirms his intention to live by Zack's dreams, before being weakened by the Geostigma infection.

Tifa meets Marlene at the Midgar church where Aeris had a garden, discovering that Cloud lives there and is infected with Geostigma. Tifa is confronted by Loz, one of Cloud's three attackers, who asks about Cloud. Despite Tifa using her combat abilities and hers Limit Break from her, Loz takes care of her and then kidnaps Marlene and steals Cloud's materia after receiving instructions from someone over the phone. While this is happening, Yazoo, the second attacker, takes the infected children out of town with the promise of a cure. Kadaj the leader of the trio, finds Rufus and threatens to torture two of his assistants, Elena and Tseng, if he doesn't hand over "JENOVA".

The kidnapping of the chosen children and the truth about the Geostigma

Cloud meets Tifa upon his return to Midgar, but before he can do anything he falls from the effects of the Geostigma. He wakes up in his house along with Tifa, Reno and Rude, who convince Cloud to go to the City of the Forgotten which is where Kadaj has gathered the children under the pretext of repeating the " Reunion", the instinctive effect of JENOVA cells to reunite, even when dispersed in various bodies, thus organizing themselves into a tremendously powerful and destructive being; where they themselves intend to convert their bodies into the vessel that will give rise to birth. In the meantime, Reno and Rude go looking for information with Rufus.

Cloud arrives at the hidden city to confront Kadaj, but Kadaj, empowered by the stolen matter, controls the infected children with his JENOVA-associated will and uses them as a human shield. Cloud confronts Yazoo and Loz, until trying to attack Kadaj directly, he is repelled and instantly knocked out. Before Kadaj deals the final blow, Vincent appears and takes Cloud away, once safe he explains to Cloud that he has followed the attackers and that he has rescued Elena and Tseng.

Next, Vincent reveals the dynamics of Geostigma: JENOVA cells enter the human body and when the immune system tries to repel them it causes exhaustion and suffering to the sick. If these cells were to unify, they could recreate JENOVA as well as Sephiroth. Marlene appears having escaped from the kidnappers and Cloud takes her back to the city with the promise of doing everything possible to resolve the situation.

At Edge the three attackers use the children to summon creatures to drive the population away, but before they can act Reno and Rude appear to delay them. Kadaj, after arguing with his new hostage Rufus, summons the dragon king, Bahamut SIN, whom he orders to destroy a mausoleum commemorating the survivors of the Meteorite Fall two years earlier, suspecting that it was used to hide the remains of JENOVA, but there is nothing there. Tifa appears to rescue Denzel and both are attacked by Bahamut, but the old companions reappear to help: Barret, Yuffie, Red XIII and Cait Sith (Reeve Tuesti controlling the creature remotely). Vincent and Cloud arrive in the city and all the characters gather to fight Bahamut, finishing him off when they help Cloud hit him with the cannonball technique.

Kadaj attacks Rufus when he reveals that he has faked an invalid to keep JENOVA's remains hidden in his wheelchair. After throwing the remains from the top of the building, Rufus claims that he was able to deceive Kadaj because he does not feel a & # 34; filial duty & # 34; towards JENOVA, later they both jump into the void, Kadaj to recover the container that has fallen and Rufus to destroy it with bullets.

Kadaj retrieves JENOVA despite Rufus' efforts, and the trio flee to Midgar with Cloud in pursuit, while the rest gather on Cid's new airship. After a spectacular chase down the elevated highways Yazoo and Loz are stopped by a bomb planted by Reno. Cloud catches up with Kadaj in the church of Aeris where it is discovered that the flowers grow there by the presence of a natural source of life current, which emerges when Cloud is defeated, in the form of the 0Great Gospel of Aeris that heals Cloud's Geostigma and weakens Kadaj. Aeris's spirit revives Cloud to continue and he finally reaches Kadaj, who cries out that his "Mother" is still alive. (JENOVA) does not love him as much as Sephiroth, but that she is still his mother and will fulfill his wishes, however Kadaj discovers that the container was hit by Rufus's bullets and JENOVA's remains were damaged hopelessly. Cloud fights against Kadaj and defeats him in front of the Shinra Inc. buildings, however he does not give up and sacrifices himself to JENOVA's cells to resurrect Sephiroth using his body.

The return of Sephiroth and the healing of the Geostigma

Sephiroth reveals to Cloud his desire to use the souls of those infected with the Geostigma to contaminate the Stream of Life, put it under the control of JENOVA, and use Earth as a ship to travel through space looking for a planet where they can rule. "Mother" (JENOVA) and "Son" (Sephiroth), after which a colossal combat between Cloud and Sephiroth begins.

Cid's ship flies over the place of the fight and Yuffie proposes to use matter to strengthen herself and support Cloud, but Vincent and Tifa rule out doing so; the young woman explains that after the defeat of Sephiroth, Cloud felt confused and without a future since he had lost touch with his emotions, but thanks to the battle against Kadaj's gang and his current confrontation with the mono-winged angel he had finally found himself again. in addition. After hearing Tifa's explanation, the rest decide to just watch the battle.

In the tremendous combat both fighters show all their skills by flying from building to building and cutting everything in their path with their swords; but as the minutes go by, Cloud, too exhausted to continue, is surprised by Sephiroth who manages to hurt him, assuring that he will take away what Cloud might consider important. Cloud is revived by the memories of Tifa and her other friends, getting up to face his opponent once more while taunting him for not understanding that there is no such thing as unimportant. Cloud and Sephiroth fly into the sky where he summons all of his energy in a final attack, Omnislash Version 5. With the last blow, all the accumulated life energy is dispersed and Sephiroth vanishes, releasing a mortally wounded Kadaj in his place.

A rain invoked by the spirit of Aeris comforts Kadaj, the young man, upon hearing Aeris's voice offering him peace, decides to recognize her as the mother he always longed for and thus surrenders his spirit to the Flow of Life, being purified and absorbed in peace. A dying Loz and Yazoo then appear, who shoot Cloud in the back, refusing to surrender. Cloud counters with a last-ditch effort, but the opponents produce an explosion as they are vanished by the rain's healing effect. Cloud's companions can only watch from a distance at the tremendous explosion and hope that he is okay.

Cloud enters a kind of dream in which he hears the voices of the deceased Zack and Aeris, who tell him that he must not die yet, so he returns. Cloud wakes up in the church of Aeris, submerged in the lake formed by water with a vital current and with children around him. Everyone who hasn't been in the "rain" they could now come to this lake and be healed using this water. Cloud proceeds to heal Denzel and everyone present celebrates the end of the story. Finally, Cloud sees the spirits of Zack and Aeris at the door of the church while Aeris asks Cloud if he's okay, to which he smiles and indicates that he is, since he finally realized that he's not. he is alone.

Characters

Cloud Strife: The hero of the adventure, a withdrawn young man who two years ago managed to save the world and recover his lost memories with his friends. Although he does not want it, he must once again wield his sword to overcome his fears.

Tifa Lockhart: After defeating Sephiroth, Tifa reopened her bar (Seventh Heaven) in Edge where she lives with Cloud and two children: Denzel and Barret's daughter, Marlene. Together with Cloud, she created a package delivery business from which they live. Although she is in love with him, she never dared to tell him, even though they have been friends since they were little.

Kadaj Great warrior who leads the band of Kadaj made up of two more warriors who are his brothers. His desire is to get his mother and he is capable of bringing destruction to the entire world just for find her

Sephiroth: Villain par excellence of video games, in the film he is the shadow behind everything. The 3 dangerous young men are but a mere part of him. His goal: The destruction of the planet.

Aerith Gainsborough: "The Savior" she sacrificed herself two years ago to save the world by invoking sacred. Now that evil has returned, she will return from paradise to free the world from Geostima and Cloud from her torment... At the end of the film we can see how Aerith reappears in the church with Zack who greet Cloud. Aertih is wearing again the lasso that Zack had given her in Crisis Core.

Zack Fair: Former member of SOLDIER and SOLDIER First Class who mentored his best friend Cloud. He sacrificed himself for him 5 years ago, fighting single-handedly against the entirety of SOLDIER's forces by giving up and trying to escape from SOLDIER and the SHINRA Corp., before dying he asks Cloud to live for both of them and gives him the Buster Sword (Deadly Sword).

Vincent Valentine: After the incidents in FF VII, Vincent left Midgar for the land of the ancients where he awaited with his memories of the past... With the arrival of the youngsters, Vincent will reload his rifle to once again be a support against evil. The future awaits a special fate for Vincent after this battle... (Dirge of Cerberus)

Denzel: is an orphan boy infected by Geostima who lives with Cloud, Tifa and Marlene. He admires Cloud a lot and dreams of being like him in the future.

Red XIII: Although he appears rarely, Red XIII is a feline or lupine animal with deep red fur, highly intelligent and capable of speech who helped defeat Sephiroth long ago and now returns to support the group. For much of the movie, he serves as the Cait Sith's mount.

Barret Wallace: he is the former leader of Avalanche and is looking for some kind of energy like oil for example. He left his daughter Marlene in charge of Tifa and Cloud, but when he finds out that there are problems he comes back to support the group like the rest.

Yuffie Kisaragi: She was part of the Cloud team in the past. Like the others, she appears to destroy the evil that has come.

Caith Sith: is a robot managed by Reeve, a former member of Shinra who is quite effective in attack and who will help the team defeat the coming evil. He already supported them a while back with Sephiroth, so he has some experience. In the game he was riding a Moogle-shaped machine, but in the movie he is seen riding Red XIII.

Cid Highwind: Cid is an expert combat pilot who was part of the group that killed Sephiroth. His ship the "Strong Wind" broke down so he now has a new one with which he returns to the charge to support his old friends.

Cast

In addition to the original Japanese version, a version dubbed into Spanish was published in Europe. Part of the cast had already worked on the dubbing of Kingdom Hearts II.:

• Takahiro Sakurai/Roger Isasi-Isasmendi as Cloud Strife.
• Ayumi Ito/Anahí de la Fuente as Tifa Lockhart.
• Maaya Sakamoto/Elena Palacios like Aerith Gainsborough.
• Shōgo Suzuki/Oriol Rafel as Vincent Valentine. Nomura wanted Cloud and Vincent to have different voices as the characters were quite similar. As Vincent was older and more mature than Cloud, his role was given to Suzuki, as he had a low voice tone.
• Shotaro Morikubo/Jordi Pons as Kadaj. Morikubo had difficulty interpreting it because of the character's unstable personality and needed some time to optimize his role.
• Kenji Nomura/Luis Fernando Rios as Loz. The team told Nomura to play Loz as a "idiotized" character.
• Yūji Kishi/José Javier Serrano as Yazoo.
• Toshiyuki Morikawa/Jaume Villanueva as Sephiroth. Morikawa was told to pronounce Sephiroth's phrases so that his words conveyed a feeling of superiority. At the same time, the voice director and Morikawa agreed to make Sephiroth's voice a calm tone, as if he did not fear the slightest possibility of being defeated.
• Yumi Kakazu/Belén Rodríguez as Yuffie Kisaragi.
• Masahiro Kobayashi/Ramón Canals like Barret Wallace.
• Keiji Fujiwara/Víctor Martínez as Reno.
• Taiten Kusunoki/Lorenzo Beteta like Rude.
• Tōru ⋅kawa/Cholo Moratalla like Rufus Shinra.
• Kenichi Suzumura/Claudi Sunday as Zack Fair.
• Hideo Ishikawa/Dani Albiac as Cait Sith
• Masachika Ichimura/Joaquín Gómez as Red XIII / Nanaki
• Kazuhiro Yamaji/John Amador Pulido as Cid Highwind.

DVD/Blu-ray Editions

Region 1/3/4: For all of the Americas and parts of Asia, two-disc DVD edition, with Japanese and English dubbing only, as well as English, Spanish, Portuguese, and subtitles. Chinese. On the special edition menus the name of the film was translated as "Final Fantasy VII: The Rescue". The Blu-ray version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete was released on June 2, 2009 in North America.

Region 2 PAL: For most European countries (with the exception of a few) it was published with the same characteristics but encoded for the PAL television system. Its release date in Spain was January 30, 2007 on UMD and for DVD rental. On February 20, 2007, the DVD version was officially released for sale. The first European version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete was released on June 27, 2009; in Spanish, which shared the edition with the German one, had to wait until December 14, 2010 to see the light.

Region 2 NTSC: For Japan, no dubbing or subtitles in any other language, available in a special two-disc edition, and in a limited collector's edition with additional promotional material such as action figures from some characters, a t-shirt, and a copy of the script. The new edition Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete was released in Japan on April 16, 2009, which also included the demo of Final Fantasy XIII.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics but much more positive reviews from audiences and fans. On the Internet portal Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rate of 33%, based on 6 reviews, with a score of 5.7/10 from critics, however, from the audience it has an approval rating of 84% based on 149,788 votes and with a score of 3.8/5.

On the IMDb site, users have given it a score of 7.4/10, based on more than 48,000 votes. On the anime page AnimeNewsNetwork it has an approximate score of 8/10 (very good) based on 5834 votes.

Many reviewers praised the animation and 3D graphics, but criticized the story and its narration.