My first interaction with Final Fantasy VII was through the movie Advent Children. It’s not a great introduction to the game (and its many spin-offs); it needs you to be super familiar with the story of the game and makes no attempt to ease you into the world at all. But it looked cool, with dramatic fights inspired by anime and wuxia. It made no narrative sense, but teenage-me loved it for its style. A couple years later I would play Crisis Core and then finally Final Fantasy VII itself and the movie’s plot would, in retrospect, make some sort of sense.
Anyway, Advent Children was back in theaters this week as part of the marketing push for the second installment in the remake series of Final Fantasy VII (look, it’s confusing). Having just finished replaying Final Fantasy VII (the original, not the remake), I went to go see it with the game fresh in my mind.
And… Yeah, it’s still got a tenuous grasp of narrative and despite being a sequel to a game with a very memorable party, doesn’t spend much time with most of that party. And it does retread some of the same character beats that the game did and we end up in a very similar place that the game did. But there’s still a thrill to seeing the characters in gorgeous CGI (that holds up remarkably well) and the fight scenes remain super cool, even if there’s little narrative excuse for them.
Somehow, though, it’s still a lot of fun. It’s not a good movie, but it decidedly doesn’t suck, nor does it betray the game it’s based on. Even though it boils down to being mostly fan service, it feels like an extension of the game rather than an attempt to try and reinvent it for a new audience — to the point that being very familiar with the original game is essential to getting a toehold into the narrative (and even then it’s still rough). Ultimately, though, it works for me, which isn’t something a lot of video game adaptions can say. It’s so unabashedly what it is that I can’t help but get caught up in it.
Essays, Not Rants! 