Summary The tale that grasped the entire world's attention continues in this beautifully rendered CG motion picture.

Description "The Lifestream, that's what we call the river of life that circles our planet, giving life to the world and everything in it. The Shinra Electric Power Company discovered a way to use the Lifestream as an energy sorce. Because of Shinra's energy, we were able to live very comfortable lives. Wasn't that because we were taking away from the planet's life? A lot of people thought so. Shinra used their power to to stop anybody who got in their way. Shinra had a special group of warriors called SOLDIER, and all of the SOLDIERs had Jenova cells put inside them. Jenova was a calamity that fell from the sky a long, long time ago that tried to destroy the planet. Anyway, there was one SOLDIER named Sephiroth who was smarter than the rest. When he found out about the terrible experiments that made him, he began to hate Shinra and, in time, he began to hate everything. Shinra and the people against them, Sephiroth hated the planet so much he wanted to make it go away and the people that tried to stop him. There were a lot of battles. For every battle, there was more sadness. Someone I loved went back to the Lifestream too. And then it came, the chosen day. In the end, the planet itself had to make the battles go for good. The planet used the Lifestream as a weapon and when it burst out of the earth, all the fighting, all the pain and sadness, everything was washed away. Sadness was the price to see it end. But it looks like the planet is a lot madder than we thought. We call it Geostigma..." Story: It's been two years since those fateful events and now the world fases a new crisis. Men, women and even children who chose to fight on Shinra's behalf were infused with Jenova cells. Now, the very cells have begun to mutate and have thus turned to an unknown and uncurable virus. On top of that, a new band of Jenova enhanced soldiers are using the events to group an army of the infected and use the remaining essence of Jenova to perform the "Jenova Reunion" and corrupt the world once again. Cloud Strife, who had since stepped down from life as the hero, must take up his sword once again and save the world from these malicious new foes and stop the devastation Sephiroth once tried to bring to life. Visuals: To put it simply, the graphics are stunning. Even with a story as compelling as that, the visuals are where this film truly takes its form. The CG images (the entire movie) surpasses that of any Disney/Pixar movie. The character models are fantastic. The lighting effects, like the sun's glare off swords or any other metal, are extremely realistic. And an unbelieveable amount of detail was put into something as simple as the actual texture of the characters clothing. It looks like, if actually touchable, the cloth would be as soft or fiberous as in real life. From the second this movie begins, you'll be astonished at how great it looks. Sound: The clash of swords, the revving engines of the motorcycles and the overall voice talent used in Advent Children will no doubt leave you mesmerized. The maestros at SquareEnix took the already memorable score from the 1997 PSX classic and made it better. Nobody would've ever thought Square could top the musical score from the original Final Fantasy VII, but they've managed to take an already great soundtrack and enhance it beyond reproach. With non-stop action from beginning to end, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride and a visual wonder. The extra features found on the DVD version (sorry PSP fans, no exclusive content on the UMD version) is simply icing on the cake. Although, if you can find a PSP version, don't dismiss it immediately to search for a DVD version. The rarity of this film doesn't justify only looking for the DVD just to get the second "special edition" disc. A sure masterpiece in almost every aspect, I'd give this 101 minute movie two thumbs up. Review Page Hits: 1 today (15 in the last 30 days) Create Your Own Review or