Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a 2005 Japanese computer-animated anime film directed by Tetsuya Nomura, written by Kazushige Nojima, and produced by Yoshinori Kitase and Shinji Hashimoto. Developed by Visual Works and Square Enix, Advent Children is part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series of media, which is based in the world and continuity of the highly successful 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was released on DVD and Universal Media Discs with Japanese voice acting in Japan on September 14, 2005, and on April 25, 2006, with English voice acting in North America and the UK.

Plot
Two years after the events in "Final Fantasy VII", a disease called 'Seikon-Shoukougun', or 'Geostigma', is spreading through the planet. This disease is believed to have been caused by the body fighting off foreign material that invaded the body two years earlier, at the end of "Final Fantasy VII". Guilt-ridden and haunted by his past, ex-SOLDIER Cloud Strife has decided to live a secluded, solitary life away from his friends while maintaining "Strife's Delivery Service", whose headquarters is located in Tifa Lockheart's bar, the Seventh Heaven. Tifa's bar serves as an orphanage for children stricken with Geostigma. Here, Tifa keeps an eye on Barret's six-year-old daughter, Marlene, while Barret searches the planet for an alternative energy source to the Planet's energy, Mako. One day, Cloud receives a phone call from the former Shinra, Inc. president, Rufus, asking him for protection from a mysterious man named Kadaj. Kadaj, in the meantime, along with his brothers Loz and Yazoo, are searching for their "mother", and seem to believe that Cloud knows where to find her. Meanwhile, Vincent Valentine has been wandering the planet gathering information on Kadaj's scheme, and Cloud and his friends must come together again to fight these new enemies.

Good Qualities

 * 1) It is very faithful to the game it is based on, where it takes place two years after the events of the game.
 * 2) The computer-animation graphics are impressive (especially the Complete version), even by the mid-2000s standard.
 * 3) All of the characters are mostly likable and well-developed.
 * 4) * Cloud is likable from the ex-SOLDIER who has the sword called Fusion Sword, his costume design is very nice.
 * 5) * Sephiroth is still an amazing villain like he was in the original. He even gets to fight against Cloud again near the end.
 * 6) The reworked songs are enjoyable to listen to, with One-Winged Angel standing out. The original was an excellent song for the PlayStation 1 (albeit it wasn't so great to listen to), but they enhanced it for this film and it has a very nice ring to it. This song is so famous that it was included in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC trailer for Sephiroth.
 * 7) The three primary adversaries, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, are particularly interesting new characters.
 * 8) Advent Children Complete, the director's edit, is a much-needed enhancement over the original. The CGI animation is a significant improvement over the original, with 25 minutes of more screen time, 1,000 updated scenes, and connections to the Complication of Final Fantasy VII.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) While the opening sequence is nice, it isn't a complete summary of Final Fantasy VII's events. As a result, viewers who have never played the game will be perplexed by the events of this film.
 * 2) The English dub has poor voice acting (with the exception of Sephiroth, Vincent, and Reno).
 * 3) * Many fans despise portions of the speech in the English dub, such as "Dilly dally shilly shally," which is spoken by Tifa when Cloud is unhappy.

Reception
Advent Children has garnered mixed reactions at its time of release. The film has a 33 percent approval rating based on 6 reviews on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.7/10.

Legacy
Many fans have responded positively to the film in the years after its premiere. Cloud's film outfit is available as an alternate outfit in the crossover fighting games Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, as well as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sephiroth's unveiling trailer as downloadable content in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate recreates his and Cloud's last battle from the film (see Trivia here), and various songs from the film are included in the Sephiroth DLC pack. Cloud's Final Smash when utilizing the Advent Children design was updated to Omnislash Ver. 5 as part of the update that included Sephiroth.

Trivia

 * The scene where Cloud fights Sephiroth was used as inspiration for Sephiroth's reveal trailer in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, especially when Mario, from Super Mario, gets impaled by Sephiroth's Masamune.
 * A complete version of the film was released in 2009 on Blu-ray with extra scenes and an extended version of the fighting scene between Cloud and Sephiroth.
 * Another change that was made for the complete version was the addition to blood in several fighting scenes, notably during the fight with Cloud and Sephiroth, you can see Cloud bleeding from his arm and his face with a small bit on his hair.
 * Another scene that has been added is where Sephiroth tells Cloud he is an "empty puppet", referencing the original game.
 * The original movie had an end credits song called Calling by Kyosuke Himuro. He would record a new song for Advent Children Complete called Safe and Sound, which played in the end credits of the complete version.
 * The complete version was once again remastered and re-released in 2021 in 4K for it's release on 4K Ultra HD.
 * In the English dub, the post credits scene with Cloud and Denzel isn't dubbed, being left in the Japanese language.
 * Denzel's voice actor in was changed in Advent Children Complete from Kyousuke Ikeda to Kazumu Izawa, meanwhile the English dub would do the same from Benjamin Bryan in the original movie to Aaron Refvem in Advent Children Complete.
 * In the original game, Cait Sith is sat on a giant moogle. In this movie, he is sat on top of Red XIII.
 * A music video for Korean singer Ivy's song Sonata of Temptation has been a subject of controversy due to too many similarities with the fight scene involving Tifa and Loz and attempting to plagiarise the movie.
 * This also led to a lawsuit from Square Enix which led to the music video being banned from broadcast in South Korea.