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Final Fantasy Premiers in JapanAnoop GantayatWed Sep 7, 8:00 PMFollowing years of development time, screenings at multiple film festivals and too many trailers to count, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has at last made its public debut. A week prior to the DVD and UMD's 9/14 Japanese release, Square Enix invited members of the Shinra fan club to the Virgin Cinemas theater in Tokyo's Roppongi party district for the Japanese premier of Advent Children on the big screen. FFVII nut that I am, I begged and begged until I was permitted to attend the screening with some six hundred eager FF fans.The evening began at 6:00PM with the red-carpet arrival of key members of the Advent Children staff. From the film's creators, including director Tetsuya Nomura, to the voice acting staff who performed the roles for Cloud, Tifa, Aerith and the rest, Advent Children insiders posed for a photo shoot outside the theater, with a backdrop showcasing Cloud and Sephiroth, the two pivotal characters in the FFVII storyline.Seeing the staff arrive with all the pomp of a real movie premier (especially the hot Ayumi Ito, the voice of Tifa) was fun and all, but the real reason to attend the event was to get a first look at Advent Children in full form. That's right, no more limited viewings of early rendered clips, no more trailers -- the full movie, clocking in at a final total of 100 minutes from start to finish (as Advent Children was originally being created as a 20 minute short, this is a surprising length).But first, once everyone had taken their seats, Square Enix took the opportunity to share some trailers for upcoming games. Kingdom Hearts II, Crisis Core, Before Crisis and Dirge of Cerberus were each given a few minutes trailer time, although only the Dirge footage contained anything new. Sadly, the new footage didn't give a new look at the game's Online mode, which is set to start a beat program shortly. Also unfortunate was that Square Enix didn't show the PS3 Final Fantasy VII demo clip that was included in its Square Enix party reel from last month.The movie kicked off following these trailers, at last taking us back to the world of Final Fantasy VII. Only things have changed since the original 1997 PlayStation title. Forget the minimal text (compounded by a translation so bad that I originally assumed it had been farmed out to cheap immigrant translators), lack of voices and big headed characters with blocks for hands. Advent Children, as you've probably noticed in all the trailers, has normal proportioned characters speaking with full voice. At last, the game's complex, adult storyline has the support of a more adult means of storytelling.Final Fantasy VII fans have been waiting for over eight years to see what happens to Cloud, Tifa and the rest of the FFVII cast following the events of the original PlayStation title. And no, I'm not going to make the wait any shorter by revealing here what happens to them in Advent Children. I'll suggest that you brush up on the original's story before seeing the movie, though. The movie kicks off immediately after the end of FFVII, and while there is a bit of background summary at the start, if you don't know your Jenovas from your Life Streams and your Meteors from your Holys, you'll probably be lost.The storyline of FFVII was somewhat opaque, requiring that players pay close attention to every little bit of dialogue, or risk missing far-reaching plot points (this is one of the reasons that having such a thoughtless English language version was troubling). Advent Children is more straightforward, as it attempts to answer many of the questions left from the original story while providing a more fitting conclusion. But with all the names going around and a large cast of characters, keeping up with the storyline in one viewing can be tough, especially following the eight years gap since the original.It turns out that the movie wasn't meant to be viewed in this way. According to the staff commentary in the full-color guide booklet Square Enix handed out at the premier event, the development staff actually meant for Advent Children to be viewed on DVD or UMD, and created it with that in mind. The staff wants people to use the slow, repeat and other functions of their DVD player and PSP unit to review story elements as they go along. Advent Children is meant to be a somewhat interactive movie experience, and not a movie watched on the big screen along side hundreds of people.In addition to backtracking through the film in order to better understand the plot, slow motion ought to help out considerably with some of the action sequences. Fights, battles and motorcycle sequences make up a good part of Advent Children, and the cinematography for these sequences is so fast that most of the time I was unable to keep track of what was happening. The movie does have its share of downright bizarre camera and editing choices, but I'm looking forward to slowing down the action sequences to see what hidden surprises await.The big screen actually does damage to the effort that has gone into making Advent Children. The movie looks somewhat messy on a theatrical screen, with clear polygon edges on even the main characters revealing that the CG isn't in the same league of the finer CG used in full movie productions. Image quality also suffers from being blown up to giant screen proportions. On a smaller screen -- such as the PSP -- I imagine that the movie will more accurately reflect its masterful art design. A smaller screen should also make it easier to take in the fast action, even without resorting to slow motion.Following the showing, Square Enix brought out the film's staff for a photo and commentary session. The voice actors for Cloud (Takahiro Sakurai), Tifa (Ayumi Ito), Kadaj (Shoutarou Morikubo) and Aerith (Maaya Sakamoto) commented a bit on their roles. Sakurai revealed that he loved the original FFVII game and that while this was his second viewing of Advent Children, he was able to look at it from a different perspective this time. Ito added that the film has many messages and that she hopes many people will be able to see it. Sakamoto joked that the name Aerith doesn't actually appear anywhere in the film, so she had to explain which character she played.The big star of the night, and of most things Square Enix these days, was director Tetsuya Nomura. Combining tennis shoes and formal attire in classic Nomura style, Nomura accepted flowers from a model and brought the night to a close.But the real Advent Children experience will begin on 9/14 with the release of the DVD and UMD. Hopefully, a full English release won't be too far beyond.Turn the page for more pictures from the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children premier.While Advent Children is scheduled to appear in a few movie theaters throughout Japan over the next couple of weeks, this premier event was marked by appearances by the game's voice acting and creative staff. Here are some of the additional pics we took of the premier. Remember to click on the pics for larger versions. Comcast News
Originally posted by TrevlacIt'll only be out on PSP here... ugh.
Originally posted by RazorYou know what would be really really nice? If FF7AC totally ROCKED. I mean, so far all we can say is 'it's probably gonna be crap" or "they'll screw it up horribly" but, if the movie is actually really good, well then, damn, yay!
