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Square Enix returns to the world of Final Fantasy VII once more with this Blu-ray re-release of Advent Children, now with 26 minutes of extra footage added to the film. But is it really the ‘Complete’ Advent Children experience? Set two years after the end of the game, people are getting used to a world without Mako energy, a substance that was being harvested from the planet, but also destroying the planet by doing so. Despite the relative peace, people are still under some sense of worry, as an illness known as Geo Stigma has been infecting people ever since the planet was saved by Cloud and his friends. But for our hero Cloud, things are far from peaceful.
Still burdened with guilt over the death of Aeris (Or Aerith, depending on your
view) and the promise he once made to his friend Zack, Cloud finds himself
dealing with a gang of young men looking for ‘mother’, and seem determined to
find out where ‘she’ is. |
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At the same time, Cloud’s childhood friend Tifa, who is growing worried about how he is growing more and more distant, tries to find out where he keeps going to. Taking Marlene, the adopted daughter of their friend Barret who she watches over, to an old church in the ruined city, they run into one of the men that fought Cloud, and Tifa has to do what she can to fend him off. But when a number of children are taken, Cloud is forced to go after them, but will he be |
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able to lift the heavy burden he carries and be able to take
on what awaits him, including a fated reunion with Sephiroth, the one who he had
to defeat to save the world once before? Advent Children looked brilliant on DVD, but on Blu-ray,
it looks just amazing. Taking CGI films to a whole different level that I
have yet to see matched, especially as everything seems to have been redone in
order to improve the visuals by attempting to add a greater realism to how
everything looks, and with 26 minutes of extra footage, you can enjoy the
beautiful graphic work for even longer. |
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That said, with the additional 26 minutes of footage, some things have been changed or even removed. For example, originally, one of the characters, Cid, made his grand entrance by saving Tifa from a group of monsters. But now he just happens to drop in, with Cloud saving her instead once he arrives at the battle scene. Most of the additional footage seemed to focus on the new character Denzel, trying to expand his role in the film and bring out more of his character. It also give us a few moments of being able to see Elena and Tseng |
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of the Turks, who got only the briefest of appearances in the original release. As I said before, this is a film made for fans of the original game, and will be a must-buy for them if they own a Blu-ray playing device. Its also a great choice if you want to show off how good HD can look, or if you want a decent film with some great fight sequences. Extras: A grand collection of extras, coming in at around 2 hours. Along with a number of trailers for the film, there is a 7 minute ‘Sneak Peek’ video of Final Fantasy XIII, the next game in the series. There is also a pair of videos looking at the history of Final Fantasy VII. The biggest extras IMO are the pair of companion videos to the film. First is an animated film that focuses on Denzel, explaining what happened to him before the film, and how he came to be where he is now. The other is a story digest compilation, a video that uses clips from the games Before Crisis and Crisis Core (released on Japanese mobile phones and the PSP respectively) to explain the story before the original game, helping to explain the story behind Zack, the Turks and parts of the original game itself. Ratings Feature:
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