Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

[basspig]

I have owned the DVD version of this film for a few years and when I found out it became available on Blu-ray, I knew I wanted this in my collection. I found a used copy on Amazon and it arrived last weekend. I watched it last night.

All I can say is, compared to the DVD experience of this film, the Blu-ray, on a huge projection screen is a whole new experience! The hi-def version has about 30 minutes of additional scenes that were cut or edited from the DVD version, which make it more complete, gives more experiential value to the movie.

The visuals were stunning. Midgar City, in the introductory wide shot, was breathtaking with its intricate details! The sound work was spot on, and the realism of the characters was more apparent.

Paradoxically, some aliasing was apparent in areas where you would not expect it, along 'soft' of out of focus edges, for instance, but nonexistent on sharply in-focus edges. Some of the ground textures buzzed with aliasing artifacts a bit too, but overall, those are extremely minor issues, in an otherwise stellar visual achievement.

FFVII is based on the popular Playstation 3 video game of the same name, and so the movie will be more familiar to gamers, which I am not. However, my interest in anime (it seems to be a favorite pasttime of a number of retired folks up here) eventually caused me to come in contact with Final Fantasy, and Nobuo Uematsu's wonderful music scores, and so I've discovered some very impressive technical animation and world-creation that is not cel-based. The Final Fantasy movies are quite an experience. I also have Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Blu-ray on order and it will be here this week. I'm gradually replacing all my DVDs with Blu-ray versions and it's a worthwhile upgrade because in several cases, there are extended versions on BD that are not on DVD.

 

[jostenmeat]

I have The Spirits Within, and I think you will be impressed. What makes it more impressive to me is how good it looks for being one of the earlier BD releases (over two years ago). Well, it is animation I suppose.

I'd love to pick your brain in front of a display for things video, but the problem is I'd probably be wearing earplugs at your place, and so you'd have to shout.

jk, thanks for the review, I'll look forward to this viewing at some point in the future.

 

[basspig]

If the DVD of Spirits Within is any indication, then I have high expectations for the BD version.

I usually watch movies at the more reasonable THX level, maybe just a bit louder. I reserve the really loud sessions for listening to my favorite Korean pop music.

 

[j_garcia]

I wasn't that impressed with Spirits Within. For being animated, I felt the video should actually have looked better, but it didn't look that much better than the DVD upscaled. Actually, I think it is the fact that it looks a bit TOO real that is the issue, and you can see some of the rendering issues with the characters. When it was fresh and new, it looked amazing, but now it almost looks a bit dated already. Same with The Animatrix. The Pixar flims on the other hand, do look noticeably improved compared to these.

 

[basspig]

Well that would certainly be disappointing if the quality weren't much better than DVD, but if Advent Children is any indicator, I would expect it to be a totally new experience as compared with the DVD. Watching Advent Children on BD was revealing--I noticed numerous details that were invisible on the DVD, such as the falling dust particles in the church scene where Cloud was using as temporary quarters, as well as the textures of things, and the intricacy of the city.
If the master animation of Spirits Within is 2K, like it was with Advent Children, I think it should look amazing. The realism of the character models is a breakthrough. But seeing Advent Children in hi-def has raised my opinion of the quality of those character models as well. They look REALLY good! Some of the main characters, particularly the kids, could pass for live actors. The illision didn't break in hi-def like I expected--instead it was strengthened.

 

[j_garcia]

The video quality is excellent, as it should be, but it is quite a bit older than Advent Children. To me it always looked a bit "clinical" in that everything was a bit "hyper-realistic" - they made them look so real that they actually don't look real. The dream sequences look amazing, but some of the other stuff looks a bit "off" at times (though I always thought that). The character models are amazing (actually including flaws), so it is more of a limitation of the capabilities of the rendering at the time IMO. I work with CAD and rendering software and I know what the capabilities are, so I may be a bit more picky about what I see. Advent Children looked better to me on SD DVD; I haven't seen it on BD yet. I thought Appleseed looked better than Spirits Within also, even though the characters are intentionally caricatured.

The thing that really was more impressive to me on Spirits Within was the lossles PCM track - that is VERY immersive.

 

[basspig]

Well I received and watched the BD version last night. Overall, it looks great, but I found that it was inconsistent from scene to scene. Character facial closeups were tack sharp, but some scenes were a bit soft. Overall, a worthwhile upgrade though.

The thing I noticed about some of the characters is the complexions are a little overdone. But on the BD, they seemed more realistic to me.

Yes, the dream sequences were awesome. And the use of infrasonic soundwaves to add tension was clever. The whole film was a massive achievement and according to the credits, Maya was used for the modeling and animation. I have to respect anyone that can achieve photorealism with Maya, as it's one of the most complicated systems out there. I use it to produce some 3D content for my productions and if I don't work with it at least 2 hours a day, I quickly forget how to use more complex functions and procedures. I've modeled terrain, oil wells, loudspeaker drivers and cabinets, as well as buildings with Maya. But it's like the space shuttle--extremely complex and mind-boggling. So when I see the depth of the models and animation in FF, I have a deeper appreciation of what went into it.

Like the other FF movie, I noticed they like to show the dust in the air. Barely noticed on DVD, but clear as life on BD.

After watching Spirits Within, I popped in my Advent Children BD and checked out the upcoming FF VIII trailer. Now there was a mix of diverse character styles--some appeared as real as any model on a TV commercial, while others looked like game characters. I found the lattitude between character realism in the same flick to be baffling. Some of the women characters, up close, looked even more natural than those in Spirits Within. The complexions were not so exaggerated. But the male characters looked like they popped out of an XBox game. Odd.

I hope Square does more FF movies. This is a great new extention of anime, with a new freedom to break the molds and expectations that you get with live actors that we've all seen before.

On the acting note, Donald Sutherland did a superb job as Dr. Cid. He fits the character's appearance to a tee. The last time I watched anything with him in it, was about 25 years ago, in the movie The Winter of Our Discontent. I never could have imagined he'd be in an animated film from Japan, as a voice actor.

 

[j_garcia]

LOL, I thought they had removed the Thriller sequence from the BD, but it is there as an easter egg in the trailers area.

 

[croseiv]

I have this one on BD, but I have to say that I found the story extremely jagged and difficult to follow almost as if the scenes were patched together randomly. However, it offered some of the best animation I have seen to date.

 

[basspig]

What's the "Thriller" easter egg?

There is one link called dream reconstruction, and I expected it to be sort of a docu short on how the dream sequences were made, but all it is is the dream footage all rolled end to end. Still, makes a nice short for showing at fan club gatherings.

I thought the story was pretty cohesive, but General Hine was a bit cartoonish in his insane obscession with wanting to use the Zeus cannon.

 

[j_garcia]

I felt the story was manageable, but not the most fluid. The first time I watched it, it felt like the story was all over the place, but once you know the whole story, it makes more sense. IIRC, I actually saw this one in the theater. Did not see Advent Children in the theater though.

Easter Egg:

Go to Special Features section, and select the Previews. A list of the trailers included on the disc will appear. Scroll all the way to the right, past the tabs for 'Ultraviolet' and 'Ghost Rider,' to an invisible icon. Click "Enter" on your remote, and unlock a short animated parody of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video.

On the DVD (disc 2?), it was simply selectable from the menu.

 

[basspig]

If it's Advent Children that you're referring to, then I can imagine some confusion due to some plot reliance on the gaming series for context. But even on its own (I've never played video games other than Myst in the 80s), the plot has some cohesiveness, once you start integrating what's happening in the early scenes.
There seemed to be hommages to a number of films, particularly The Matrix, in the character designs, too.
As an anime fan, it takes a little shift of expectations to get used to this live action-like animation, but the characters are beautifully-designed. It seemed as if they were modeled after Icelandic people in several instances. It's mind-blowing that this all came out of a computer.