I love my PS3 and I love Blu-ray, but honestly, I haven’t found much use for my PS3 in the specific role of a Blu-ray movie player. For me the benefits of Blu-ray have been seen solely on the gaming front, in games like Metal Gear Solid 4 where the larger disc capacity enabled Hideo Kojima to stuff more content into the game than another form of media would allow. Another advantage of Blu-ray that doesn’t get talked about as much as it should is how much more resilient it is to scratching and general wear and tear.
Maybe I just don’t have the eye of an HD purist, but for movies I haven’t seen enough of a difference in image quality and enhanced special features to justify paying higher prices for Blu-ray movies over DVD. Until now…
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete is the first movie to challenge my thinking in the “DVD vs. Blu-ray” debate. If all Blu-ray movies were of this quality I would invest more in the medium over DVD.
Advent Children Complete (ACC) is a Director’s Cut edition of the CG film sequel to Final Fantasy VII first released in Japan back in 2005 (it came to the US in 2006), and as such it comes packed with nearly 30 minutes of new footage and extended scenes, along with a host of additional special features not included with the original DVD release.
The special features are quite good too, although they aren’t likely to interest those who aren’t fans of the games. There are two story Final Fantasy VII story digests: the original “Reminiscence of FFVII” which retells the game’s story through a sequenced series of cut-scenes and CG videos from the game, and the new “Reminiscence of FFVII Compilation” which recaps the entire FFVII saga through scenes from Crisis Core, Before Crisis and Dirge of Cerberus. There’s also a new prequel anime short all about Denzel called “On the Way to a Smile – Episode Denzel,” plus all of the ACC trailers Square Enix released throughout its production, a brief “Legacy of Final Fantasy VII” featurette celebrating the game’s popularity, and a sneak peek at Final Fantasy XIII (it’s the 7-minute extended E3 trailer).
But ACC is much more than a simple Director’s Cut with added scenes and features. Over 1,000 scenes from the film have been touched up with even more stunning detail and re-recorded dialogue by the original voice cast. So in effect the movie has been completely remastered, and it shows. During fight scenes characters now show realistic wear and tear. Clothes become dirty and worn, combatants’ faces become bloodied, and vehicles become plastered with bullet holes. And overall, the film just looks brighter, sharper and crisper.
The 26 minutes of new footage, which puts the movie’s runtime just over two hours, largely centers on fleshing out certain side stories that didn’t get much play in the original film. Denzel, the orphaned boy infected with Geostigma, gets a lot more face time, as do Zack and the Turks.
But the most significant scene alteration/expansion comes during the final duel between Cloud and Sephiroth. [Spoiler Alert!!!] Previously, the battle wrapped up rather quickly. In the original cut, Sephiroth pins Cloud to a wall with a sword stab through the shoulder before Cloud eventually breaks free and takes Sephiroth down with his Limit Break finisher. But in ACC, the end of this battle has been completely changed. Rather than getting pinned against the wall, Cloud is thrown through the wall and comes charging out with a blue glowing aura around him like he’s powering up for his Limit Break. But as he lunges to attack, Sephiroth catches him out of the air with his absurdly long sword and proceeds to skewer Cloud multiple times – Cloud’s body and face show the cuts too, and there’s even a little bit of added blood dripping and spattering. Then Cloud has one of his flashback/dream sequences with Zack before launching into his final attack, which is even flashier and more elaborate than before.
This extended ending truly made the movie for me – it is the epic face-off finale Cloud and Sephiroth always deserved.
In no way do any of the new scenes make the original film any more narratively coherent, so the movie still comes across as more of a glorified sequence of CG cut-scenes pulled from a Final Fantasy game than a flowing feature film. But that’s OK because, for most viewers, the story isn’t the main draw here. You watch a movie like this to be wowed by the wizardry of the animators and the extravagant action sequences, and trust me, no CG flick will wow you like Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete. It is the ultimate Blu-ray experience!
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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, the long-awaited Blu-ray version of Square Enix’s amazing animated CG flick from 2005/2006, finally has a US ship date. Released last month in Japan, Advent Children Complete is set to make Final Fantasy fanboys across the country cream their pants (again) on June 2nd. It’ll cost a pretty penny, though, with an expected retail price of $38.96.
In case you haven’t been following along, Advent Children Complete is a Director’s Cut of the original movie completely re-rendered in high definition and enhanced with 1,000 “revised” scenes, 26 minutes of all-new footage, and plenty of new bonus features, including a 25-minute anime short titled “On the Way to a Smile – Episode: Denzel,” three featurettes — Legacy of FINAL FANTASY VII, Reminiscence of FINAL FANTASY VII, and Reminiscence of FINAL FANTASY VII COMPILATION — and all of the Advent Children Complete trailers. Sadly, the US version won’t include the Final Fantasy XIII playable demo Japan got. But a brand new trailer will be included on the disc in its place.
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Fellow Final Fantasy fans, are you ready to have your mind blown? Well you better be!
As I’m sure many of you have already heard by now, the first volume of an art book titled “Cloud” recently hit Japan (why doesn’t cool shit like this ever come over to the US?), and with it came a special DVD containing some uber-cool new trailers. Among them were extended Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII CGI trailers and a trailer for the forthcoming Blu-ray director’s cut release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete. I just got my hands on all three and am now posting them up for you to watch lustily. If you weren’t sold on the PS3 already, these titles should put you over the edge. If only Square Enix would give some idea of when they’ll actually be coming out…
Hit the jump to enter Final Fantasy trailer heaven.
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]]>Speaking of which, here is a small sampling of ACC screen grabs I recently got my hands showing off some of the updated HD effects and new scenes, along with the latest fact sheet info.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete:
The cutting edge CG film presented as its creators originally intended!
FINAL FANTASY VII: Advent Children was released on DVD and UMD in September 2005, selling 1,000,000 copies within Japan and a total of 2,400,000 copies worldwide – with additional language releases on the way.
This direct-to-video masterpiece was greeted from the onset with chart-topping sales and critical acclaim, and now the Complete edition is finally set for release on Blu-ray disc.
The film was originally produced with full-spec high-definition image quality in mind, and now with the cutting-edge capabilities of the Blu-ray disc format, the film’s original vision can be viewed on your own home entertainment system. From stunning background detail to the subtle changes in characters’ expressions, viewers can now experience the full scope of the film’s groundbreaking CG artistry.
Thanks to the Blu-ray format’s high-capacity storage, multiple language tracks will be included, allowing you to easily tailor the listening experience.
New Features:
Clothing that gradually dirties through intense combat, faces that darken with soot from explosions, and motorbikes pockmarked with gunshots – the Complete edition brings a grittier, dirtier look to the film’s nonstop action. Viewers will also enjoy newly added sequences and re-cut, extended scenes. More beautiful, more exhilarating, and more detailed than ever before, this release can truly be described as “Complete.”
Bonus Footage:
The Complete edition features new bonus footage omitted from previous editions due to DVD/UMD storage limitations. In addition to the bonus footage included in the original release, further footage enables viewers to explore the world of FINAL FANTASY VII: Advent Children like never before.