The original Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was an extremely odd film. Lauded for its superb art direction, outstanding animation and excellent action scenes, it ticked all of the major boxes, especially the one marked 'fan service'. But it was also poorly scripted, incredibly confusing and generally really really difficult to follow, and went down as a failure in most people's eyes. Several years on, Square have released this new 'complete' version, offering not only an upgrade to blu-ray disc but also around half an hour of restored or newly created footage. So how well does this new version stack up to the original?



Let's start with the first thing I noticed - visually, this remains an absolutely astonishing film to look at, even more so in the new 1080p transfer. The original footage makes a near faultless transfer to HD, while the new footage is even better. Square's team made efforts to improve the texture quality, particularly on items like metal and cloth, and the addition of blood and dirt adds a bit more bite to the action scenes. The images frequently go into uncanny valley territory, with some tremendous landscape shots (most notably the establishing shot of the city of Edge). Overall, it's a brilliant upgrade, and if watched on the right equipment should blow you away. Sound has been upgraded into a Dolby Digital TrueHD mix, and pleasingly there is a high quality mix offering both English and Japanese voiceovers. I think the quality of the dub is extremely good (though issues with lip synching remain) but it's nice to have the original language track there if necessary.

However, the real question is 'Is it a better movie than the original?' and fortunately I can safely say that yes it is. The new footage mostly goes towards a bit more fleshing out of the story, and clarifying some of the confusing points, such as the exact nature of the geostigma disease and the motives of the mysterious Rufus Shinra. Make no mistake, it's still very much a film for those who have played the game, dealing as it does very heavily into the backstory, but that was never really a problem for fans of the films. There's also a welcome increase in screen time for some characters, particularly the assemblage of the original cast near the end of the film. The biggest increase in depth goes to the character of Denzel, who was so intangible as to be largely irrelevant in the original cut. Here he benefits from much more backstory, balancing his inclusion far better.



Though the renowned action scenes have had less done to them, they benefit greatly from the increase in resolution and the aforementioned 'dirtying-down'. Extra footage has been added to several fights, including the Bahamut battle and the final confrontation with Sephiroth, but the biggest change comes to the highway chase scene, which is hugely expanded and includes a fantastic moment of motorbike/helicopter interaction which is probably worth the price of entry alone.

Extras are a bit thin, but the quality is generally high. Two documentaries cover the original game's storyline and the legacy it left behind, while a third investigates the 'Compilation of Final Fantasy VII' which comprised of the film itself, the anime Before Crisis, the PSP game Crisis Core and several other sources. The main draw here is the half hour anime On the Way to a Smile - Case of Denzel which is a traditionally drawn piece focusing on the history of the character Denzel. Surprisingly bleak and melancholy, it offers a pleasing contrast to the slightly flighty main film and is well worth a watch. There's also the usual assortment of trailers, and a long and impressive Final Fantasy XIII teaser, which replaces the demo from the Japanese edition. It's worth noting that many of the special features from the collector's edition of the original Advent Children are not here, including the animated short Last Order.



Overall then, this isn't a disc which is going to convert any new fans to the Advent Children cause. What it does do is present those fans with a significantly better version of the film. Even if, like myself, you aren't a super hardcore FFVII fan, this is well worth watching for the outstanding audio-visual experience and some killer action scenes. For anyone who already loves the film, or is interested in seeing it for the first time, this is the version to go for.

[8]