10:45 PM on 06.24.2008
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Fronz
In the last debate, I asked everyone to pick the best racing game they've ever played, and hundreds of votes were cast all over the spectrum of speed games. As a series, Burnout games in general probably got the most votes overall, but when it came down to which single games received the most praise, here's the photo finish racing results:
- Best Racing Game:
- 1st: Mario Kart 64 (15 votes)
- 2nd: Burnout 3 (11 votes)
- 3rd: Forza 2 (7 votes)
- 4th (Tie): F-Zero GX & Gran Turismo 2 (6 votes)
Last week I also asked for new game debate topics that you wanted to see Dtoid debate over in the near future. I received several great suggestions that I had never thought of yet, and many of which you'll see in the next few debates, so feel free to keep on casting new topic suggestions in the comments.
For this week though, I wanted to hit up an obvious versus battle that had slipped my mind until now. We've had plenty of Final Fantasy game debates in the past, but never a Final Fantasy movie debate. Both films stir up a lot of mixed emotions in different fans for different reasons, so let's hear your thoughts on both of them. Which Final Fantasy movie did you enjoy more, and why? Go rewatch Advent Children and Spirits Within if you must, cast your votes and reasons, get some film friends to share their opinions as well, and check back next week for the winner.
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Contest:
advent children, because the spirit within isnt final fantasy
Little known fact about Spirits Within:
A few years ago in college, one of the guys who worked on Spirits Within came to our school and lectured about the different projects he had worked on (including Matrix Reloaded as well). Spirits Within is generally hated on, and he was blatantly asked why it was so mehhhh, and he told us all the reasons.
First of all, the people running the project didn't manage or direct or organize anything, in fact, I think I remember him saying they were all out of office and over seas. So they were basically told to make cool shit, and figure out what kind of a cool story would work best for the movie . . . even though most of these guys had never even played a Final Fantasy game. So they made a bunch of cool ships/gizmos/characters/ etc and tried to piece it together.
So what type of story did they go with? According to him, (I wanna say his name was something James Dargy...) they worked on a racing ship intensive storyline. Then . . . Star Wars Episode One was released in theaters, and they literally all walked into the office the next day depressed and mopy because their movie was way too similar to Episode One's scenes, so they pulled the plug and started all over again with the design phase.
So that's why it was completely unorganized and unguided, and that's why the thing was so damn expensive, too, because they started over a few times. It's a shame the whole thing wasn't executed better.
anyone with half a brain would pick mario kart over those two, well because thats all you really need to play the game is half a brain so there.
No disrespect but to say that TSW isn't FF is rubbish example.
-team of characters traverse a landscape collecting
various items with seemingly mystical properties. spirits = crystals
-The main antagonist is a meglomaniac. general = kefka or sephiroth
-Their main goal is to save the earth/ mankind.
-Near the end of the story their is a deus ex machina plot revelation. gaea = lifesteam, enough said
-they battle seemingly magical enemies in the form of spirits.
-cid=cid
If you define Final Fantasy by magic and summons, then I am
inclined to believe that you dont really know final fantasy.
Also, Spirit Within was not based by a FF game but it did from a theory from.. i don't know which FF.
Hell, i don't even like FF and know these stuff
My vote is for Spirit Within, just because it is way more entertaining than AC (except for the fights, but the rest of the movie is as boring as hell)
My vote is for AC only because Spirits Within was so terrible.
Advent Children easily. It's not even that Spirits Within didn't seem much like a Final Fantasy movie, it was just shitty from beginning to end. It bored me to tears and it was seriously just not fun to watch at all. The story was pretty horrid as well. As convoluted as the story of Final Fantasy VII can be sometimes it seemed like it was simple to understand compared to Spirits Within, in my opinion. Advent Children could have used some better voice actors for the English version, Vincent was awesome though, and maybe went back and improve lip syncing to the English dialog.
I loved Spirits within, damned what people say. But it didn't give me the tingly feeling of geekish glee that Advent children did. Plus Tifa boobs, you can't beat that.
The plot in AC is abbreviated to say the least, its' progression being relegated to quick conversations with little time to digest the information and lots of people not looking at each other while they talk. Of course, there are plenty of action scenes, but I've never found those types of films to be exactly the epitome of the artform.
Spirits Within, while admittedly flawed, at least had a plot that touched on interesting themes of the spirit and body and utilized a lot of original ideas, even within the realm of video gaming. I did wish for a little more characterization with some of the secondary characters; I felt the team dynamic that is found in Final Fantasy games was killed off a little too abruptly ::SPOILER:: upon the death of the three squad members. ::END SPOILER::
Overall, Spirits Within was a better movie than Advent Children. But I guess one could say Advent Children was a better Final Fantasy movie.
Hell, if Spirits Within is good enough for Roger Ebert, it's good enough for me.
That is the reason I felt it was the better movie, NEVER, EVER have I seen fights like in Advent Children, utterly phenomenal, it's one of the reasons why I watch it weekly, they are simply mind blowing to say the least.
Also it had the better story, thats a given, ain't it?
Thanks for the infomation mate, I never knew that! :)
Spirits Within was also the better MOVIE. AC was pure fan service, and I'm not a fan. I hate JRPGs.
My vote goes towards Spirits Within.
Then I saw it. It seemed like the most random movie i'd ever seen. The picture is great. But the movie just looked like a bunch of clips of things that would be cool, and places to fight in that could be cool, all mashed into a single film and sold as a Final Fantasy "movie"... So I saw it and I was focusing on the story and throughout it I thought "This is the most random movie i've seen next to an Uwe Boll movie."
But TSW just seemed like a more well done movie. Almost everything about it was better, with a slight exception that it wasn't as "epic" as AC was.
But maybe my vision of all this was flawed right from the get-go. I see a Final Fantasy game, movie, whatever - and I don't immediately figure "This piece of entertainment requires Bahamut, Cid, An androgynous protagonist, a few large chested or less clothed women, and despite the females strength, they need to have a majority of "Weak" moments."...
I see "Final Fantasy" and I see it just as a specific Style. I don't see it for names or direct looks. I don't expect the characters to look alike or to react exactly the same way as the previous games. That is akin to expecting a sequel. And I suppose after playing so many Final Fantasy films. I honestly had no problem with The Spirits Within having next to no references to the game. As a matter of fact, I am actually getting sick of every Final Fantasy game basically having interchangeable characters and a requirement that a boss or big ally end up being the spirits, espers, whatever one wishes to call them.
Anyhow, I am beginning a rant.. I'll summarize it. I never saw Final Fantasy games/movies as being needily congruent to the previous. I am actually getting sick of it. I am getting tired of there being a practical requirement to fit in a character named after some form of precipitation. And I am getting tired of there being a requirement to "bring back" the names of well liked characters, bosses, summon - and almost always having absolutely nothing to do with the original design, and when the design is similar - having the need to change the look and feel of the character/boss/summon entirely.
I guess even further simplified. My argument is "What Is Final Fantasy?"... Is it "Cid, Bahamut, Precipitation, Ifrit, Shiva, Carbuncle and Moogle". Or is it something else?
Advent Children was just a pile of convoluted fanboy wank from beginning to end, it was difficult to make sense of if you had played the game, and I imagine none if you haven't.
Spirits Within, while not a good film, does stand on it's own as a product. It doesn't require you to have played FF7 several times and have developed a deep-seated (and unjustified) understanding and love for the (boring) characters and world.
Spirits Within is an average CG film that stands on it's own. Advent Children is a pile of fanboy wank that is less well written than some FF7 fanfic, and requires you to have considerable knowledge of the game to get much out of it. Thus Spirits Within is superior.
i'm for Spirits Within as well. as far as the films go (that is, stripping away game references and going on the characters/bewbs), Aki could whip Tifa six ways to Sunday... even if Spirits Within is in Uncanny Valley territory, which is what i think was/is it's biggest downfall.
But, Advent Children > Spirits Within on the technical merits.
I enjoy Advent Children more than Spirits Within.
Alec Baldwin...that's all I have to say about Spirits Within...
That being said, Final Fantasy 7 was my first RPG and god dammit if I didn't watch Advent Children thrice in the first day of owning it. I don't care what people say about lack of plot and all that crap, I had FUN watching the movie and that's all that really matters for me.
If I enjoyed the action in a movie, I most likely would say I enjoyed the movie and that's how Advent Children is for me. When all of the party members show up I had I jaw on the floor. Awesome experience with some amazing animation. Awesome awesome awesome.
Definitely Advent Children.
"SYSTEM OVERLOAD"
"...I KNOW!!!!"
What about him? I don't get it.
AC was retarded for all the reasons already explained, nothing more than pure fanservice.
though the anime of that was pretty decent too :-)
As for Advent children. Well the plot was really just: AWESOME! EXPLODE! EMO CLOUD! AWESOME! EXPLODE! SEPHIROTH IS BACK! AWESOME! None of this makes sense does it? Well then....EXPLODE AWESOME! Though it does of course look magnificent.
That said, I'm voting for Advent Children. What can I say? I liked all the awesome explodey super anime battleness that was AC.