Hello all!

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has been my favorite movie ever since it came out, and for the past few years, I’ve been studying it to find out why I like it so much. This has included examining similar CGI movies to see why nothing has quite reached its caliber. I recently wrote a series of articles in which I discuss a theory that Advent Children tells a story primarily through action and visuals that can be interpreted in multiple ways.

I’m curious to know what this film means to other people. As a CGI movie enthusiast who hasn’t spent much time with the Final Fantasy VII game, I interpret Advent Children’s story mostly through the imagery and themes, such as reunion and solitude, life and death, and mental illness, in the film itself. Over the past few months, I’ve read interpretations from Final Fantasy VII fans that I would have never thought of. One review pointed out the similarity between Cloud’s relationship with Sephiroth in the game and Kadaj’s relationship with Cloud in the movie. Some reviewers say that Cloud’s personality in the movie didn’t match what they expected from what happened in the game. Others argue that it makes sense. Some say that Cloud fights alone at the end of the movie because he’s the only one with a reason to fight. In the game, all his friends had personal reasons to fight Sephiroth. Others say the battle with Cloud and Sephiroth at the end of Advent Children is irredeemably pointless fanservice.

Gathering these opinions through film reviews has been difficult though since reviews of this movie rarely discuss its storytelling or filmmaking techniques. Most reviewers simply say that the story is incomprehensible or non-existent, or they claim that the creators don’t know how to make a film, don’t understand their own universe, or only made this film to make money off fanservice. In Advent Children’s case, I think this is rather insulting and disrespectful, especially when reviewers make no attempt to understand what the creators were doing and explain why it didn’t work for them.

So I thought I would find some Final Fantasy forums and ask you all directly. Why do you like or dislike this film? What does this film mean to you? Do you have favorite scenes or favorite shots? What do you like about them? Who are the children? Who is Denzel? Who or what does the wolf represent? Why did we need to see a scene of Cloud’s phone falling to the bottom of a pool? What is the point of Cloud and Tifa lying in a field of flowers while whimsical music plays in the background?

If you’d like more information/examples on this topic, you can read my articles on Advent Children on the Extra Life Community website here:

Advent Children: What’s Beneath the Fan Service (Part 1) - Community Content - Extra Life Community

Advent Children: What’s Beneath the Fan Service (Part 2) - Community Content - Extra Life Community

Advent Children: What’s Beneath the Fan Service (Part 3) - Community Content - Extra Life Community

Note that I’m discussing the original film, but feel free to talk about the added/modified scenes in Advent Children Complete. Make sure to specify which version of the film you’re talking about.

Thank you for your time!