I am clearly not the target audience for this movie because I have never played a “Final Fantasy” game and I no nothing about the franchise. “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children” requires you to have played “Final Fantasy VII” because otherwise, you will have no understanding of what is going on. It also has next to nothing to do with the earlier “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” movie. I seriously felt like I needed an instruction manual to watch this.

I honestly had no idea what the plot was about. I expected it to be a fantasy movie and although there are fantasy elements in there, it seems to lean much more towards science-fiction. There’s something to do with a life force thing and some form of disease and… just forget it.

I did not really get who any of the characters were and I did not understand their motives. There is a character called Cloud and he is the main protagonist but that’s about all I could say for certain. The characters look absolutely fantastic as the animation is superb. When you see characters engage in battles, the movement is very, very smooth. There’s a giant monster that appears in one scene and that looked very impressive too.

The animation is spectacular for both the characters and the environments and the action sequences are exhilarating. When the characters just shut up and start leaping around with swords and destroying buildings, the movie becomes quite entertaining. Unfortunately, the plot was just so confusing that I sat through most of the movie with a blank expression on my face. I doubt many regular moviegoers would go to see a film called “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children” so I get that most people that see it will be familiar with the games and their lore. However, I am not a “Final Fantasy” gamer and as a result, I struggled through large parts of this film.