Okay...well, you're probably all going to be disappointed with my verdict of Advent Children but here it goes:
SPOILERS! (Click to view) Quite honestly I didn't really like it that much. Of course it was visually breathtaking and the characters were pretty to look at and the fight scenes were cool, but I felt that the storyline was just a little too shallow. Plus for me, after awhile the fight scenes were just like "come on, give me a break." I realize the movie is based on a video game where you can fight oversized houses and there's a threat of a giant meteor that just seems to hang in the sky forever while you run around trying to breed golden chocobos, therefore it does go above and beyond the realm of believability, but after awhile the movie was just a little too unbelievable. I had a much easier time suspending my belief when playing the game because the style was a lot more cartoony. Although I do have to say that if the movie had been longer it would have had more time to develop the plot so it would have been better, but I recognize that CG that amazing is difficult to do and to make the movie any longer would have been all but impossible. So for what it was, I guess it wasn't too bad but on the whole, I don't really have any desire to watch it again outside of, "oooo, they're so pretty." Oh yeah, one last thing...Sephiroth didn't even show up until the last frickin' fight scene, what's up with that?! I know that the way they presented the story, he had to show up at the end...but damn it. He's the coolest villian ever and I felt like they just threw him in at the last minute to make a cameo appearance so that FF fans would be happy. *shakes fist angrily*
I've been home in NY since Friday and surprisingly it hasn't been too bad. I went out drinking with my parents on Saturday night and when we came back, my mom and I played Rummikub until 2 AM. Surprisingly I won all four rounds. I wish we could do stuff like that more often.
Oh, I wrote a new myspace profile that I'm hoping will ward off some of the idiots who feel it's necessary to harass me because I won't accept their friend requests etc. I'm sure instead it will just provoke an onslaught of angry messages but whatever, I find it amusing:
http://profile.myspace.com/sgember
Frankly, i don't think videogame writers should be allowed anywhere near legitimate cinema. Convoluted, confusing stories are fine when you have like 40 hours to sort everything out and the diversion of puzzles and boss battles between every major plot point, but condense the whole thing into 2 hours or so and it becomes unbearable.
I say this assuming that the writers behind Advent ChildrIen weren't accustomed to writing for conventional cinema. If they were, then they're just baadd.