Cloud Strife has a cell phone. That was the first thing most of us noticed back in 2005. It was weird. We’d spent eighty hours in 1997 guiding this blocky, spiky-haired mercenary through a world of magic and industrial decay, but seeing him pull a flip-phone out of a leather holster while riding a massive motorcycle felt like a fever dream. That’s the legacy of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. It is a movie that shouldn’t exist, yet it somehow defined the aesthetic of an entire era of Square Enix games. It’s messy. It’s beautiful. Honestly, it’s a bit of a disaster if you try to follow the plot without a wiki open, but we love it anyway.
The film takes place two years after the game's ending. Midgar is a graveyard of steel. The lifestream has saved the planet from Meteor, but at a cost. People are dying from Geostigma, a literal physical manifestation of the planet's trauma and Jenova's lingering influence. Cloud is a delivery boy now. He’s depressed—standard Cloud—and living in an orphanage with Tifa. Then three silver-haired remnants of Sephiroth show up, and everything goes to hell.
The Visual Language of the Early 2000s
If you want to understand why Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children looks the way it does, you have to look at Tetsuya Nomura. He directed this thing, and his fingerprints are everywhere. Leather. Zippers. Belts that serve no purpose. Gravity-defying hair that looks like it was sculpted from obsidian. At the time, this was the peak of CG technology. Square Visual Works (now Image Studio) was pushing the hardware to its absolute limit. They wanted to see every individual strand of hair move in the wind. They succeeded.
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Watching it today, the textures hold up surprisingly well. The way the light hits the chrome on Cloud’s bike, Fenrir, is still impressive. But the direction? It’s pure chaos. The "Advent Children" fight scenes are famous for their "Matrix-style" physics. Characters don't just jump; they fly. They slice through buildings. They stand on falling debris to launch themselves higher. It’s a visual overload that paved the way for the combat we see in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. If you think the modern Remake trilogy is over-the-top, go back and watch Tifa fight Loz in the church. It’s basically a superhero movie with better outfits.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Plot
People often complain that the story is nonsense. They aren't entirely wrong, but usually, it's because they're missing the context of the "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII." You see, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children wasn't a standalone project. It was part of a massive multimedia push that included Before Crisis, Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus. If you hadn't played the spin-offs or read the novellas like On the Way to a Smile, the motives of the villains—Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo—felt paper-thin.
They are "Remnants." Basically, they are physical manifestations of Sephiroth’s will that formed in the Lifestream. They want "Mother" (Jenova’s head) so they can trigger a Reunion and bring Sephiroth back. It’s a bit recursive. They are echoes of a villain we already beat, trying to revive a villain we already beat. This is where the movie loses some people. It feels like a victory lap rather than a necessary evolution of the story. But for the fans? Seeing Sephiroth descend from the sky to the tune of a heavy metal "One-Winged Angel" was the high point of the decade.
The "Complete" Version Actually Fixes Things
If you only saw the original 2005 DVD release, you missed out. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, released in 2009 on Blu-ray, is a vastly superior film. It adds about 26 minutes of footage. That sounds like a lot because it is. These scenes actually give the characters room to breathe. We see more of the orphans. We see more of Denzel’s backstory. The violence is also dialed up—there’s more blood, more grit, and the stakes feel higher.
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The original cut felt like a series of interconnected music videos. The Complete version feels like a movie. It bridges the gap between the original PS1 game and the emotional weight Square Enix wanted to convey. Denzel, a character many fans found annoying, actually gets a soul in the extended cut. You understand why Cloud feels such a crushing weight of responsibility for these kids. He’s not just "emo" for the sake of it; he’s a man suffering from survivor's guilt and a terminal illness.
The Cultural Impact and the Remake Connection
You cannot talk about the modern FFVII Remake or Rebirth without acknowledging Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The developers have explicitly stated that the movie’s visuals were the target for the Remake. They wanted the gameplay to look as good as the pre-rendered movie from 2005.
- The "Fusion Swords" from the movie influenced how Cloud's combat was reimagined.
- The orchestral arrangements in the movie set the standard for modern Final Fantasy soundtracks.
- The character designs in the movie are now the "definitive" versions used in Kingdom Hearts and Dissidia.
The movie also introduced the idea that Sephiroth isn't just a dead boss; he's a persistent, multiversal threat. The ending of the movie, where he says "I will never be a memory," has become the mission statement for the entire Remake project. It’s a meta-commentary on the franchise itself. Sephiroth will always be there because the fans will always want him there.
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Why It’s Still Hard to Watch (And Why We Still Do)
Let’s be real: the dialogue is stiff. It’s very "anime" in the sense that characters often speak in riddles or profound-sounding platitudes that don't mean much. Vincent Valentine shows up, does something cool, says three words, and leaves. That’s his whole vibe. It’s fanservice in its purest form.
But there is a specific feeling you get when the "Cid’s Theme" kicks in and the Highwind appears through the clouds. It’s nostalgia, sure, but it’s also a sense of closure that the original game’s ambiguous ending didn't quite provide. We get to see the whole gang back together. Barret, Nanaki, Yuffie, Cait Sith—they all get their "big damn heroes" moment. It’s cheesy. It’s glorious.
The movie also tackles the theme of forgiveness. Cloud spends the whole film trying to forgive himself for Aerith’s death. He’s literally living in a church. The imagery isn't subtle. When Aerith finally appears to him in the flower field at the end, it’s a release for the player as much as it is for Cloud. It’s Square Enix telling the fans, "It’s okay to move on."
How to Experience Advent Children Today
If you’re looking to dive back into this world, don't just grab the first version you find on a streaming service. You need the 4K UHD Remaster of the Complete edition. It’s the only way to see the film as it was intended.
- Check the Version: Ensure it is the "Complete" edition (126 minutes) rather than the original (101 minutes).
- Read the Novella: Look up Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile. It fills in the two-year gap between the game and the movie, explaining how the world fell apart after the Lifestream event.
- Watch for the Remake Hooks: Pay close attention to the fights in the final act. Many of the move sets used by Sephiroth and Cloud were directly lifted and placed into the FFVII Rebirth boss fights.
- Listen to the Lyrics: The choral parts of the soundtrack actually contain Latin lyrics that explain the plot better than the dialogue does.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a flawed masterpiece of digital animation. It represents a time when Square Enix was fearless, weird, and obsessed with zippers. Whether you love it for the action or roll your eyes at the melodrama, its influence on the gaming landscape is undeniable. It turned a 32-bit RPG legend into a modern cinematic icon.