More AC Chatter.
Link to Original Post. If you haven't downloaded the movie and want to, go here.
So initially I said that the movie might have done well in theatres. But if I think about it again, there's actually a good reason why this was a risky venture for Square - and after seeing the movie I can understand why they would not have done well in a theatrical release. This is all technical problems aside (optimized for screen resolution on DVD, etc.).
The main thing is that this movie relies HEAVILY on the Final Fantasy VII mythos. In fact, it's filled with fanservice - almost every single recurring character from FF7 makes an appearance in this movie, even the ones that were thought to be previously dead. Tseng (a.k.a Shion) was stabbed back in the Temple of Ancients and left for dead, and Rufus was caught in the explosion of one of the weapons (and stuff fell on him afterward, I think). I remembered that Rufus died, but totally forgot about Tseng.
In any case... the introduction with Red XIII, for example, has totally no relationship to the rest of the movie and is included only as nostalgic fanservice for people who beat the game... if you never played FF, you'd have no idea what the point of this was to the rest of the movie. There were also exactly five characters that were useless - those were Barret, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Cid, and Yuffie. Vincent and Tifa have important lines that develop the plot elsewhere in the movie so they get excempt, but everyone else is really in there to satisfy the Final Fantasy fans, who would have been annoyed at some way or another that their favourite character was omitted.
You will also notice that they never explain Aeris in the movie either - you catch a brief glimpse of her in the pool, but no one explains her death or her significance to helping out the planet, either, making her repeated appearance a bit confusing for non-fans. You never know that Sephiroth in fact killed Aeris, and you don't know that Cloud harbours guilt (ugh! What's with the hero always being angsty after world peace has been achieved??!?) over Aeris' death.
From a perspective of a non-fan, the plot would have made ZERO sense, the cameos would have held no significance, and then you're left with the fight scenes, which are good, mind you, as soon as you accept them for what they are, but are probably not enough to hold a 1:45 long movie.
I don't know about most people, but two of the things I was waiting for in the movie were:
1) for them to show Aeris's face. <-- AERIS FANBOYISM.
2) Elena. <-- ELENA FANBOYISM.
3) Seeing Rufus kick ass. (I had this spoiled for me, but I was waiting for the moment. And man he kicks ass. Not anyone can just fly off of a building.)
4) I was pretty much expecting to see Sephiroth of course, but... still! You do want to see the guy.
Okay, so that was 4 things. But they're still VERY fan-specific. Remember, Cloud has two modes of character - "WAAAAAH Aeris died PLEASE forgive me!" and "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT KILL KILL KILL DIE DIE DIE". He gets little character development, if any at all - in fact, none of the other characters do, except for (ironically) Kadaj, because he's the only new guy there. You only know about Cloud because you remembered him from the previous games, and thus, his motivation for fighting the final battle - his hatred of Sephiroth - can only be understood if you know what Cloud's been through before. You don't get a feeling that Sephiroth is going to destroy the world in the final battle (unlike in the Bahamut battle, which involved him killing innocents) - it's more like a personal trial that Cloud must conquer. And so if you don't know about Cloud and his backstory... you just wouldn't get the whole movie.
But I said it pretty nicely on OCR in a post.... "The action and nothing but the action is pretty much the way Square should have gone with this movie, because it would have sucked any other way. They should just leave the character development to their games."
I also said, twice: "If the Final Fantasy VII remake doesn't feature my characters flying, running up walls, and cleaving through steel girders, I'm going to be sorely disappointed."
So initially I said that the movie might have done well in theatres. But if I think about it again, there's actually a good reason why this was a risky venture for Square - and after seeing the movie I can understand why they would not have done well in a theatrical release. This is all technical problems aside (optimized for screen resolution on DVD, etc.).
The main thing is that this movie relies HEAVILY on the Final Fantasy VII mythos. In fact, it's filled with fanservice - almost every single recurring character from FF7 makes an appearance in this movie, even the ones that were thought to be previously dead. Tseng (a.k.a Shion) was stabbed back in the Temple of Ancients and left for dead, and Rufus was caught in the explosion of one of the weapons (and stuff fell on him afterward, I think). I remembered that Rufus died, but totally forgot about Tseng.
In any case... the introduction with Red XIII, for example, has totally no relationship to the rest of the movie and is included only as nostalgic fanservice for people who beat the game... if you never played FF, you'd have no idea what the point of this was to the rest of the movie. There were also exactly five characters that were useless - those were Barret, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Cid, and Yuffie. Vincent and Tifa have important lines that develop the plot elsewhere in the movie so they get excempt, but everyone else is really in there to satisfy the Final Fantasy fans, who would have been annoyed at some way or another that their favourite character was omitted.
You will also notice that they never explain Aeris in the movie either - you catch a brief glimpse of her in the pool, but no one explains her death or her significance to helping out the planet, either, making her repeated appearance a bit confusing for non-fans. You never know that Sephiroth in fact killed Aeris, and you don't know that Cloud harbours guilt (ugh! What's with the hero always being angsty after world peace has been achieved??!?) over Aeris' death.
From a perspective of a non-fan, the plot would have made ZERO sense, the cameos would have held no significance, and then you're left with the fight scenes, which are good, mind you, as soon as you accept them for what they are, but are probably not enough to hold a 1:45 long movie.
I don't know about most people, but two of the things I was waiting for in the movie were:
1) for them to show Aeris's face. <-- AERIS FANBOYISM.
2) Elena. <-- ELENA FANBOYISM.
3) Seeing Rufus kick ass. (I had this spoiled for me, but I was waiting for the moment. And man he kicks ass. Not anyone can just fly off of a building.)
4) I was pretty much expecting to see Sephiroth of course, but... still! You do want to see the guy.
Okay, so that was 4 things. But they're still VERY fan-specific. Remember, Cloud has two modes of character - "WAAAAAH Aeris died PLEASE forgive me!" and "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT KILL KILL KILL DIE DIE DIE". He gets little character development, if any at all - in fact, none of the other characters do, except for (ironically) Kadaj, because he's the only new guy there. You only know about Cloud because you remembered him from the previous games, and thus, his motivation for fighting the final battle - his hatred of Sephiroth - can only be understood if you know what Cloud's been through before. You don't get a feeling that Sephiroth is going to destroy the world in the final battle (unlike in the Bahamut battle, which involved him killing innocents) - it's more like a personal trial that Cloud must conquer. And so if you don't know about Cloud and his backstory... you just wouldn't get the whole movie.
But I said it pretty nicely on OCR in a post.... "The action and nothing but the action is pretty much the way Square should have gone with this movie, because it would have sucked any other way. They should just leave the character development to their games."
I also said, twice: "If the Final Fantasy VII remake doesn't feature my characters flying, running up walls, and cleaving through steel girders, I'm going to be sorely disappointed."