Fan service, baby
ファイナルファンタジーVII アドベントチルドレン Fainaru Fantajī Sebun Adobento Chirudoren [Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children], dir. 野村哲也 Nomura Tetsuya, 2005
Let me just mention that the Japanese title kills me.
I watched this with Dave a long time ago, right after it came out in Japan; I vaguely recall commenting at the end, 'Gee, that was pretty ... did it have a point?' It's fan service for the sake of fan service - actually, I'll give Squeenix a little credit since they're pretty upfront about it (the first screen after the requisite 'copy this under the penalty of death, you cheap ass fan boys *grumble grumble*' notices is a note that this is 'for the fans').
But it's oh-so-pretty. Really.
And it's fan service at its finest: fluffy, little to no substance, but lots of big machines, long battles with flashy sword play, and did I mention it's very pretty? Vincent's my favorite: he just looks luminous with tatty scarlet cape and pale, pale skin.
The bad guys are back, then get vanquished again - thus freeing the world from a nasty sickness and legions of slit-pupiled children roving and causing problems, along with, you know, Sephiroth:
There's a weird baptismal scene that I'm sure I could pull some discourse from, but you know? It's a fan service movie and I don't feel like reading too much into things.
Did I mention it was really pretty?
Oh, and Aeris/Aerith makes an appearance, though they don't bring her back from the dead or anything (thank you god):
It's entertaining, very pretty fluff, and I bet the team that came back together once again had fun making it - but it's just that, pretty fluff. Fun waste of an hour and a half, though. And all those little touches that make fan boys squeal - little references to the game (one cellphone plays the battle victory theme), seeing well loved characters in OOOOH PRETTY CGI (did I mention it was pretty?).
Fun stuff, though I kind of wonder how long they can milk the franchise - it would be nice if people spent as much time talking about other games as they do about 'When are we getting our VII remake? *whine*'