wNov 2, 2009


Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete

Amazon is having a huge sale on sci-fi movies/series right now, and when I noticed that Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete was the only thing that I wanted to buy, I realized that I had never blogged about my viewing of Advent Children: Complete. I actually want to buy a Collectors' Edition of something I already own! Impressive.

The 1997 video game Final Fantasy VII is my favorite video game of all time. It was my first Internet fandom. Nostalgia! Also, it's a great story. I was trying to tell about all of the rampant opportunities for slash and femslash. IT IS FOR REAL.

Movie itself:
People actually bleed, all over the place. I mean, I didn't find it particularly gratuitous, but watching the original version of the movie was just bizarre, because I was all, "WTF is Cloud's problem? He's fine!" but now it's like, "Okay, there's clearly a chest wound going on, because I can tell."

I think that the city of Midgar/etc. was more dirty, more decayed, etc. I liked this! It's part of why I liked Final Fantasy VII.

Additionally, the presence of the new character Denzel is explained inside the movie, and the creators aren't relying on viewers to read a tiny vignette unavailable in the US *cough*. It made me like Denzel!

People suffering from Geostigma actually suffered, and that whole deal was explained better!

Overall, yes, the movie is still essentially a movie full of fanservice, but it made a lot more sense. I'm actually kind of blown away by how much more sense the plot made.

Extras:
There was a 30-minute trailer that basically takes Before Crisis (cell phone game) and Crisis Core (video game prequel for the PSP) AND clips from the original game and threads them all together to portray the Zack/Turks/Cloud/Sephiroth/Tifa flashback, AKA THE BEST PART OF THE GAME.

I still didn't get to see all of the extras on these DVDs. This summer I was bummed because it looked like Advent Children Complete was only available on Blu-Ray, but no longer!

Also, I still want to play Crisis Core. It actually looks....good.

But it'll be a while before I purchase a PSP, and I still have lots of unplayed PS2 video games to keep me busy.

Labels: ,

scribbled mystickeeper at 9:02 PM
0 comments



wDec 29, 2007


And now it's time for my Cesare Borgia manga

Today was very relaxing, which was a nice change compared to the last few days. I was in my pajamas for most of it, which always helps. My dad and I bought a space heater, so hopefully now when I go back to Madison, I won't feel like dying from coldness in my room all the time. Julie and her kids came to our house for dinner (steak and potatoes), and afterwards I went to Chad's house for a while, to spend time with him, Kristy, and a couple of other people.

I spent time doing some blog maintenance, too. While I originally thought that it would be too much of a pain in the ass to keep a heinously organized tagging system of labels for posts, I've since decided that it's quite useful. So, the LiveJournal tag list has been weeded through and organized, and I cleaned up the sidebar of the journal. As for the blog version of this blog, the tags list is still a bit of a work on progress, but can be found here.

Last night, I was also at Chad's while he entertained friends of his parents for dinner (delicious). After they left, Kristy, Chad, Dave, and I watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which is the movie sequel to my favorite video game of all time, Final Fantasy VII. Kristy had played the game a long time ago, so I wanted her to see it for closure. From an outsiders' perspective (Chad's, Dave's), and even from an insiders' perspective, the movie was pretty lol. Chad kept asking if there was a plot, and if Sephiroth was going to show up, while we all laughed at at the improbable physics, and the cutting-in-half of a motorcycle with a sword. What got made fun of the most, though, was the English dub. I hadn't watched it all the way through in the dub yet, so I didn't know how poor it was. There were a lot of sentences that had unnecessarily large pauses in the middle of them, and I don't even know where all of that "dilly dally, shilly shally" crap came from. It gave me lots of game nostalgia, though. I should check out the special features on that DVD.

Speaking of movies, I've seen a number of ones for kids in the last few days, with my sister's kids. Among them are "Meet the Robinsons," "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," and "Night at the Museum." All of them were all right, although "Meet the Robinsons" was probably my favorite of the three.

Westmark
I finished read Lloyd Alexander's Westmark today. It is the first novel in the Westmark trilogy. I've never read anything by Lloyd Alexander before, but he seems well-known and respected in the Wiscon crowd for having been an author who wrote lots of YA fantasy that included strong female characters. Westmark was quite bleak in its reflections on human nature and society, and I quite liked it.

One thing that I definitely liked about the book was that Alexander doesn't take forever doing his world-building. His prose is sparse and to the point. Action, plot, dialogue. There is no lag. A pleasant change from, say, the endless reflections that plague the Libba Bray books.

I have other thoughts that are spoilery

I have the next book, The Kestrel, checked out, but I have some other things I need to read first. I'm looking forward to it, though, as many people say that The Kestrel had a profound impact on them.

rilina on Westmark here (Spoilers)
oyceter on The Westmark Trilogy as a whole here (No Spoilers)

Anyway, it's time for a bit of reading, and then bed. I'll be at the Packer game tomorrow with my dad, sister, and brother-in-law. I find it amusing that many households that live near Lambeau Field plow their lawns of snow (often to the point of completely covering their windows and siding with blasted snow) in order to be able to park more cars on their property, and make money.


Current Music: Dante - Fullmetal Alchemist OST

Labels: , , , , , , ,

scribbled mystickeeper at 11:55 PM
0 comments