I'll go temporarily off topic here....
Advent Children
Maybe it's because I'm a die-hard fan of Final Fantasy VII, but AC did absolutely NOTHING to improve or embellish the good history of that story arc.
I bought it believing it was some spectacle for the ages. Granted, it was, but the voice acting and the subtitles f$#@ed it up for me BIG TIME. Then you have about 2 mins. of reused footage halfway into the movie, like they couldn't render more scenes to go along with the storyline, and some really deep plot holes that make you wonder how the heck the characters even coexist with each other....AND...they don't even expalin HOW they survived the ending of FFVII....
Moving on...
Don't get me wrong - I like Mena Suvari as an actress - she was great in "American Beauty", but she absolutely SUCKS as Aeris/Aerith in AC. Sure, she's hardly in it, but at least give it some thought when you voice someone, no matter how much screentime they give you. Put some effort to not just
try to sounds sweet and innocent, but actually do it WITH some charisma. If you've played Kingdom Hearts 2, you'll know what I'm talking about. Mandy Moore did a better job in KH. But it's a small issue compared to the bigger problem....
They screw up the bedroom scene(
not what you guys think....though I hope that's what it implied ) by having the conversation make less sense than it did in the original japanese release. DAMN.
Then, they add this kid who sorta resembles Cloud, yet Tifa, by Barrett's dialogue anyway, is his "mom"...They never tell you anything about him except he's gonna die if he's not cured....Yet Cloud is totally all over him when he's captured. I don't know but I'm hoping this means something happened between Cloud and Tifa since FFVII, because that's where it left off in the game.
but....Sephiroth just kicks ass. the climax is worth the price of admission. You have to wait a while, but this fight just kicks ass....I DARE Hollywood to top this.
Square plans to release
Advent Children:Complete by Christmas with the deleted scenes reinjected into the story and some extras - hopefully they fixed what they broke.
Spirits Within would've been accepted, IMO, if it didn't have the Final Fantasy name. Honestly, that's what messed it up.
I firmly believe that if it had kept "GAIA", Sakaguchi-san's original name for it, no one would've pushed it aside. On its' own, it's a beautiful movie that had the potential to be revolutionary.
DOA
I liked Kane Kosugi, Kevin Nash, and <Hayate's Actor> roles in DOA. Kane should DEFINITELY return if there's a Ninja Gaiden movie somewhere down the road(
granted, his dad brought the ninja movie genre to another level here in the states AND he was also Ultraman, so it'd make perfect sense for him to fill those shoes) Nash was hilarious and really played it cool throughout the movie as Tina's father figure*
note Tina's bedroom scene and the prefight talk)
Also, I'm surprised - the only one that semi-stunk within the girls was Natasshia Malthe as Ayane, who not only looked waaaay older than Kasumi, but looked rather boring throughout. However, she didn't get that much screentime, so she's passable. Ali Larter as Helena? I thought Helena was the CEO of DOATECH, the company running the show? Also, wasn't she a bit older, more classy? Anyways, she did a good job of being young Helena at least...
All in all, the movie was a nice touch, and bearable, if you remember that the source material's not all that realistic either.