Both times I was using hyperbole. It did have a story, a shallow one. 40% of the film was fight sequence and when you see that in a film, you know it is because they are having trouble making a proper story. The story itself was basic. "There is virus". Of course, they had to use retcons too, so we have sep back, jenova back, rufus back. Even more ridiculous to see Cait Sith in action, as if Reeve would use the thing in the first place.
There is little to no character development and if you haven't played FF7 beforehand, the whole of AC is a mystery. Who are these 3 silver haired freaks? Loz and the rest? Who are they? What are their backgrounds? Where do they fit in?
These things are not answered, merely glossed over with 1 line explanations. This is story telling at its worst. Then we have the destruction of suspension of disbelief due to the melding of game play elements and story based elements. You cannot do that with film. The same way you can't put snowboarding events collecting balloons-for-points in a film. Seeing Cloud and Sephiroth fight by performing feats that would kill either of them in seconds is ridiculous. At 1 point near the start, cloud is shot in the face and only loses his sun glasses.
Cloud is out of character, after FF7 he had changed, he had already developed as a character and reconciled his past and faults. Now suddenly he is is Mr. Emo. Not even the main character is right in this film.
The whole thing was awful. Let us not forget the absolutely pitiful translation and voice acting job for the English either "Dilly Dally Shilly Shally" LOL "Does he know?" > "Well, one would think"
It is broken. There is hardly a story there. I could write what you learn in this film on the back of a stamp. Sure, some people liked it (I have no idea how), but as always that does not make up for the numerous flaws, mistakes and poor writing.
I would not have made a sequel to VII because it was a finished story, but of course I am not a money grabbing organisation. Let us assume I did make AC, the difference would be that there was a story and character development. It would be 90% dialogue and 10% fight sequence. Properly paced. There would be scenes where people actually sat down and talked, scenes were people joked, laughed, cried. Scenes where we get to know and care about the characters. Scenes where we see characters develop and change, scenes where we get logical explanations to questions, and the main theme is not "bad ass sephiroth is back, and there is virus11!!11!" I also wouldn't have trampled on peoples intelligence by having Rufus (scorched to oblivion in his office) back or retcons whatsoever.
Retcons like this are done because the writer has no idea how to make a proper self contained, original story. The minute I saw that Sephiroth and Rufus were back, I knew the story was going to be convoluted and a ridiculous fan service. In short, I could write a better story than they did in 1 day. These guys sat down for weeks (I assume) and that story is what they came up with?? Or maybe they just said "right, whip something up, we will shove loads of graphics to it and it will sell" , and they were right. But that pile of crap won't stand the test of time.
The end.
