I have played other Final Fantasy games (FFI,FFX,FFVIII,FXI) but
I haven't played seven, although after seeing this movie I'm going to buy it.
I did know a little bit about the story line of the original game from what
I heard from friends, so that did make a difference to my enjoyment of
the film.
Some say that this film is over hyped – most of the hype has come from
fans of the game, or at least people who have played other games in the series.
And they're hyped for a reason, because they love Final Fantasy. If you haven't
played the game, you might still enjoy the movie, but don't say the movie's bad
if you don't enjoy it. That's just like buying a romance movie when you like
action movies. Don't expect it to be like all the mainstream
hollywood junk.
The story is a bit confusing if you have not played the game, and most of the
movie (around 80%) is battles so it does leave little room for the story –
but I think Square pulled it off well.
In the special features documentary the designers say they chose not to make
this movie photo realistic because then it wouldn't be like Final Fantasy 7, and
they might as well use live actors. And they chose to do CG because then they
could do things that had never been done before (thats what FF is about) and
have cameras in impossible places and have characters do insane things.
Nobuo Uematsu is the king of game music, and his work on this movie meets the
same standard. I feel this is one of the best movie soundtracks ever, and
I plan to buy the CD.
This movie looks cool, sounds great, it is Final Fantasy! (not like silly
Spirits Within).