Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Cloud is the world's most emo badass, and he's totally unwilling to stop moping and kick ass - but once the rest of the FFVII crew point out what a moron he's being, he finally gets moving. The first couple fight scenes in the movie are exciting but simple. Once things get going, though, everything is kicked into screaming and frothing overdrive.

At some point, Tetsuya Nomura must have realized that with computer graphics anything is possible. The beauty and triumph of Advent Children is that once he realized it, he decided to damn reality and take things so over the top that he never saw the ground again. The action slows down and speeds up from second to second - the camera flips, rotates and pans around the action so fast that a live cameraman would get his spine shattered.

Characters do things like run up the sides of buildings or stop hurtling motorcycles with their feet. If you don't have the stomach for utter ridiculousness, you won't be able to stand Advent Children. If you can lose yourself in the exuberance, it's breathtaking, if hilarious, adrenaline-soaked fun.

So the simple question remains: is Advent Children a good movie? Not really. The story is incomprehensible if you haven't played FFVII and nonsensical even if you have - not to mention uninventive (is that Akira we smell?) But it's a visual treat with the daring to do whatever it wants.