Angst Dissonance: One of the criticisms commonly thrown at the movie was Cloud's moodiness. Let's be honest: Most people wouldn't exactly be in a good mood if someone they loved was murdered and they found out they had a fatal disease. Still, the fact that angst is Cloud's personality throughout the entire movie didn't really sit well with fans.
Audience-Alienating Era: As the pilot project of the "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII", Advent Children started one. The movie was met with highly mixed reception, and many fans were not happy with the Flanderization of various characters, particularly Cloud, who was bashed as the kind of "emo pretty-boy" stereotype that eventually became a frequent point of criticism for Final Fantasy, and Square Enix, as a whole. As the Compilation continued to build up, FFVII lost much of its prestige and recognition, and only started to see a rise again with the announcement of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Cloud's addition to Super Smash Bros., both of which were driven by Shocking Moments reactions and drew heavily from the original game while ignoring developments from Advent Children and the rest of the Compilation.note However, Cloud's popular Advent Children costume is an alternate costume in Smash.
"One-Winged Angel" is back (in a metal version), and it's cooler than ever. The other Black Mages remixes are pretty awesome, too.
"Divinity I", complete with Ominous Latin Chanting, complements the impending destruction that Bahamut rains down on Edge, whilst "Divinity II" is more epic, coming to a climax as Cloud faces Bahamut with the help of his old allies. Some of Uematsu's best work with a full orchestra.
The ending songs: "Calling" (original) and "Safe and Sound" (Complete).
"Opening", an orchestral rearranging of the song that plays during the original game's Title Drop.
"Battle in The Forgotten City" can count too. Its pace complements Cloud's arrival to The Forgotten City being attacked by Yazoo and Loz; then Kadaj walking towards him, and finally the actual fight.
"The Promised Land", the song that plays during Marlene's narration and after the battle with Sephiroth.
"Those Who Fight", an industrial metal remix of the iconic battle theme from the original game.
Let's not forget the piano version that plays in Tifa's fight.
Badass Decay: Rude and especially Reno. They were serious threats in the original game but became Plucky Comic Relief in the film. Given who they were up against, though, it's somewhat understandable.
Base-Breaking Character: Cloud, infamously so and far more than in the original game. Over both versions of the film, fans argued for him either having a strong character arc and having an impressive weapon and flashy fight scenes to his name, or having a contrived character arc and spending much of the movie as unlikable, whiny emo, and being a far cry from the well-rounded and highly variable character he was in the original game.
The entire movie split the VII fanbase down the middle. Then Complete came along and split it again.
The Fusion Swords themselves are either flat-out awesome or an overblown and impractical take on the Buster Sword that tries too hard to be cool.
Mena Suvari's performance as Aerith was this at the time of the film's release. It didn't help that she replaced Mandy Moore who had voiced the character in Kingdom Hearts (and the other VII characters had kept their actors from that game, aside from Sephiroth whose replacement voice George Newbern was widely liked). When Kingdom Hearts II came out, she became even more disliked and that was her last time voicing the character.
Continuity Lockout: Though there is a recap at the beginning, the movie really requires you to play the game if you want to make sense out of it. The DVD (and Blu-ray) come with a recap of key events, though. Complete comes with an additional feature that recaps the events of the other spin-offs, although Dirge of Cerberus is glanced over, as it is set a year after Advent Children.
Critical Dissonance: A mild case, because both critics and general audiences were highly divided on the film. Advent Children received mostly negative reviews from both gaming and non-gaming critics alike due to its confusing plot, along with other issues such as Continuity Lockout and Flanderization of many characters.note The latter was at least partially addressed by Complete. However, Advent Children was very successful commercially, and as the main demographic of the film, some FFVII fans are more forgiving of it (especially Complete) and argue that it works (to varying degrees) as a companion piece to the game, rather than a standalone film. It stands at a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 33%note which is lower than Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which is an In Name Only adaption in contrast to this being a direct sequel (although most of the reviews are for the original and not Complete), but has an IMDb rating of 7.3 out of 10.
Draco in Leather Pants: Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, who actually happen to wear full-body leather.
Epileptic Trees: Some of the speculation regarding the movie back in 2004, particularly regarding the identity of the man in the wheelchair, was pretty crazy, which was only spurred on by the very slow drip-feeding of information at the time.
Fan Nickname: SHM ("Silver Haired Men") for Kadaj's gang. They were called this for a long time before the official release of their names.
Growing the Beard: Prior to Advent Children, Final Fantasy had solid and oftimes spectacular action, but the athletic and superhuman battles in the film took the franchise's action scenes to an entirely new level that Square Enix have explicitly tried to live up to since, as they outright described the battle systems of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XV as trying to feel like playing Advent Children. Dissidia Final Fantasy was perhaps the epitome of this philosophy.
Dave Wittenberg voices Yazoo, a remnant of Sephiroth, in Advent Children. Years later, in Dissidia Final Fantasy, he voices another Final Fantasy character: Kefka Palazzo, who is also one of the rivals of Sephiroth in terms of the fanbase.
A longstanding opinion among fans is that Advent Children would have worked better as a video game than as a movie. With Ever Crisis adapting the entire Compilation to mobile game format, looks like that idea is coming true.
The film's test footage was screened at 2004 Venice Film Festival, the oldest and largest film festival in Italy. A year later, the complete film premiered at the same festival (in non-competitive section), with Tetsuya Nomura and Tifa Lockhart's Japanese voice actress Ayumi Ito attending. Then in January 2022, an infamously NSFW animated video clip of Tifa interrupted a Zoom meeting between members of the Italian Senate, which began the "Tifa is Italian (political figure)" meme with edits of her draping Italian flag.
Improved by the Re-Cut: Many in the fanbase prefer the director's cut version over the original. This because of how the director's cut improved Cloud's characterization giving him more heartwarming scenes that tried to overshadow his brooding, further flashbacks that help to understand the story to newcomers and extended fight scenes. However, the movie still has a Broken Base, as the director's cut also undercuts Cloud's defeat of Sephiroth by adding in Zack as a factor.
It Was His Sled: What, you didn't know Sephiroth was going to come back somehow? It was pretty much the selling point of the movie to build up a second confrontation between him and Cloud. Complete ditches the pretense and works it into Rufus's conversation with Cloud in the opening that Geostigma is Sephiroth's doing and is a mechanism for his resurrection. Word of God is also that the point of the film from conception was a second battle between Cloud and Sephiroth, everything else was wrapped around that idea and how to make it happen.
Iconic Sequel Outfit: While Advent Children debuted in 2005, eight years after the original game was released, certain redesigns for the returning cast have proven very enduring among the fanbase.
Cloud's all-black gear is just as popular as his original outfit. In many crossover appearances, this is Cloud's alternate outfit if it isn't already his regular one.
While not as popular as her original outfit, Tifa's all-black outfit is still recognizable among the fanbase. In many crossover appearances, this is Tifa's alternate outfit if it isn't already her regular one.
Just Here for Godzilla: There are many reasons people watch Advent Children: to see the cast of Final Fantasy VII again after eight years, to see the cast animated in (especially by 2005's standards) jaw-dropping CGI, for the fight scenes, for the fight scenes in the context that they are what it would be like if you took a JRPG boss fight and choreographed it, or you are just waiting it out until the Cloud vs. Sephiroth rematch happens. What's rare to find though is someone who appreciates the movie for itself, or likes the whole movie, including the non-action scenes. It's almost telling that when Advent Children gets referenced in any other medium, what'll end up being the reference point is Cloud and Sephiroth's duel; Super Smash Bros. Ultimate even played it up with Sephiroth's reveal trailer containing shot-for-shot remakes of scenes including him in this movie.
Magnificent Bastard: Rufus Shinra spends most of the film pretending to be a cripple, and has Jenova's head with him the entire time. The reveal of this comes with Rufus going full-on Magnificent Bastard as he openly mocks Kadaj for never figuring it out, simply remarking "A good son would've known." Then, he jumps off a building, basically depending on the fact that the Turks will stop him hitting the ground (which of course they do).
Memetic Molester: Certain fans have gone on to characterize the Silver Haired Men, but especially Kadaj, as paedophiles. The sad thing is that that isn't far-off from how their mass child-kidnapping goes.
Reno (in-film): Kadaj's gang. Rufus (watching film): Did film Reno just say Kadaj is gay? Tseng: Most likely.
** "Shall I give you 'dis pear?"Explanation A mishearing of Sephiroth's line "Shall I give you despair?" The mental image of Sephiroth ominously offering Cloud fruit quickly caught on for its inherent silliness, resulting in a bevy of jokes and fan content depicting pears as Sephiroth's Trademark Favorite Food.
"Unforgiveable!" -> "You meanie!" Because Loz apparently needed to be even more of a Manchild.
People have also jokingly called Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo the "Jenova's Witnesses".
Narm: In the English dub, when Reno and Rude are taunting Loz and Yazoo during their fight by insulting Jenova. It was actually a pretty intense fight but due to the previously mentioned Lip Lock, the best comeback the dub team could come up with? "You meanie!"
Narm Charm: From the English dub, "dilly-dally, shilly-shally." It's rather silly when it's said by Tifa and Aerith, in response to Cloud isolating himself. However, its original Japanese counterpart was very hard to translate into English.note What was said in the Japanese was "zuruzuru", an onomatopÅ“ia that mimics the sound of dragging a heavy load. "Dilly-dally" is an expression that's used when someone's wasting time focusing on unimportant things — making this quite close to an English counterpart. It's so silly in the context of the scene that it becomes rather cute.
It doesn't help that Steve Burton sounds incredibly bored when voicing Cloud — becoming a NLID for his portrayal as Cloud too; even though he has improved since then. He barely acts angry at some moments! On the other hand, Takahiro Sakurai makes a more expressive Cloud.
Signature Scene: The final duel between Cloud and Sephiroth, which has been referenced an astonishingly high number of times in future material about the two.
Subbing Versus Dubbing: The English dub, while generally considered above par for an anime dub, is highly contentious. On one hand, many of the performances and memorable lines were praised, particularly with George Newbern who made his debut as Sephiroth and replaced the unpopular Lance Bass from Kingdom Hearts. On the other hand, the Lip Lock is considered a consistent problem, both in terms of immersion and in terms of lines that were changed to fit (such as the infamous "dilly-dally shilly-shally"), and Steve Burton's performance as Cloud, while debated, is generally considered inferior to Takahiro Sakurai's in the Japanese version.
"For every battle, there was more sadness. Someone I loved went back to the Lifestream too." "Please don't take Denzel away..."
Denzel's OVA is one long Trauma Conga Line with occasional Hope Spots. His parents are killed when Sector 7 is destroyed. His caretakers after that die from Geostigma. The others kids in the scavenger gang he joined all move on one by one, and a thoughtless comment ruins his relationship with his last remaining friend. By the end, he's teetering on the edge of the Despair Event Horizon and considering suicide until he meets Cloud.
The ending is made very bittersweet when it's implied that Aerith and Zack are finally at peace, and can finally rest.
"Hey, you're okay now, right?"
Villain or no, Kadaj's death is surprisingly moving. The Gray Rain of Depression doesn't hurt.
The Moogle Girl's expanded backstory in Complete. She and her brother are implied to get the stigma from a man they help in an alley. She's seen trying to carry her brother on her back, while trying to hide their sickness. Her brother then is implied to have died from it before she goes with Yazoo.
Toy Ship: Some people appear to like Denzel/Moogle Girl. Especially once Advent Children Complete came out, and they got more scenes together. There's also Denzel/Marlene for others.