Soooo...is Advent Children bad?

Now, do not misunderstand. I love Advent Children. It is fun as hell, the animation is spectacular, the voice acting superb, the music FUCKING AMAZING, and the ending was actually pretty moving…kind of.
 
However, I’m not convinced it’s “good” per se. The plot makes little to no sense without playing the game, a lot of the material seems to be either for plays at fanfic writers or fanservice, the villains - with the exception of Rufus Shinra, who works oddly well - are hit and miss (in that they can be BADASS when they aren’t being lame), and Cloud’s character arc seems to have completely collapsed in on itself in relation to the ending of the game.
 
Also, Tifa’s rack was severely underplayed. For shame, Square. For shaaaaaaame. >:(
 
Your thoughts?

I, for one, love Advent Children.

The more I try and criticize Advent Children the more I realize that it doesn’t fit any of my normal criteria for a movie. This only now comes up because I never compared it to anything else. I’m not sure I even think about it as a movie.
 
It’s just filed away in there as “that Final Fantasy animated thing I love”.
 
So I have no idea if it’s objectively any good. All I do know is I’m about to go watch it again.

@TheAbridgenator  

 
Totally this.  

 
And this.
 
Slightly more serious. It was alright. Best bit to me was seeing Reno and Rude put up a decent fight. Sadly, not nearly enough Cid “SIT YOUR ASS DOWN IN THAT CHAIR AND DRINK YOUR GODDAMN TEA!” Highwind.

It’s a movie based on a game in a series that is slowly becoming a bad anime.  
Considering that, it’s pretty good.
 
And there are still Tifa pics on the interwebs to beat off to.

Q: How does one achieve non-vehicular flight?
 
A: have your entire party throw you upwards from a skyscraper one at a time.
 
Is the above method practical? no. It’s really dumb.  
Is it fucking awesome? holy shit yes.

@Too_Offensive
 
According to interviews with the creative team, the fight scenes were scripted primarily on Rule of Cool.

@Kazapsky  
and it shows.

The fight scenes are cool, that’s pretty much the sole purpose of the movie

@Too_Offensive
 
Which is what makes AC so entertaining to watch. Action sequences are just one long string of “Fuck yeah, that was awesome!” moments.

Are we talking about Advent Children Complete or just the regular Advent Children?

@Ninoyiya  
Either one, really, seeing as at the core they both have similar strengths and issues.
 
Also, I almost forgot. Dilly dally shilly shally.
 
DILLY DALLY. SHILLY SHALLY.

I know I really enjoyed watching it when it first came out, but I had the misfortune to see it again recently (never a good idea with stuff you love from your childhood), and yeah it’s a pile of poop.
 
As a character, Cloud went backwards from where he was at the end of FF7. The story barely made sense, even for someone who was familiar with the game; every character except Cloud was horribly under-utilised; they didn’t use any magic (except to summon supermegabahamut) and the fight scenes… looked cool when I was 14, but now they completely lack any substance (when anything can happen, nothing matters).
 
The remix of One-Winged Angel was very cool, though. And Rufus’ little speech ‘…so bring on your Jenovas and your Sephiroths, and we’ll stop you every. Single. Time.’ – that was good. The rest was just blurgh.