ForceStealer
Double Growth
All right, to try and keep everything from being piled into that thread, as people get the movie and watch it, use this to talk about your first impressions.
This should go without saying, but spoilers abound.
I just watched it and, wow. It really does put the original to shame. The first thing I really wanna comment on is something very striking about this over the original: the SOUND. I don't know if its Blu-Ray, or they just re-did all the sounds (or both) because everything is incredible. They also revoiced all the fighting grunts and stuff, interestingly.
Also, as has been mentioned, the music has been changed. I expected things to just be stretched to fit longer scenes - no. Scenes that haven't been changed at all (like the first bike chase) have their music rearranged to fit what's going on (Like Yazoo flipping over Cloud). The extended bike chase hints at the battle theme, I think - not sure.
And a touch I really like: anytime Sephiroth's Masamune passes near the "camera" a high noise like a tuning fork has been stuck is heard. With every movement of the blade it makes the sound. Very ethereal and threatening, its great.
SO much more exposition! Rufus explains a lot (although, one complaint his speaks much more ominously this time around. Makes him sound a little too evil rather than just cocky.) Kadaj explains more, Geostigma looks freaking TERRIBLE. The Cloud and Marlene exchange was freaking gold. I absolutely loved when Marlene imitated Barret and called him Daddy. I'm glad that she mentioned him, not just Tifa and Cloud. And Cloud is pretty good with kids after all. At the risk of sounding like a fangirl, it was pretty adorable.
On Marlene, her recast (in English) is fantastic! I never really had much of a problem with her voice before, but her new one can ACT. Her delivery is better than some of the adults, I wholeheartedly approve of that casting change.
I'm digging the larger role of the Turks. Its nice to see more of Tseng and Elena, AND Reno and Rude are still funny but being less goofy. The goof-level is about equivalent to the way they were in VII.
I also loved the Sephiroth lines coming almost straight out of VII from when Aeris dies. Cloud gets pretty eff'd up in the fight, its crazy. The Zack exchange was awesome. And I loved the added emphasis on Sephiroth's shock with Omnislash ver. 5.
All in all, I was pretty much blown away. The likes of Masamune probably still won't like it, but even he will have to admit that its a big improvement.
Also, what was this big Cloti ending people were going on about...the ending was the same, just with the little Denzel bit after the credits.
This should go without saying, but spoilers abound.
I just watched it and, wow. It really does put the original to shame. The first thing I really wanna comment on is something very striking about this over the original: the SOUND. I don't know if its Blu-Ray, or they just re-did all the sounds (or both) because everything is incredible. They also revoiced all the fighting grunts and stuff, interestingly.
Also, as has been mentioned, the music has been changed. I expected things to just be stretched to fit longer scenes - no. Scenes that haven't been changed at all (like the first bike chase) have their music rearranged to fit what's going on (Like Yazoo flipping over Cloud). The extended bike chase hints at the battle theme, I think - not sure.
And a touch I really like: anytime Sephiroth's Masamune passes near the "camera" a high noise like a tuning fork has been stuck is heard. With every movement of the blade it makes the sound. Very ethereal and threatening, its great.
SO much more exposition! Rufus explains a lot (although, one complaint his speaks much more ominously this time around. Makes him sound a little too evil rather than just cocky.) Kadaj explains more, Geostigma looks freaking TERRIBLE. The Cloud and Marlene exchange was freaking gold. I absolutely loved when Marlene imitated Barret and called him Daddy. I'm glad that she mentioned him, not just Tifa and Cloud. And Cloud is pretty good with kids after all. At the risk of sounding like a fangirl, it was pretty adorable.
On Marlene, her recast (in English) is fantastic! I never really had much of a problem with her voice before, but her new one can ACT. Her delivery is better than some of the adults, I wholeheartedly approve of that casting change.
I'm digging the larger role of the Turks. Its nice to see more of Tseng and Elena, AND Reno and Rude are still funny but being less goofy. The goof-level is about equivalent to the way they were in VII.
I also loved the Sephiroth lines coming almost straight out of VII from when Aeris dies. Cloud gets pretty eff'd up in the fight, its crazy. The Zack exchange was awesome. And I loved the added emphasis on Sephiroth's shock with Omnislash ver. 5.
All in all, I was pretty much blown away. The likes of Masamune probably still won't like it, but even he will have to admit that its a big improvement.
Also, what was this big Cloti ending people were going on about...the ending was the same, just with the little Denzel bit after the credits.
I'm pretty happy with the additional scene where Cloud saves Tifa, and especially the extra Zack scenes. 
