Review of Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016) by Dylan K — 22 Aug 2016

Final Fantasy movies are not for the casual viewer.

You'll get a balance of chuckles, tears, gasps and heart pounding action, but go into this expecting a DEEP story that only gives you a few of it's pieces and frequently leaves you hanging off of a cliff... after all, Square excels at that.

Don't go into this like a movie critic, go into it looking for a visually pleasing, fantasy of a story, grounded in VERY real aspects... family, friendship, politics, war, love, death...

Look past the passable lip syncing of it's English dub and let the wondrous actors bring this film to life.

And REMEMBER... this is a Final Fantasy film... and unlike Spirits Within or Advent Children, this is not a standalone or sequel... this is a TIE-IN to the actual Final Fantasy XV video game, written to play SIDE-by-SIDE with it and ending in the middle of the events of the game.

So think of this movie as a sort of 2 hour, gorgeous advertisement that you're paying to see. Just as I've seen done to multiple friends, you can go into it with no expectations, let it invest you in the story, and have it drop the curtain on you, with the unspoken message of 'Did you enjoy that? Want to see how it all ties up and ends? Then you better go buy the game and find out.".

All that said, be prepared for only a piece of the story, accept the lip syncing for better or worse and be open-minded. Square may surprise you this time.