Buy Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy Xv (2016), Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy Xv (2016)
Kingsglaive opens with the history of the royal family of Lucis. King Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII (Sean Bean) is taking his family (including a young Noctis, the protagonist of FFXV) to a sort of retreat in Tenebrae when the empire of Niflheim attacks. The Queen is killed by the imperial general Glauca, a hideously armored warrior, and the King flees.Some time later, the Lucian royal guard known as the Kingsglaive engage the army of Niflheim in a border war lớn prevent the empire from invading their kingdom. However, the battle turns disastrous when the empire unleashes a gigantic daemon that the forces of Lucis cannot hope to repel. Kingsglaive soldier Nyx Ulric (Aaron Paul) disobeys the order to retreat so that he can rescue his fallen ally, fellow Kingsglaive Libtertus Ostium (Liam Mulvey).
The threat of the surrender throws the city và even the Kingsglaive into chaos since many feel that the king is abandoning the families of the common folk beyond the walls of Insomnia. But as the signing ceremony of the surrender nears and the emperor of Niflheim himself arrives in Insomnia, the princess is abducted và the Kingsglaive are deployed under the command of Nyx in the absence of their unit captain.It’s too late by the time Nyx discovers what is really going on. All I have to say is: “Hasn’t anyone in Kingsglaive actually played a Final Fantasy game? I mean, they have TV’s and cellphones & an Audi, but no video clip games? They should know that an empire always means bad business.”This in fact is why I went into watching Kingsglaive expecting not to like it. I didn’t expect to lớn latch onto any characters or feel any sense of narrative tension, or even to largely comprehend motives or direction, or why anything weird happened for any reason. Typically, in the past, I’ve watched movies like this & just had khổng lồ take weird crap happening at face value. I didn’t expect to be wowed beyond the visuals.Indeed the first 30 or 40 minutes of the movie, though kích hoạt heavy, felt lượt thích a drag. I got to lớn see the Kingsglaive in action, using all of their “hyper-cool” anime-fighting styles & their impressive warp-strike magic. But jumping into the middle of a battle with characters I knew nothing about, & therefore cared nothing about, with quasi-realistic faces that put me at an unease, was difficult lớn stomach. I felt I was justified in thinking I wasn’t going to lượt thích the movie.But when it hit its stride, all of the drama about the surrender & the opposition, the tension, between the imperial demands and the throne of Lucis builds. I knew I was slipping into enjoying what I was seeing. Really, from the moment the kooky Chancellor challenges the king’s presence with his typically-Final Fantasy, over-the-top fashion sense, I felt that old tug of good vs evil that will never get old in all the future history of storytelling.By the time it all starts falling apart & the movie hits its second act action sequences, I even threw out a few cheers và gasps. For my wife’s sake. She was right there beside me, too. Well, and what Final Fantasy fan couldn’t be ecstatic to lớn see the VI’s Ultros cameo in that Niflheim ship?Oddly enough, this was one of my worries coming into the movie. Though I knew the franchise name well, I didn’t actually (and still don’t actually) know much about FFXV or its world and characters. Of course I recognize moogles and chocobos & cactuars at a glance in the dark but I didn’t expect to see many of any of those running around this hyper-realistic world of humans. They put Ultros in just for me!Somebody also said there’s a Yojimbo cameo in there but I can’t be sure.And that leads neatly into how Kingsglaive sets up FFXV. After Nyx (spoiler: highlight lớn reveal) rescues Princess Lunafreya and takes up the power nguồn of Regis’ magical ring, there is of course the epic duel và then the closing scene moves right into the opening scene of Final Fantasy XV. In this sense, Kingsglaive is like a really, really long prologue cutscene that you just can’t skip.It’s been called a long and expensive trailer for FFXV but I think it deserves a wee bit more credit than that. On its own, it’s engaging. Even if I never played FFXV in the days to lớn come, I can still say I enjoyed more than disliked Kingsglaive. The emotion doesn’t always find its target in the fleshy bag beating between your ribs, nor will you latch on to lớn every character and understand every convoluted motivation và act of subterfuge. Even the visuals, for all of their impressive quality, cannot reach photo-realism và you can pick out when characters speaking looks tragically fake.
Visuals: 9/10“We spared no expense” must’ve been tattooed across the forehead of every artist involved in the making of this film. It looks gorgeous. It is clearly the most visually majestic CG movie I have ever seen. The wizards at Square Enix’s Visual Works studio made Pixar look lượt thích a little kid drawing with crayons. Girl, I spotted peach fuzz on the inside of Nyx’s earlobe in a close-up shot! General Glauca’s shining crazy-armor is amazing, & the reflective surfaces gleaming everywhere (like on the Audi) are a feast for 20/20 vision. Any time a character used magic in the movie, it was just so striking. I gasped. I did.
Also, the editing was jumpy, especially in the kích hoạt scenes. That’s probably just a minor complaint. All in all, the movie will visually impress even the most crotchety of moviegoers.
Narrative: 6/10Kingsglaive does a stand up job of getting the audience to feel emotionally invested in Nyx. Somewhat. We don’t feel all of his feelings. At least I didn’t. I did feel the rage of his betrayal and the loneliness of his actions, but I don’t know why he laugh-cried before the old kings, or why he was the man he was. Can’t even remember what bit of backstory he gave (for no good reason) out of the blue when he & the princess were trapped in that building.The movie takes on all the weight of fantasy politics và wars that have come to lớn characterize the Final Fantasy series, but Kingsglaive wisely doesn’t dwell on the macro-story of the clash of nations and people with funny names so much as it becomes a story about one man, for which it is a better movie. The empire is after the sacred crystal of Lucis but that doesn’t really matter for the sake of Kingsglaive, does it? Nyx matters for this story.
Stick around for the post-credits scene!
Themes: 5/10Central to lớn the story of Kingsglaive is the game of cat & mouse played out between Lucis và Niflheim, a classic good vs evil narrative with obvious villains and equally obvious heroes. There shouldn’t be anything here to lớn surprise or move to lớn tears. Heroism, self-sacrifice, devotion, duty, magic vs technology, embracing the past vs shaping the future, the usual fare. At the heart of Kingsglaive is the fact that its righteous characters care about others & I welcomed Nyx as a just man who wasn’t over-concerned with the horrors of his own past or too self-conceited or hard-boiled khổng lồ care about anyone else or treat human life as utterly common.
Challenge: 8/10Throughout the entire movie, the empire seemed like a formidable threat. Of course we know that Nyx is a highly trained, magical soldier of the Kingsglaive but that didn’t make him seem invincible.
Uniqueness: 8/10Are we talking about the first “good” Final Fantasy movie? Yeah, we just might be. Don’t let the so-called critics at Rotten Tomatoes with their nasty 13% score on the tomatometer fool you into skipping this movie. If you plan khổng lồ play FFXV or are a fan hâm mộ of the franchise, odds are you’ll probably enjoy it more than you expect. & just ask my friends. I lượt thích next lớn nothing. Yet I liked Kingsglaive as a unique, self-contained, earnest drama that was able to put all tie-ins aside.
My Personal Grade: 7/10So did Kingsglaive make me excited for FFXV later this month? In some ways it did. I can’t say I understand any more about FFXVor what that trò chơi is all about after watching this one movie, but I bởi vì feel lượt thích I have a little more investment in this particular universe & I bởi vì want to lớn see what happens next. More so than all the varied trailers & the demo và the articles và the rumors and the waiting, Kingsglaive managed (even for an iota) to vị what I thought might just be impossible in the end. It made me look forward to FFXV with optimism.Kingsglaive is currently available in physical & digital copies & it will also be bundled together in various editions of FFXV.
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An elite force of soldiers must protect the magical kingdom of Lucis from the invading empire Niflheim.
Distributor: Stage 6, Square Enix, Vertical Entertainment
Production Co: Digic Pictures, Square Enix Company, The Monk Studio
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