Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016) User Reviews

"Kingsglaive" creates a gateway for fans and audience into its visually fantastic world, yet the muddled plot can be exhausting despite the effort to make it accessible.

[quincytheodore · 7/10 · 19 August 2016]

There's no denying the graphical barrage "Kingsglaive" constantly throws for nearly two hours is brazenly stunning. The vistas are absolutely marvelous, its characters look eerily lively and the fights are utterly unworldly. With all of these mighty productions, it's still vexed by occasional choppy pace and sporadic hop in screenplay.

The story is delivered in a sci-fi fantasy realm. It's a very politically focused tale and it does try to deliver many subplots and characters, no doubt a foundation for the game's world and its splendor. The problem lies as it often skips from one scene abruptly without giving the audience much sense for the flow of time or the clarity of vital motivation. It's all dramatic in presentation, yet it can feel a bit muddled, more so since it's quite the lengthy showing.

Characters are relatively well done, especially the ones with famous names. Usually the dubbing in English for such production looks jarring, but here Lena Headley's or Aaron Paul's voice is implemented properly. The lip sync is fine and there's a boon on having fantasy oriented voice for the cast. A minor flaw would be the dialogues or sound effect don't convey the sense of urgency at times, but it's mostly understandable.

The visual ramps up as the battles progress. These are very hectic occurrences, the fast cut can leave audience wandering on what transpires on the screen since there are many effects and motions cramped into brief composition of scenes. However, when it retains the focus or follows the action, it is arguably one of the most eye-popping spectacles from animated movie.

The sheer graphical prowess produces an entirely captivating world, even though it stumbles on overly complex narrative or overly fast editing.

From a non player perspective

[athena24 · 6/10 · 19 September 2016]

I wanted to see Final Fantasy XV solely because of the graphics, without any prior knowledge of the game, the plot or its characters. I love 3D graphic animation, and I found the previous FF movies to be the best examples of it. The closest to reality. So seeing this installment was a must.

Graphics has certainly evolved since Advent Children. Kingsglaive is much more colorful and there is much more going on at the same time. The resolution of shading is better and it is seen on the faces of the characters. On the down side of it, it is still not as lively as I would have wanted it to be. It's as if the game graphic engine was used to generate the animation using complex algorithms. It is seen in the movement of the body parts, which are still a bit robotic and less human.

The plot is convoluted, but it is something I had expected, seeing the previous Final Fantasy movies. But the ending is quite blurred, and a big 'What's now?' question hangs in the air.

The action is all over. The battle at the beginning is amazing. It's ingenious, tense and full of occurrences. The battle at the end, on the other hand, is overlong and more superficial. Moreover, I didn't always understood what's going on.

The best of the Final Fantasy movies

[Rectangular_businessman · 7/10 · 4 October 2021]

Of the three Final Fantasy movies, this is probably the best one, being entertaining to watch and keeping the spirit of the games. The narrative wasn't as muddled as in "Advent Children", and by virtue of being a prequel, is not necessary having to play first any of the games to fully understand the plot.

The visual aspect was rather impressive, featuring a quasi-realistic CGI which almost looks indistinguishable from live-actors in a couple of scenes.

I think some of the games from the series could have been adapted in this kind of movie format.

Could have been better

[calvinxy · 6/10 · 30 August 2016]

I had high expectations for the film given the fact that I am a fan of the long running Final Fantasy franchise.

While it excelled in the graphic department with stunning visual that puts it on par with the works of Square Enix, the mediocre story eclipsed this momentary allure.

Its unfocused plot is to blame for this. It featured a stereotypical "hunky hero saves the day" story line, with female characters as damsels in distress. The women in this testosterone-loaded film are depicted so weak that a bee sting could kill them.

Curiously, this is a far cry from the appeal shown in the FFXV promotional material whereby the female lead, Lunafreya takes on a water elemental monster Leviathan on her own.

In this film however, Lunafreya did not displayed any of such willpower. The film utilized her as a helpless plot device to justify the screen time for the male lead, Nyx.

Another lamentable plot device is Crowe, Nyx's friend who was killed off before she was given substantial character development. Predictably, her death sets off a chain of reason that catapulted Nyx into action to save another helpless lady.

Not even the top notched cast starring Sean Bean as voice actors can save this mess. The climactic fight scenes were a feast to the eyes, but it gets numb from watching it after a while.

The suspense build up was just too late for the satisfying release of the battle between good guy vs bad guy in the finale.

The graphic was spectacular, but the story wasn't. It is hard to develop attachment to the characters you are not fond of.

Overall, this is a good effort from Square Enix, but let's face it, it is just am overjoyed 110 minutes of advertisement for the real gem: FFXV the game.

I'm calling it out now, the Kingslaive characters seen in the film are unlikely to be referenced to in the real game. There cannot be two heroes in a game.

Don't watch the game play the game.

[subxerogravity · 6/10 · 22 August 2016]

I wanted to like it but I found it weak.

The animation was of course spectacular that was a given. It was some of the best animation I've seen, with the most detailed character design, absolutely mind blowing.

It's the same issue I have with Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within. The film's animation was great but I got very little from the story and found the characters far two dimensional. The story may work if your playing it as a game not just watching it.

I can only imagine if I were a true die hard Final Fantasy fan, other than just someone vaguely familiar with the games, that I would like the movie just a little more, maybe being able to point out the trivia would get me excited.

As a movie, there is a lot of amazing action sequences, like this cool war sequence at the beginning of the film, The heroes of the film do this thing where they toss their swords at something then teleport themselves to the place the blade is, kick ass.

The only problem is, getting to these action packed parts means having to bare though a poorly produce plot that's easy enough to follow, but hard to get into. It was a series of characters that I could not get into.

Not even with the voice talents of Arron Paul and Sean Bean could I gather enough emotion to give a crap about anyone or anything in this movie. May have been a better movie if it was just one big action sequence.

http://cinemagardens.com

Highly underrated

[beckyanca · 10/10 · 28 December 2018]

I have seen several movies regarding or based on video game, yet none not even close of Kingslaive. I also saw the other two Final Fantasy movies and neither of them is even half good as this one. This isn't a masterpiece overall, has its own flawes, but nonetheless it's a great and solid movie, worth watching and rewatching. The CGI is spectaculos, so realistic and well-made, carrying you truly into a story, a fantasy. We see new power additions to the word, the eye-catching warp magic forged by the blink dagger of the glaive which is a pretty cool thing to watch. But above all are the character, many of them very interesting -I really wanted to know even more about each of them- and the story itself. Some said the plot is not coherent enough. I think those people did not paid enough atention, especially at the prologue. Kingsglaive is not just a story about battles and special effects, it's a story about duty, about courage, about sacrificies and responsabilities. You care for those characters and their fates. It tells a good and engaging story, something that movies nowadays completly lacking. It has soul and sentiment. It has a message. Don't mind the critics and the low-rated reviews. Give it a try, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Nicely done

[Sh31kh_H0kv5 · 7/10 · 17 May 2021]

I was looking for a good eye food,instead i got the special on the house.

Great movie definitely worth my time.

Fantastic

[shaikhkaifak · 9/10 · 22 December 2018]

Forget the critics...It's a must watch anime..specially Final fantasy lover... Really amazing movie

Spectacular! But what was the point?

[Aegelis · 7/10 · 1 September 2022]

Excellent world-building, merging the past, present, and future into a unique universe. Character voices are well done, battle and action scenes are gripping, sounds are room-filling. I'm reminded of many other great movies coming together such as Warcraft, Godzilla 2000, Starship Troopers. There's some heart in this one, tough decisions, and consequences laid bare.

A kind of awkwardness to the character's facial expressions and movements prevail, I think this will not likely age well (or perhaps hasn't already). Some parts the music was louder than the dialogue. There were a good number points of confusion as to what was happening and why. Otherwise the plot is all too familiar. As with Spirits Within and many Final Fantasy games, the beginning starts of with a bang, has a curious middle, and disappointing end. Why can't Final Fantasy seem to finish a story?

Perfect graphics, a lack of story

[vnmilen85 · 5/10 · 4 September 2016]

Overall: Perfect graphics, a lack of story and scene-realization. I gave 5/10 because of the graphics.

The battles - almost all battles are with 1-2 heroes, type "one man army". I can't find a single battle with defense towers, patrols, battle groups of soldiers, electric fences, military mines, or etc. No thermal-cameras or night vision.

The story - a lot of ideas, but without a full realization. I can't understand what's going on, because there is no information about the fractions (I've zero idea about the story in the FF games and I don't know if there is some connection between them and the movie).

The people on the street are low-rendered, the main heroes - fully rendered. This makes me think that the movies wasn't fully made.

At the end I waited the end of the movie. Sure - it's a movie made for fans and to present a future game.

P.S. Final Fantasy: The spirit within is one of my favorites.

Amazing movie

[KillerSpin · 10/10 · 11 July 2018]

Excellente movie about what happened. Just what i wanted.

A Solid Introduction to the Video Game

[Original_Fire · 7/10 · 5 September 2016]

This movie is nothing more than a set up, or as someone said, a essentially long cut-scene prior to the video game. The story may not make sense, but this movie did feature spectacular action sequences with stunning visual effect and the music flowed correctly with the sequence, despite of some complaints of battle scenes being too long. As someone forgot what the genre is, it's an action CGI film. I do think this movie will make sense to some once the game is released and offer some explanations related to this film. Had the movie come out after the game is released, they would probably ease on the harsh negative reviews this movie received, for example, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Luckily, this film is loved by any other fans.

I have not seen the film with foreign languages/accents, but I do think the dubbed voice this film feature is not half-bad and some of the lip sync is a bit off as well as the facial feature accompanied with it. I don't usually like dubbed voices because they usually sound stiff, using the accent wrong, or emotionless, but I was surprised how good this is. Not the best, but good nevertheless. It's all thanks to adding famous actors/actresses volunteered to voice the characters, and I applauded their effort. It also showed they're the fan of the games. Who knows they're secretly FF nerds.....

I actually love the details of the character models and location description, and the CGI is impressive as usual. I love how as years progress on, and technology is becoming more advanced, they add more details and they're almost as realistic as real life people. Some of the scenes, I almost forgot it's a CGI film, not a live action one.

Other than all that, I'm ready for the game to come out and I firmly believe I will enjoy the hell out of it.

Looks great but the plot was slightly confusing! 5/10

[leonblackwood · 5/10 · 30 November 2016]

Review: This movie truly looked amazing, and the attention to detail was great but if you was to ask me what it was about, I totally wouldn't have a clue. I knew that there was a goodie, a baddie, a princess and a ring but apart from that, I was just going with the flow. The action scenes were also confusing because there was way to much things happening at once but it still felt epic and I'm sure I will understand it better, if I'm to watch it again. As I didn't play the games, I didn't know who was who, or what was what but I did watch the first Final Fantasy movie, which also went straight over my head. There's a lot of betrayal and deceit throughout the film, so the main character Nyx (Aaron Paul) has to rely on his battle skills to get Princess Lunafreya of Tenebrae (Lena Headey) to safety, and with a the dark Lord constantly attacking them for this magical ring (Precioussssss!), you can feel the intensity throughout. Personally, the look and feel of the movie, was more impressive than the actual storyline because it seemed quite messy and over baring in places. Apart from that, I still found it quite amazing, for a film that is made on a computer, and it really does show how far we have come, in terms of making these computer images seem so real. I'm surprised that it didn't smash the box office, mainly because of the popularity of the game, and with the huge effort and scale of the film, I think it deserved much more. Anyway, I did find the movie entertaining but it would have been much better if it was made for dummies. Enjoyable!

Round-Up: This movie was directed by Takeshi Nozue, who also co-directed Final Fantasy: Advent Children, so he wasn't new to the franchise. As he hasn't directed any other movies, it's hard to compare his work but I have to commend him for taking on such a huge project and making it look so fantastic.

Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $1.5million

I recommend this movie to people who are into their animation/action/adventure movies, voiced by Aaron Paul, Sean Bean, Lena Headey, David Gant, Darin De Paul and Trevor Devall. 5/10

Did you forget?

[nocanabiz · 7/10 · 17 October 2019]

Perfect animation action movie!

People here expected too high, did u forget if this movie is just game intro? the rest of the story is in the game later.

Pure eye candy...

[paul_haakonsen · 7/10 · 24 September 2016]

I have always enjoyed the "Final Fantasy" CGI animated movies, especially because they are so amazingly nicely made. And "Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV" doesn't shy away from the traditional style, it actually enhances it.

Storywise, then I will say that "Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV" was a bit of a scrambled mess. It was as if director Takeshi Nozue set out to want to accomplish more than he could muster to deliver. With that being said, I am not saying that this is a bad movie, not at all. It just had certain parts to it which didn't really make much sense, or things that seemed were just crammed into the movie for the sake of being there.

As with the previous "Final Fantasy" movies, then I am simply astounded by the sheer level of details that they manage to show in the movie. There are so many great details and the textures of the CGI is just unfathomably impressive.

For me, this was a movie driven by the CGI and the animation, because it was pure eye candy from start to end. And I sincerely hope that we get to see more movies with this level of CGI animation in the future. I didn't really care much for the story, given its inability to really captivate me. As I didn't really care much for the story, then it was the action and the animation that became the driving force of the movie for me. And it worked quite nicely, and the movie didn't really become a slow-paced drag at any time.

As for the voice acting, well they did have a good ensemble of actors and actresses adding voices to the various animated characters. And people were doing good jobs, which was essential to the overall enjoyment of "Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV".

"Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV" is a well-worthy addition to the "Final Fantasy" franchise and it is definitely worth a place right next to the other movies set in the same universe.

Amazing, simply amazing. Must watch for fans of CG and game-based movies

[Sabre-El · 10/10 · 3 September 2016]

Wow! Just wow! There was a time when I thought Resident Evil and Beowulf were good CGI makes. But this just takes it to a new level. This is what superhero movies and co. should look like. It gives a lot of license to use reality with graphics.

I must also say that I know nothing about Final Fantasy games, so I can't say if the story is coherent with the games or not. But I still liked it and the story wasn't so difficult to follow. Everything is fully explained.

This movie was not just CG, it had the story, the heart. You could feel what the character was feeling, and everything made sense. Have to give a 10/10 for direction as well.

So beautiful, so potential, so entertaining, yet so many plots irritated me

[n-nguyen34 · 7/10 · 18 September 2016]

I'm thankful for the movie to come out, I've always been such a fan of this amazing movie franchise. The details in artworks of this movie are just as unbelievably beautiful as expected. The characters are well built. Even though, the lines are cheesy in times.

What's with all the build up for Notis character? I know they have to sell the game, which Notis is the main character, but the knowledge of its kill the mood for me. I cannot love the character that just is not there.

I'd love to see more Glaives in action. The Glaives are supposed to be the keys of this movie but no, at the end, it was a bunch of huge (magnifique) stone monuments (who destroyed buildings unnecessarily) that saved the day, not the Glaives heroes, so much things you could do with their amazingly built team and the beautiful magic they perform. Such disappointment, and such a pitiable waste.

A Masterpiece In Pixels

[RinoTheBouncer · 10/10 · 5 September 2016]

Video Game-based movies do not often turn out as good as they promise to be, and this always made me think that CGI is always the best way to bring video game stories to the big screen.

Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is great example of how CGI does a brilliant job in capturing the world of Final Fantasy XV in the best way possible. The cast is what's most remarkable to me. Most Final Fantasy games present a cast that is very much inspired by Japanese culture and Anime. For the first time, we see a diverse cast that feels rather universal than from one specific culture.

To me, the cast surpassed the ones presented in the video game by miles and miles. I wasn't really into the cast of Final Fantasy XV from the beginning, except for Gladio. But here, the cast was wonderful by every mean.

The world is absolutely amazing, the CGI is top-notch, the story is very interesting and sets the foundation of what could be a brilliant trilogy, or more.

My only complaint would be that I was hoping to see more of the world, instead of being restricted to few places, but I believe the game will handle that.

All in all, the movie is a brilliant work of art that critiques couldn't be more wrong about giving it such low scores. Try it for yourself and judge.

There is a war between the kingdom of Lucis and the kingdom of Niflheim. We follow Nyx Ulric a special class soldier from the kingdom of Lucis..

[JackInColumbia · 7/10 · 10 September 2016]

(2/5) For me, even though the story looks decent at first, it really stops progressing after a certain point and it gives its place to the endless battles. The story talks about the end of a war, the possibility of a dictatorship and how the common people and the veterans of the war deal with them but from a certain point it just goes on and on about heroism and patriotism.Characters are cool, i guess, but many of them nothing too far from the typical heroic characters of the Hollywood's action movies.Is the focus on battles a bad thing though from that certain point? For me,no! The graphics of the movie are absolutely astonishing, the world looks gorgeous like a magical painting and the battle scenes, one of the strongest points of the movie for me, are beautifully made and really enjoyable!! A movie worth seeing!

Tolerable only for the graphics

[Snootz · 5/10 · 4 September 2016]

This is the kind of movie and storyline that appeals to those who enjoyed Transformers 2 and the follow-ups. The animation is admittedly incredible. All the way through the video I kept wondering how they did this. As an example of animation, this is hard to beat.

But the action, "choreography" and timing is the film-maker's equivalent of throwing a bunch of parts into a transparent plastic bag and shaking it up. At several times throughout the action sequences, the direction and focus are so haphazard and disjointed one cannot even tell what is going on. There is such a thing as "too much action". Action junkies will have a face feast on this fare. Don't expect anything beyond that.

It is an obvious marketing-ploy script aimed at fans of Final Fantasy. If you enjoy films that have some kind of resolution at the end, give this one wide berth. It develops a plot, then leaves the job site before the work is done.

Throw any threshold of belief out the window. If viewers enjoy watching the hero and female lead surviving the un-survivable again, and again, and yet again, this is going to be a gourmet meal.

If you enjoy watching endless action and violence and require minimal plot, this will be a highly-appreciated movie. If on the other hand you are a viewer who enjoys a little substance in your story, this will be disappointing. All stars I give this are for animation. Beyond that, the continual-climax, head-scratch storyline and "what were they thinking?" ending is sure to drive critics to give this a double-thumbs down slamfest.

The movie was a fascinating watch right up until the end... where it fizzled badly. Obviously one part of a continuing saga, this will appeal to gamers and adrenaline addicts. General audiences will likely be disappointed in the sudden-stop, zero-resolution ending.

not a standalone film

[corbinium · 10/10 · 2 July 2017]

i see so many people complaining that the plot is too complicated or that they didn't know where it was coming from, what you have to understand is that the film is part of the game, its like an introduction, complaining about the plot is like watching the second harry potter but not the first or the third, yea sure it will be a good watch but you wont understand what is going on.

I'm not a gamer but I enjoyed this

[samyoung-82648 · 7/10 · 25 September 2016]

Minor spoiler warning! I normally don't enjoy game adaptions, however, this movie spent enough time on characters and plot to be fairly decent. Not knowing anything about the characters, I was thrust into an alien world with two opposing forces. One based on technology (the aggressor) and one based on magic (the defender). As the story progressed, it was apparent that the glaive (king's personal elite forces) were from the outlying lands (combat zone) and were second class citizens in the shiny capital of the defenders. This created ambiguity in some characters' motives throughout the film. If you aren't on your toes, you may miss things in this movie. However, if you like a fantasy/fighting movie to challenge your thinking, this will be rewarding. It's fair to say though that an extended edition would make the film a little more complete and hopefully not spoil the surprises. The graphics are a step up from the previous final fantasy movie, but still disappointing - the eyes felt lifeless and constantly reminded me I was watching generated graphics. The story has a similar Asian feel to the last FF movie (although this one is definitely more Americanised than the previous installment as it has no respect for Gaia/Earth's spirit). Ultimately, this movie is a little simplistic (pure aggressor/pure defender), however, the story has depth in the social dynamics and the movie keeps you thinking. If you want a lazy cinema experience, give this one a miss. This isn't power rangers. It's a tribute to many fantasy classics and it won't spoon feed you every step of the way.

Lost opportunity

[baresarkslayne · 3/10 · 30 August 2016]

There are many positive things about this movie. Graphically the movie is really great. Sometimes you catch a character in the right light and you think it's live action, or the facial expressions will be spot on. The voice acting is also really well done with the main characters being voiced by some great and recognizable actors. They had amazing composers for the music, as anything Final Fantasy related tends to have some of the best composed music in the industry.

The movie fails in the writing department, however. I titled this review as a lost opportunity. The opportunity was to tell a good story as a prequel to the next game and accomplish some world building. In this they failed. They decided that world building was the only reason for the movies existence. This means the story they could have told is not there. They opted instead to write boring characters with lousy motivation. They decided to tell a long drawn out story that is essentially boring that is punctuated at parts with good writing or is at least fun to watch. They opted to set up the next game rather than write an interesting story that made me interested in the world and the characters therein. They opted for a poor conclusion that felt just plain disappointing.

The most egregious thing the movie did, however, was make me less interested in the next game. I don't think this was the intended reaction they were going for.

Square Enix becomes a true Film Maker

[Hereticked · 7/10 · 18 October 2016]

I wasn't expecting much from this film based on Squeenix's track record in film making. Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within was a fine experiment and a revolutionary piece of animation for its time, but it was far from a great film and highlighted how difficult it is to tell a complex and fulfilling story in a 2 hour time frame rather than the dozens of hours a role playing game is allotted. Final Fantasy 7 - Advent Children was another uptick in the advancement of CG and a great action piece, but it was ultimately nostalgia porn for those of us who loved the original game. Kingsglaive - Final Fantasy 15 is a leap in terms of the animation quality, all but eliminating the ability to discern between animation and reality, but it's also a product of experience. Finally, the writers, animators, producers and directors at Square Enix have acquired the experience to harness the advantages of the medium and have delivered a film that I wish I could have seen on the big screen.

Not only does this movie setup Final Fantasy 15 brilliantly, it's a damn good film in its own right. It has just the right mix of suspense, action and drama and was surprisingly well written and voice acted (including an all-star English voice cast.) Watch it on the biggest screen you can and be amazed at how far Square Enix has come!

Pretty on the outside

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 18 May 2017]

But I would argue, also pretty on the inside. While I'm not a Final Fantasy fan or someone who has played the games, I can say that I was more than entertained watching this. As far as friends are concerned who are more into this, they said there are a few things fans might pick up, but since this is a new story, a new tale, it's not something you have to have great knowledge of.

The visuals are more than stunning too and the story is told in a fashion that leaves no one behind. Sometimes that can be a "flaw" for some, watching an animated movie that just is all over the place. This is easier that way. Still a lot of action, a lot of suspense and a really good build up. And for those interested, there is a stinger after the credits which probably has something to do with the game of the same name ...