Being emo is popular in Japan. All of the cool characters do it. Cloud does it, and they love him for it. Sasuke (from Naruto) does it, and he's the most popular character in the series. Katsushirou (Samurai 7) did it, and he has girls falling all over him in the anime. Being emo isn't nearly as well-received in the Americas. Their plots are structured differently as well, and so we might not find them to be spectacular.
Really, I just enjoyed the movie because it made the characters I loved from FFVII come to life as impressively-rendered figures to do a bunch of totally awesome fighting.