he could be thinking of the film Advent Children?

It was an exaggeration.

He was there pretty early in the game in a flashback with Cloud in his first soldier mission or something like that.  10 minutes was a little quick, but it was pretty early into the story and you at least got to see some cool things that were possible in the future besides just "attack" over and over again for 3+ hours.

So far I'm pretty mixed on FFXIII. I like the story and it has me pretty engrossed and they've succeeded in pushing the story well. I'm really enjoying the battle system now although the odd boss I find takes too long. I spend time figuring out how to beat them and end up having to retry the fight once I figure out the best strategy. However, the beginning is slow going and it is ridiculously linear so far (Chapt. 9).

I compare all my Final Fantasy games to VII (as it's the first one I played). So far it feels kinda like Midgar (in that it focuses on story heavily) spread out over the course of 20 hrs instead of 3 and with a major lack of freedom (or at the very least the impression of freedom).

Orly? That is a bit easier, but I swear it doesnt show chapter numbers while im playing....maybe I got a bootleg version

The lack of freedom for the first twenty hours makes sense story-wise since the main characters are on the run from the government.

No, it doesn't show chapters as you are playing (unless I missed it too) but like Mitsuhide said, just go to datalog, and events and it is in there

It doesn't show the chapter but you can tell when it transitions. You get a trophy on your first play through and whenever you save (it usually allows a save in b/n chapters) the save icon is just a white FF13 instead of the leader's face.

I am now 29 and a half hours in the game. All of my characters have over 2K HP with Snow having over 3K HP. Still in Chapter 11.

I still think they could at the very least give a greater sense of freedom even if you're still on a linear path. A few more people in certain areas and a greater sense of an actual living city in others (obviously they can't do this for everything) or maybe even a few larger areas with a few simple puzzles to solve. They've made it so obviously linear in map design and interactivity that it reduces immersion even as the story drags you in.

I have very mixed feelings about this game. It isn't over yet, but getting closer to the end. After it's done though. I don't think I'll be playing this again for a while... I find it hard to get into it, apart from the battle system.