Fullmetal Alchemist has returned for the third time in the form of a live action movie, and the results are less than enjoyable.
The movie follows the same basic premise as the original story and adaptations, centering on brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric. The film opens on the death of their mother, Trisha, as they are practicing their alchemy, the mystical science of controlling elements to transform objects. The brothers, now alone as their father is gone, decide to break the biggest alchemical taboo by bringing their mother back to life. The process is a catastrophic failure, with their "mother" being only a horrific mess, Alphonse losing his body, and Edward losing his left leg to a cloudy figure after seeing beyond the "Gate of Truth." Ed, learning he was close with the experiment, begs to see more knowledge, only for the figure to tell him he would have to make another sacrifice. He wakes up, and, determined to not lose his brother as well, performs another trade giving up his right arm to bond Alphonse's soul to a suit of armor. In place of his arm and leg, Ed is given prosthetic "automail" limbs, made of metal and fully functional, as they attach directly to his nerves. Years later, Ed, using his knowledge and ability to use alchemy without transmutation circles, becomes a state alchemist, called "Fullmetal" due to his prosthetics. The two are searching for the fabled philosopher's stone, which is said to be able to freely transmute, so they can restore their bodies. Arriving in the town Reole, the brothers encounter a priest, Cornello, who has fooled the townsfolk into believing he causes miracles when, in fact, he is using alchemy. Ed notes that Cornello is using a stone in his ring to use alchemy without transmutation circles, and assumes it must be a philosopher's stone. After chasing Cornello through the streets, Ed proves him a fake when Cornello takes a woman hostage, then distracts the priest with an alchemical creation before punching him. The stonoe falls from his ring, and is picked up by Colonel Roy Mustang, who arrives to take Cornello into custody and hold Ed. Mustang is a fellow state alchemist, known for his mastery of the rare and dangerous flame alchemy, which allows him to set ablaze anything ini his path of sight with a snap of his fingers. With a single snap, Mustang destroys the stone, proving the stone a fake, as in this movie the stone is a perfect, indestructible material. Here we get our first look at Lust, Envy, and Gluttony, three of the main antagonists from the series. The three are "homunculi," alchemical creatures made in man's image, who the characters learn have philosopher's stones at their core. Lust was one character performed well in this movie, with the actress managing to play the sensual and sadistic character well enough. There isn't much to say about Gluttony's, but his CGI for certain scenes is ridiculous, and Envy is just plain awful, giving an over-dramatic "not caring" performance. On the same vein, Lust's design easily transfers exactly as it was in the show, but Envy's hair and Gluttony's large figure look goofy. Edward soon meets up with Captain Maes Hughes, leaving longtime fans in anticipation of pain for the future. I don't know about other fans, but for me this portrayal of Hughes felt a bit insulting, because he was a bit of an antagonist for Mustang. In the manga and anime series, Hughes and Mustang were best friends, with Hughes being incredibly supportive of Mustang's goal to become the next Fuhrer. Here, Ed also meets General Hakuro, changed from his original interpretation as well, seemingly friendly toward Ed, but in such a way that will make you suspicious of him. Ed then leaves with Hughes, encountering his childhood friend and lose interest, Winry Rockbell. Winry's interpretation is another questionable part of the film, with the actress seeming happy and silly in classic moments of Winry being enraged at Ed. The two bicker over Ed's combat leaving his prosthetics, which she crafted, broken and sparking, and the group heads to Hughes' house for the night. We get another interaction between the homunculi, who kill Cornello for failing them, and have Envy take his place with his transformation power. After dinner with Hughes and his wife, Ed has an awful night re-living his and Al's failed transmutation. The next day, Mustang advises Ed head to see Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist, known for having created a chimera years before that spoke, asking to be killed. Ed, Al, and Winry meet Tucker, his daughter Nina, and her dog Alexander, and learn about his work as he tries to help them with the stone and figuring out Al's sitauation. Mustang, meanwhile, talks with Hughes, in one of the odd moments of Hughes suggesting he rise to the top, but be wary of everyone else, including him, as they could be trying to get in his way. Back with Ed and the others, Tucker advises that Ed find the missing Dr. Marcoh, who researched the stone, so he and Winry leave while Tucker examines Al. In this movie, Tucker then suggests that Al might be a fake consciousness created by Ed to serve as his "brother." The two find Marcoh, and after some suspicion, he talks to them about the stone, but only manages to tell them to find "Laboratory 5" due to Lust coming and killing him. They go back to Tucker, and Ed discovers he has created a new chimera, just in time for his military evaluation. To his horror, Ed realizes this chimera is made from Nina and Alexander, and the previous was created from Tucker's wife. Al prevents Ed from doing anything rash, and Tucker is arrested, so the group regroups with Hughes and his subordinate, Maria Ross. Soon after, however, as in the series, Al's fear that Ed created him causes an outburst, and the two fight. Winry soon stops them and scolds Al, saying Ed constantly thinks about him and how to get his body back, because of how much he loves him, and the two reconcile. Hughes soon comes to a realization about wars that have taken place in their country and Lab 5's location, but is attacked by Lust as he tries to go tell Al. He escapes Lust by throwing a hidden knife in her forehead, but as he tries to call Mustang in a phone booth, he turns to see Mustang standing behind him with a gun. Word spreads that Hughes was murdered, and the military hunts down Mustang and anyone who knows him, leading to Ed and Mustang's lieutenant, Riza Hawkeye, teaming up to find out what's going on. The two head to Lab 5, where Mustang enters a standoff with Ross and military forces, only for Mustang to burn Ross, revealing her to be Envy in disguise. Likewise, it was Envy who killed Hughes, initially disguised as Mustang, then Hughes' wife, then Mustang again to frame the colonel. The trio and military forces now begin a fight against the homunculi, leading into the climax where information on the philosopher's stone is revealed. Despite the director being a fan of the show and doing relatively well into squeezing plot points from the series into one movie, it doesn't work nearly as well as fans hoped. The film ends on the implication of having a sequel, so it was unnecessary to cram so many plot points into one movie. Doing so resulted in too much being rushed, and therefore lacking a lot of the plot and emotional depth that made the series so great. Especially egregious is the changes made to Hughes, with his and Mustang's relationship changed, and so little time devoted to Mustang's reaction to his death. In the original series, with them being best friends, it crushed Mustang when Hughes died, and he spent much of the series trying to avenge him. His death is consistently heart-wrenching for new fans, with Ross framed for his murder until Mustang notices Envy incorrectly copied Ross, with her recognizable mole on the wrong side of her face, used again in this movie. Later in the series, Mustang kills both Lust and Envy, in satisfying vengeance for his friend, which is totally lost here as he faces them a day after Hughes dies. The story also removes Hughes' daughter, with his wife instead pregnant, when in the series her reaction to his death shatters hearts. On a positive note, the Tucker storyline is handled well, but with Nina getting so little screentime, it is partially just because I already know the series and characters. As Robert Walker said in his thoughts on the movie, emotional attachment to the characters here is dependent on having prior knowledge and attachment. The effects, I would agree, are mostly passable, especially from a non-Hollywood film company that doesn't have access to all the best technology. There are also some character losses that were definitely a negative for me, as the film lacks fan-favorites like Alex Armstrong and Scar. Armstrong is one of my personal favorite characters, and his background was key to how the series looked at how war ravages everyone on both sides. Pars of this movie are certainly passable, but overall I would say it could be confusing for newcomers, and in some ways anger or frustrate fans.
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