I finally had a chance to watch the much anticipated addition to the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood series about 8 months after its theatrical release in Japan. I met Vic Mignogna the other day at Supanova and he was so lovely and signed the movie poster for me. The way he speaks is so cute and he's such a lovely person and I fangirled and yeah it was totally awesome. I haven't actually seen the dub yet but I'm sure it's great as all the FMA dubs are.
As a fan of the original series, I was quite excited and it wasn't something that I could miss. I was hoping for something that I would love as much as the TV series. However, I was sadly disappointed and as much as I wish it was good, it simply isn't. This review assumes you've seen the TV series.
Firstly, I'll start off with arguably the most important part of any movie, the storyline. If it doesn't have a story, what's the point? The Sacred Star of Milos has a straightforward and well comprehensible but it felt recycled. That was the biggest letdown. I was hoping for something a little more than your average plot twists and drama but after watching it just felt like I watched FMAB all over again in condensed form. That's not to say it was terrible or anything, I just felt they could've done a little (or a lot) more with the movie than what they did.
What they did do was re-use the whole seeking the Philosopher's stone for one's selfish desire thing and thinking it's some almighty, all-powerful creation until the secret behind it is realised. Then we have the standard torn reaction and the whole family drama etc etc etc. It all sounds very dramatic but it's rather mediocre. It's like a general formula that could be in the continuation of an already successful franchise, where a compromise is found between the effort put in and the quality of the end result. It's something I feel like I've seen only too many times.
Another thing I didn't quite like about this movie was that we didn't get to see much of the characters that were in the series so it just became something like same story, different characters. The new characters aren't exactly interesting either. This isn't completely negative though. I did like the fact that they were from Creta and the fact that the movie was set in Table City, the border between Amestris and Creta. If they ever took up the idea of the war between Amestris and Creta in a new series or something, I'd definitely be there.
The audiovisuals were a positive part of the movie though. Visually, it was a bit different from the series. The colours in the movie were a lot bolder and brighter, and everything was sharper. The action sequences were great. The soundtrack was fantastic as always.
Overall, while the writing was sloppy, it wasn't completely bad. The setting was great, despite being underdeveloped and audiovisuals lived up to what I expected. While I do say that the story isn't great, it wasn't something I consciously thought about while I was watching. It was only when it came to an end that I realised it could've been far better, so definitely give this a watch if you're a fan of the series as I am.
Score: 6/10