That was an excellent one.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

After watching Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood I dislike the first series anyway but this movie makes the entire series pointless. This movie its ending and the entirety of this version is trash. I'd much rather Edward got Tetanus poisoning from all the metal and died and Alphonse was randomly killed by a drunken driver late one night. This movie would have ruined anime for me if I had only watched this series.

The ending was disappointing in my opinion. I won't say what happens, but I was really enjoying this movie being a fan of both TV series and the manga until this movie ended. I mean, really, the ending is everything to a movie. The greatness of both anime series is almost beyond words, and it's up there on the list with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Gin Tama of top twenty anime series of all time.So why did the ending of the movie leave me unsatisfied and somewhat depressed? Because it was unsatisfying, I wonder what the writers were thinking?Well, I'm done complaining about the ending, now for the positive: the story is STILL good in my opinion (until the ending), and the animation is awesome and seems to improve from the first series (please note that this movie is a finale to the first animated series ONLY and is in no way associated with Brotherhood) animation. Seeing the characters grown up a bit was neat and the plot revolving around two alternate worlds is always good if it's done right (which it was, until the ending), without being too damn confusing to follow.Now, for the basic outline of the story: Ed and an alternate world Al are now studying rocket science, since in that world alchemy doesn't exist. But then a certain 'nice' lady wants to open up the portal to Ed's original world where alchemy DOES exist to find the legendary Shangri-La, opening an opportunity for Ed to get back home.Overall, 7/10. If it wasn't for the ending it would get another point added.

This movie is a direct sequel to the Full Metal Alchemist serial. It gives us an insight in what the open ending to the show meant. It does so by giving the entire franchise a nice twist. Instead of focusing on the fantasy world we started to love during the 51 episodes of the show, this movie is set in ''our'' world. To be precise: in the Germany around 1920, in which the ungraceful treaty of Versailles led to rising militarism and hatred towards ethnic minorities.Ed - being amnesic about his previous live as a state alchemist - saves a gypsy girl from the Nazis. Her power to see inside his dreams leads to an understanding of why he is pondering about certain things. Why does he have such vivid dreams of another world? And why does he seem to recognize so many people, without knowing who they are? On the other side of the gate, everything is nice and peaceful. But of course this is about to change when Ed and Al find each other again, and they open up the gate to both worlds.This movie does everything you might expect from it. Almost all the important characters give an acte de presence. The animation is stronger than it ever was. There is more action in it than you'd ever see before. The atmosphere of Europe is nice and ambient. And the charming humor still leads to chuckles from time to time.The thing is that a movie just doesn't have the same depth as a show with 51 episodes. Especially the big villain just isn't that interesting. Unlike the Homunculi and Scar, her reasons to do what she's doing are a bit far-fetched and generic. I also had mixed feelings towards some of the important characters of the show just being side characters in this movie. They do things to enhance the story forcefully rather than being an active part of the movie as a whole.Enough with the bitching; I still love the movie for being as adrenaline-driven as your average Hollywood blockbuster. It's worth to see it by every person who calls himself a fan of FMA. You certainly won't be disappointed. And I do hope that the open ending of this specific movie will lead to another installment of the franchise. I'd rather see a new show, but a new movie would be welcome too.

Fullmetal Alchemist is one of my favourite manga series of all time, written and drawn by the brilliant Arakawa Hiromu and published monthly in Shonen Gan Gan. So, I was expecting the movie to make up for the lacklustre, morbid anime series. Unfortunately, my expectations were not met.The movie picks up where the anime left off, with Edward trapped in post-World War II Germany. He's found an alternate version of his younger brother, Alphonse, and is staying with him in his flat. Around this city are several other look-alikes, including alternate versions of Fuhrer King Bradley, Maes Hughes, and Hughes's wife Gracia.So far as I could tell, Alternate King Bradley is searching for a dragon so he can help his crazy Riza Hawkeye-looking employer open the gate to Edward's world, and that's about where the plot seemed to disappear. From there onwards, the movie seems to get itself muddled in complicated dialogue and poetical, nonsensical statements, as well as the depressingly large number of plot holes. The ending in particular annoyed me; Edward Elric's choice to return to Germany, abandoning his girl Winry seems so completely out of character and a pointless gesture of idiocy to boot. As well as the bit about Al somehow appearing on the other side---the half of the ship he was standing on fell to the bloody earth! There was no WAY he could have jumped that gap, not without Edward noticing. Important secondary characters such as Riza Hawkeye and even other main characters such as Roy Mustang are pushed into the background, treated more as props to try to support the sagging plot line of the movie.On the plus side, the fight scene between Gluttony and Wrath is rather enjoyable, if gory, as well as Armstrong's shenanigans in Lior. Even if the plot is hackneyed and mildly confusing, at least the meaning in the movie is fairly obvious; humans fear what they cannot control. The lady who opened the gate feared Edward's alchemical world because she didn't understand it. Also, the animation is very well done, as well as the voice acting (in the Japanese version, anyways), and the music (composed by Michiru Oshima) is undeniably beautiful.Overall, it's worth tracking down a copy of Shamballa if you enjoyed either the anime or the manga, just to say you've seen it. I wouldn't buy it, but I'd at least borrow a copy from a friend.