Fullmetal Alchemist (2017)
February 20, 2018 11:10 PM - Subscribe

Two alchemist brothers go on a quest for the Philosopher's Stone after an attempt to resurrect their dead mother goes horribly wrong.

This was really really well done. As best as what you'd think could be done for adapting the anime to live-action. I do feel that if you've never seen the anime, the pacing will feel rushed, and the emotional impact would be lost. But the movie is a good complete story that leaves room for a sequel (Lust mentions that the Homuculi had a maker, but not who; Gluttony is still alive; the Fuhrer is mentioned but not seen; the brothers haven't gotten their bodies back).

I would like to keep this strictly about the movie. But I understand the overwhelming urge to compare this to the anime and manga (I had two long paragraphs about the changes typed up and just deleted them). So for the time being, we can discuss those changes in the anime thread with spoiler notices about the movie.

If everyone agrees though, since I expect most people who would watch this movie have seen the anime, we can freely discuss both here. But let's give it a couple of weeks, which is plenty long in Netflix time. If after that no one comes in here and say "I'VE NEVER WATCHED THE ANIME", we can go nuts in here. Of course this is all for consideration by mods.
posted by numaner (5 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I should add: the visuals were really wonderful. The scenery were perfectly recreated, the battles were awesome, and Armor-Al didn't look cheap at all. I could make out the black neck cover between the helmet and the torso, but that's probably realistic for most armor and lets them use a real person inside moving around.

The monsters were stunning, including those mannequins. They are noticeably more terrifying than in the anime. And of course... that chimera. Goddamn, they really know how to get you right in the feels.

On Rotten Tomatoes there's a clear divide between critics and fans for this movie, and it's pretty obvious why. I felt like this was made for fans of the anime, and it delivered.
posted by numaner at 11:31 PM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


I'm a huge fan of the manga and the anime but I turned this off after 5 minutes. Live action remakes aren't my thing I guess, it looks so.... wrong.
posted by Pendragon at 12:25 AM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


If I had known this was on Netflix, I would be commenting about it right now. Dang. Thank you for the heads up!
posted by Atreides at 7:04 AM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I agree that the visuals were spectacular -- the mannequin scene was extremely creepy -- but as an FMA fan myself, I actually was rather disappointed by the plotscrambling and the flattening of the characters (in a low-key, wasn't-expecting-all-that-much-to-begin-with kind of way, anyhow).
posted by inconstant at 10:59 AM on February 21, 2018


We just watched this last night. Visually it was stunning, the alchemy looked pretty great, and the costuming was phenomenal. It was entertaining, but the plotscrambling was a bit jarring. As were some of the characters. And the lack of characters. I found Tucker's trying to manipulate Al into an existential crisis to be a bit ... unmotivated.

If we start comparing this to other incarnations, I've got a lot more to say about it. And its lack of Barry the Chopper.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 5:31 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


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