Second was the CG (computer graphics) used. It gave justice to how I imagined it would be. It may not be the best but it did the job for me. It was not half baked.
For me the characters portrayal was also on point. I was able to watch the anime and I felt that they tried their very best to stick to the soul of the anime. Until now I am astounded how they are able to make Al's character come alive. And the Nina chimera, it was heartbreaking but good. If you weren't touched, I don't know about you. I also liked how the villains are very close to how it was in the anime.
And just to clarify the WIG issue:
The hair is not a wig, it was an unruly hair extension.
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*I watched FMA:B for the first time recently.
*I am in love with the anime and the characters
*I am still riding that FMA:B love train and feeling the loss from it
*I usually really like and am on board with Japanese live action adaptations more than the average person does.
*I never intended to ever watch this film, but my never-seen-FMA-ever friend watched this film and told me parts of it but clearly they didn't understand or enjoy the movie at all that I was super interested to see what actually happened and how they actually made the transition from anime/manga to LA.
The Good:
*The locations are gorgeous and so amazing
*Ed's scream when he realises how the stones are made - perfect!
*Hughes actor was spot on casting
The Funny:
*The fact that Al's voice actor Atomu SHOWS up in this WITH blonde hair and interacts with Ed and Al just really messes up with continuity and logic if we ever get another movie and get to the END GAME of this story.
The Bad:
*It barely explains anything to non-FMA fans.
*The plots are changed so much
*There's such a lack of development and a lack of fleshing out the story and a lack of time spent with the characters that scene like Al and Ed's fight just doesn't have any emotional impact.
*They upped and focused on the romance with Mustang and Hawkeye too much
*Winry's actress is trash. Winry herself is trash. She was in this too much (personal preference of mine!)
*They made Tucker seem pathetic and pitiful rather than just a CRAZY mo-fo
*The casting is 99% wrong. They clearly ONLY hired these people because they're famous so the production would get a bigger budget and bigger funding etc. And they hired every 10-20+ years older than the characters are actually supposed to be.
*I LOVE KANATA HONGO but NOT as Envy. No no no no no no no not a good choice. Appearance wise; yes he fits Envy; he looks bratty, his skinny and he's somewhat short but the way he plays Envy and his voice; just no. You'd have better look getting a young actress to play Envy. Yes, I did just say actress. Especially because Envy is supposed to be GENDERFLUID!
*I really hate how heavily CGI'd Al's armour and Ed's arm and leg are. I don't understand why they didn't just build very realistic looking armour, have black cloth underneath so a stuntman/body-actor could wear it as Al and Yamada could've just wore the armour and kept every 100% realistic looking. It would've looked so much better with the CGI taken off. Japan is well-known for tokusatsu costumes and you could've easily gone 100% realistic with Al's armour and it would've looked GOOD.
*Not enough small jokes! I don't think we get enough shots with him standing next to or near other people in a wide shot and stuff for us to go 'OH HE SMOL!'.
*WHERE THE EFF IS SCAR?!?!!?! WHERE IS SCAR?!?!?!!? He's SO important in the story and you didn't bother to introduce him in the first movie?! His first few fights with Ed are AMAZING! WHY is he not here?! WHY is he not in the movie?!
*They revealed the ENTIRE soul army already?!?!?!!? That's not until like the LAST ten episodes of the anime!
In conclusion:
They should've just not bothered with this. I really think they should've left FMA as is; a manga and an anime. If they really wanted to LA-it up, they should've just gone the Stage/Theatre route... now the 2.5D Stage World would do FMA JUSTICE if they did it. Sigh... it's not good folks.
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Edward was always my favorite so I worried if this actor could pull it off. Amazingly, he looked just like what I would imagine the real Edward would look like. Al was spot on and even the voice reminded me of the voice in the anime. Besides Ed, I always loved Colonel Mustang's character. Loved the way he could start a fire by just snapping his fingers. I thought that was pretty cool. Hughes looked exactly like the character in the anime. Great job casting.
I did feel a bit rushed at times with the plot. I know it is a movie and not a show. I kept wanting it to last longer and not end so I kept looking at the time. I definitely think that they should be a part two because there is a lot more stuff that needs to happen.
I do wish that Ed would have showed off more of his abilities though. They really didn't make him do so much at least as much as I would have liked to see.
Music....honestly, I wasn't really paying attention to it.
If they can bring FMA to live...I wonder if someone can please start working on bringing Naruto to life. I think that would be epic.
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I would not recommend to watch this movie without watching the original series (preferably the brotherhood version or the manga).
The story is one big mess, I see what they tried to do but it failed. First of all it would have been better for the story -and character development to put this in a three or four part movie of 2 hours instead one single movie. They left out so many key-elements in the movie and on top of that, the movie didn't explain the elements that were there at all! I can imagine that someone who didn't watch the anime would drop this movie in an instant. The story was fast paced which didn't give the viewer much room to get connected to the characters or understand their actions. They also put in very important characters and didn't use them at all (like the three villains). Almost everyone was lacking a background story. The end was so extremely rushed that I felt really unfulfilled.
BUT, I really loved the tiny things that they perfectly picked up on. For example all the clothes that everyone wore, the logo's that were shown and even how some characters walked or put their glasses back on; these were spot on. I loved the scenery and the CGI wasn't bad either.
Sadly this didn't save the movie, and I am dissapointed and I really tried to like it so badly but it failed.
Watch this: If you want it to give a try.
Skip this: if you thought this would be the live-action movie of the year.
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Story: Of course, the compliment above also brings some changes to the story. If you want a one on one retelling of the anime in live-action movie form, you're (maybe) wrong here. The producers do follow the anime as exact as possible but since it is a movie, some things change or are laid out in different settings. Still it keeps the charme of the original series and I've to say I think the story manages to pull you in whether you know the series or not.
Cast: The cast was amazing. No awkwardness, no strange behaviour because they actually had to act with CGI and a lot of the actors worked with small movements that told a lot about the characters inner thoughts. So compliments here.
Music: Not too special but the background soundtrack for the movie is good.
Rewatch: As with other enjoyable movies, probably :D
Overall: Overall I was very happy with the movie and I loved that they did follow the series as much as possible while still changing some things so it fit better in the movie. The only thing I thought was very different from what I was used to: Normally the main characters are the main characters for almost all scenes. With this one the other characters also get a chance to shine and show what they've got....oh and I loved the blonde Ed, looked as normal as it can get. Great styling artists for managing that.
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It's been a while since I've seen the Anime, so I kind of forgot what happened in detail. The story is fascinating and beautifully shown though!
At some points I thought things were happening a little bit too fast but as I can recall, so did in the Anime.
Sometimes I had the feeling that the feelings weren't as emotional as in the anime but maybe that's because I KNOW the anime already so I wasn't really surprised about anything.
Still - you understand the story well because everything is explained.
The acting and the cast were perfect - well maybe I would've imagines Prof. Tucker a little bit differently but other than that they really did an amazing job in choosing the actors! I recognized so much from the anime and I really really hope there will be a second movie. I was really curious about who they would choose for Roy and at first glance at the trailer I was worried about the cast for Edward but I after I've seen this movie I'm glad they chose those two.
Also: I was very happy about the animation and the effort they put into the settings and the costumes!
The music - that's the only thing that I was a little bit sad about because I remember the music from the anime which I couldn't stop listening to for a while. Maybe that's also why some scenes didn't seem as emotional for me as they originally were.
Overall I think this anime adaption is really well done and I would recommend it to everyone - also to those who haven't seen the anime :)
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Casting is good. Tsubasa Honda is a good pick, among the others--they are great actors and actresses. Hughes looks like he came out of 2D and become 3D. I love Nina.
THE BAD: (not gonna list all, these are probably just my biggest issues with the movie)
1- Scenes were dragging, some were kind of off and wrong (like "you need to take him to a hospital yet you keep on blabbering" kinds of wrong).
2- The changes were fine (I mean the parts of the story that deviated from the original manga/anime), but not better than original. I understand time is not a luxury, but the movie lacked action overall.
3- Some scenes just weren't convincing, and awkward. You can't convince me Hawkeye is a lieutenant because it looked like she can't shoot a gun, for one. Misako Renbutsu is pretty, tho.
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There was only one snag... the writing.
Or I should say, the choice of what to include and not include in the film.
Overall, they made a lot of tweaks to the storyline to fit the story into two hours. When I saw they were making a film of FMA, I wholly expected the film to cover the bare beginning of the story--maybe through Shou Tucker and perhaps as far as Laboratory 5. For some reason, they chose to deviate vastly from these expectations. While the actual meat of it wasn't badly executed, the alterations to the timeline damaged the impact of the story greatly, and took away a lot of the things which makes FMA such a good story to begin with.
I, overall, would recommend this to fans who are very familiar with FMA and not bothered by the idea of the story grazing over a lot of important plot points and character development, but if you want to bring someone into FMA this would be a terrible film to show them. Stick with the manga or the FMAB anime for that. But for a fan just wanting to scratch a FMA itch without rewatching or rereading a MASSIVE story? This would definitely do the trick.
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The story was very unique in my opinion and I liked the main male character and also the chief of police. Also the trio of villains was interesting (Envy, Gluttony, and Lust) with Lust being my favourite.
I can't remember much about the OST so it was probably nothing memorable.
The setting was really nice! I love the aesthetics of the town and the steampunk vibes I got from it.
It was a good movie though I've never felt the urge to rewatch it and it wasn't enough to pique my interest to watch and read the original FA.
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To roll it back a bit for anyone clueless about FMA. It's the story of 2 brothers, Edward and Alphonse Eldric, and their adventures as alchemists. Ed is a "dog of the state," a state employed alchemist who travels to places of upheaval. They're kind of like national police. As children Ed and Al performed a alchemic transmutation that is against the law of nature and dangerous. In doing so Ed lost an arm and leg but gained the ability to transmute without using a circle (kind of like a spell without an incantation). Al lost his entire body and his soul was tethered to a suit of armor by Ed. Together they seek a way to get back what they've lost.
The script was good. The writer pulled in aspects from the manga and animes. There was no doubt this was the world of FMA. The case was excellent. At first I had my doubts about Ryosuke Yamada, but he became Ed. No doubt. It's a shame that they had actors on the caliber of Jun Kunimura and Fumiyo Kohinata for such small roles, but maybe they'll reappear somehow. The music was good and I will probably re-watch this during the weekend.
I'm a huge fan of FMA and this was just another entrance into their universe. Was it perfect? Heck no, but I doubt it could have been done any better. It was a fun watch. I enjoyed myself. What more can you ask for really?
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