FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST NETFLIX FILM REVIEW

 

Today I am continuing my Fullmetal Alchemist week. Here is my review of the Netflix film. Enjoy! 😀

SYNOPSIS

Edward and Alphonse Elric were solely raised by their mother Trisha Elric after their father Van Honhenheim a powerful alchemist left the family. Both the brothers studied alchemy and went off on a journey to improve their skills through their teacher Izumi Curtis. One day their mother died form a lingering illness. Heartbroken the boys tried to perform human transmutation which is a taboo in the alchemy world to get their mother back. While performing the human transmutation something goes wrong and Alphonse loses his body, Edward loses his left leg. With Alphonse gone Edward sacrifices his right arm to return Alphonse’s soul and transfers it into an armored body.

Now with the sad consequences of what they have done they set out to look for the philosopher stone to help bring their original bodies back. While on this journey they run into many characters and also reveal a big secret within the military that involves the philosopher’s stone and homunculus.

EDWARD ELRIC

Edward Elric becomes the youngest State Alchemist at the age of 12. He becomes a lap dog for the military carrying out missions. His mother dies when he is young and Edward performs human transmutation which cost him his left leg and his brother Al’s body. Ed sacrifices his right arm to bring back Al’s soul which he then seals into an armored suit. He and Al decides to go on a journey to find the philosopher’s stone to hopefully bring their original bodies back.

ALPHONSE ELRIC

Alphonse Elric is Edward’s younger brother. After the failed human transmutation of trying to bring their mother back Al loses his body. With Edward sacrificing his right arm for Al’s soul he is able to bring Al’s soul back and seal it in an armored suit. Now Al and Edward are both on a journey to find the philosopher’s stone to hopefully bring their original bodies back.

WINRY ROCKBELL

Winry is a childhood friend of the Elric Brothers. Her and her grandmother took the brothers in as family after their mother died and their father walked out. Winry specializes in Automails (prosthetic body parts) and created a right arm and left leg for Edward. She is always worried about the brothers as they go on their missions.

COLONEL ROY MUSTANG

Colonel Roy Mustang is known as the Fire Alchemist. He is a state Alchemist and also Edward’s direct superior. His goal is to become Führer of Amestris. After the death of his best friend Mae Hughes he is determined to find the person who is behind his murder. While trying to uncover the killer he stumbles upon a dark secret the military is involved with.

HOMUNCULUS

LUST

Lust is homunculus created by Father. She is the homunculus primary assassin. She assassinates any person with her spear like fingers that would find out Father’s plan and try to disrupt it. She is sadistic and has no mercy on anyone. She is there to be sure that Father’s plans get carried out.

ENVY

Envy is a shapeshifting homunculus created by Father. Envy is androgynous looking. Throughout the series Envy is taking another’s identity and creating havoc and helping his Father’s plan to move smoothly. He is sadistic and loves to cause pain on humans.

GLUTTONY

Gluttony is a homunculus created by Father and like his name likes to eat everything. He especially likes to eat humans. He has a child like mind and mentality and is always seen with Lust who is like his mother figure.

MAE HUGHES

Mae Hughes works in the military’s intelligence dept. He is a close friend of Colonel Roy Mustang. He uses the military’s phone lines to call Colonel Mustang to brag about his daughter Elicia. He is extremely intelligent and is the one that discovers the military’s secret.

SHOU TUCKER

Shou Tucker is known as the “Sewing-Life Alchemist” for creating Chimeras. He created a talking Chimera which helped establish him as a State Alchemist. His wife left him two years ago in the series and he has since been taking care of his daughter Nina and their dog Alexander. With so much pressure to submit his experiments in by a deadline the Elric brothers discover a dark secret with Tucker’s research.

 

REVIEW

STORYLINE

The storyline for this movie was very interesting as it didn’t really link up with the anime or Manga too much. It had a lot of similarities but they changed a few things around. They changed a few characters’ roles in the film. Some characters had longer time in the film than they did in the anime/manga. The twist at the end was pretty cool and I didn’t see it coming.

I do have to say they did it in a way that the story made since for the 2 hrs they had to create the movie. But overall they still stuck with main plot of the story Ed and Alphonse trying to find the philosopher’s stone to retrieve their digital bodies.

 

PACE OF MOVIE

As for the pace of the movie it was great. It kept me interested the whole time. There weren’t really weird slow moments. Also, you were able to pay attention to everything and not get lost in the plot.

CHARACTERS

The characters were to me played very well. The main character playing Edward Elric was short haha and he had the emotions Edward portrayed on the manga as well as the anime.

The voice actor for Alphonse was spot on. He has his younger brother voice and the emotions he had to portray were great.

Colonel Mustang’s character was casted great because the actor was hot!! Hahah but they kept Colonel Mustang serious through the whole movie. His character wasn’t always serious he had some dorky and funny moments which I wish they did capture. But overall I did like the character.

The actress playing Winry was so good because she really embraced the character. The rough and tough and yet caring side of Winry was acted out so well.

My favorite casts were the homunculi. Lust, envy and Gluttony were casted perfectly. They literally looked just like the characters. Lust was sexy and yet deadly. I love this actress. Gluttony was so funny because he looked just like him and he acted just like him. Wanting to eat everyone hahaha but also his childlike voice as well. Then Envy he looked just like him/her. I will say they didn’t really get to play on Envy’s character as much I would have liked.

Mae Hughes was just a lovable as the character we all know him to be. The casting was good because they picked s guy that really looked kind hearted.

But overall I was happy with the casting of the characters.

OVERALL

I know I am usually not a fan of live action films. They usually are a bust and horrible but I did enjoy this film. The special effects were really good. The only thing that put me off was the scene with the mannequin soldiers. They looked really weird. I didn’t care for the effects for that. Besides that, I did like the special effects of the alchemy when they were in battle scenes.

Again, the story was different from the anime/manga but it worked well for the film.

The characters were all great for me and I was very pleased. I would say this is worth a watch.