Friday, February 23, 2018

I can't decide if I just don't like it or down right hate it.


I've always wondered what a live action Fullmetal Alchemist film would be like and was pretty beside myself with excitement when I heard there was going to be one. I mean aside from this world, there are only two other places I would rather be, Amestris (where Fullmetal Alchemist takes place) and Middle Earth. So, it was a pretty big deal. The trailers and ad posters looked good and so did the scant few blips I saw about the costumes. Still, this was a film that could encompass one or both of the anime series that were made, either of the animated films, or the games, the manga, and that's a lot of material. I didn't know what all was going to be in this live action rendition and I knew that whatever it was, there was going to have to be some room for error. I mean you can't really take 50+ episodes of an anime or volumes of manga and crunch it down into a 2 hour movie without having to cut some things. That's okay, it happens, and it is understandable. However...

I waited all day for Amanda to get home as soon as I knew it was on Netflix, which was hard because I was brimming with so much excitement I could hardly contain myself (this was internal, I had to play it cool on the outside). Then, I waited some more because we had some stuff to do that evening before we could finally sit down to watch it. We watched about an hour before having to turn it off, one because I was so tired that I had actually fallen asleep, and two because Amanda wasn't enjoying it and had to go to bed anyway because of work the next day.  

My first impressions were, "okay, they switched up some things in the timeline, it's fine I guess. Let's see what they do with it," and "wait, this is... this is... WTF?! This isn't right." And I went to bed a little disturbed and disappointed.

The next day I wrestled with whether or not I wanted to finish the film. But I finally broke down, watched the rest of it, and I just can't decide if I don't like or if I just hate it. Don't get me wrong, the costuming is beautiful and the graphics are amazing. Alphonse's design, Edward's Automail, Nina, and the details done on them and the alchemical processes are really stellar. However, the soundtrack falls short of that in the anime and other films. And I'm actually not happy with how they rearranged the timeline. I hate how they washed out Hawkeye's character, she's so much more bad ass and intimidating in the anime, manga, and animated films. They didn't play up her strengths at all. They created this weird, awkward tension between Roy and Hughes. The shit with Tucker and the drones was just that, shit. They tried to pull too much from different arcs that I didn't feel quite worked well enough, or perhaps they just didn't quite pull it off decently enough. It was a jumbled mess that if you haven't read the manga, or seen the anime, you wouldn't really get what the hell was going in, plus it was all rushed. And don't even get me started on the relationships. 

One of the things I loved most about Fullmetal Alchemist were the relationships between characters. You don't get that Colonel Roy Mustang actually truly loves the Elrics like sons or even little brothers and is in their corner, helping them, pushing them along toward their goal. All you see is an asshole being kind of hard on a couple of kids. You don't even get to see how bad ass Roy is or even how bad ass Edward is or the depth of his emotions and the pull of his relationships with others. You get the subtle moments of fondness between Roy and Hawkeye nor the deep loyalty she has toward him. You never see her dog, you never see other members of Roy's staff. Other important and pivitol characters are missing. You don't get to fall in love with Nina or even Hughes like you do in the anime and Manga and feel how utterly tragic their losses are, and even the Homunculi are shoddy. Worse, they pulled a theme from the first anime series about Lust into the film that seemed to be trying to follow stuff from the second series. Then, they left it open for second, which I seriously hope they don't make. 

In short, this movie dropped the ball on everything but graphics and costuming. The action wasn't even that great. I was left feeling that if I hadn't watched the anime, read some of the manga, and seen the animated movies, I wouldn't give a shit about seeking them out after watching this film, which is a true sadness and disservice to the creator of the FMA Universe, Hiromu Arakawa. 

3 comments:

  1. WARNIMG SPOILERS

    Me and another enthusiast exchanged a sort of semi heated debate on Facebook last night. Her biggest outrage was the exclusion with Scar. But lacking more content, his presence would open a can of worms that could not be answered without sequels. The largest thing missing Imo content wise, was the pivotal role between the alchemists, the Isballan war, the purpose of the homunculi and how it ripples outward to Ed and Al. Personally, I think even a ten minute flashback from Marcoh about the war would have filled many gaps, and featured Scar (along with his reason to kill state alchemists rather than just randomly killing Nina and raising questions)Basque Gran, Armstrong,fuckin KIMBLEE, (the movie didn't justify his appearance either) the bond between Hughes Mustang and Hawkeye, etc. Just another 10 or fifteen minutes. Plus, General Haruko as the villain? Why not just Bradley? The characters were two dimensional. Only Roy and Hughes came near approaching their anime selves. I did think Riza had the facial expression and posture down pat but she did very little. Ed's temper should have been a lot hot tempered and Al needed more sweet sincerity. I could go on forever. I didn't exactly hate it either but damn! Just one flashback would have made it make more sense for the involvement of everyone in the movie. Plus, as soon as Tucker hypnotized Al (what the fuck did that serve?)I was like....well...no Barry the Chopper either. I was hoping lab five would have Al least provided a small appearance of Kimblee (of course you know I would of all people!), but no. No Barry, no number 48. Sigh.

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  2. It's always a shame when one of your favorite works of fiction gets poorly adapted into a movie. I have to admit I've never quite gotten into manga but after reading your passion takedown of the live action Fullmetal Alchemist I'm curious to watch the anime series.
    A very belated congratulations to you and Amanda on your marriage and the new house! Best wishes and much happiness to you both! Cheers, Sarah

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