I guess they tried. However, having seen the anime and read the manga, I can't understand how they can make a movie that feels so lackluster and dead. The magic of manga is that you can show anything you want, your imagination being the only limit. Live action films, on the other hand, have to have actors who speak Japanese - good luck funding a tiny blonde person to play the main role, combine actors with CGI - good luck having enough money for special effects that are even on par with an anime can draw, and most of all, have to map the emotions in the drawing to real people - good luck with that!
In other words this was a destined to be a failure, yet somehow money was found to make the film happen. I guess some people prefer to watch the live version or hate animation or both.
In this film, Scar shows up trying to kill as many state alchemists as possible, due to their involvement in the genocidal war that destroyed his nation. But there is also Lin, a prince from Xing - a fictional version of China, trying to capture homunculi. There is Winry, which is somehow connected to both Ed and Scar. There is another Xingian girl who protects Scar, a master that tells Scar to let go, Envy and Gluttony, all the alchemists and their people, random people of the same race as Scar and so on. And when you are properly confused, the film ends with "To be continued".
Bottom line: even if you want to watch it, there is no need to do so until the second part pops up. It is only half of a story that we already have, a lot better done, as anime and manga.
