Fullmetal Alchemist: La venganza de Cicatriz

FMA anime/manga is one of my favorites, I just finished the trilogy live action just to see it and.. well it really didn't live up to any sort of good expectations for it.

Out of the three this is probably the better film for me. Plot point is more centralized thus we're not bombarded with tens of plot lines that never go any deeper.

CGI stuff is an improvement from the first but still nothing to rave on.. Acting and action is passable here. There's less of the usual Japanese style animated reactions that don't really translate well but it's still present.

The best part are the costumes and that's sad because it's like expensive cosplay but I guess at least they did give effort to make the characters wear something that blend in with the environment and not some fake looking uniform.

I start by saying that I evaluate the film only on the basis of the film and not the affinity with the cartoon / comic and not even with the affinity to the general plot of the whole story. The film itself is a decent film, full of breathtaking action and full of jokes and light moments that manage well to dampen the frenzy of everything, but the fact remains that the film is still very boring because of its really too excessive duration, the film is too long, really too long, it bores you beyond belief and after a little more than half you start wondering how long the film will last because the film is really very dense and at the same time slow and this thing wears you out a lot.

But still a joke. Dialogues (in Japanese) and production value is so cringy and doesn't capture any of original manga/anime's greatness. Expectations were low but this is on the bad end even for live action adaptation.,

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.

They absolutely horrible dubbing in English. Listen to it in Japanese with English subtitles and you will spare yourself the over acting and melodramatic dialogue.

The production values are not all that bad and the special effects are pretty good. But, oh there is horrible dubbing.

As far as casting it looks like they pretty much used all wannabe boy band members from Japan.

I greatly enjoyed the tongue in cheek names and nicknames of the characters once I realized they were not meant to be taken seriously.

Gather with some friends, break out the beer and popcorn, and visit as you watch. It's a pretty good experience.