Fullmetal Alchemist: La vengeance de Scar

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.

1. Great character design / dressing, great background scene. Lots of effort put into this.

2. Strange quiet scenes and lack of interesting or funny dialogues does make it cheap. I don't know if it's just me but the comic timing is painful - it's like a friend who insist on telling a joke without a buildup and just force it on everyone during a gathering. The quietness does not help.

3. Lack of character buildup: I sincerely hope Japanese Anime Live action Directors will one day realize that the character buildup in Anime is what makes the audiences fall in love so hard with the characters and create that powerful connection with the show.

4. Bad acting: the lack of character buildup is exacerbated by overacting/anime type expressions by Edward, Winry and the side characters. Roy Mustang is just wrong - his character in the anime is someone who is confident and smug which suggest he's never had to worked too hard to get to where he is because of background, his genius or whatever. His complexion is fair which is suppose to symbolise the opposite of Scar, who grew up in hardship. He also has the easiest move to create transmutation to emphasize that "not having to try too hard". In the live action, the actor has a fake tan.... and he looks stressed out / constipated in every of his dialogue. Louis Armstrong is just disappointing.... I really doubt the anime Armstrong would be proud of that body......... I don't think you can lay the blame on the actors, but I think the people in charge of the casting, should have done more research and understood what makes the characters awesome to the audience. For example, Alice in Borderland did a great job with both casting and character buildup.

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.

The dialogue is stilted and the performer's were limited.

Given the fan base, and the success of western animation adaptations it's a shame that studios continue to make live action films that do not cater for a broader audience.

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.,