Fullmetal Alchemist: The Final Alchemy

THE FINAL ALCHEMY is the final instalment of the FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST trilogy...and thank heavens for that! It was shot back to back with the second film, and while I didn't particularly like that or the first one, this one is astonishingly bad, complete with CGI that would look out of place in a modern video game. It's a bloated, overlong affair which mainly consists of different characters squaring up to each other and making various threats while CGI swirls and flows in the background. Some of the visuals are okay, but as a competent, coherent film this is a huge mess and has to rank as a disappointment whichever way you look at it.

They skip on the special effects, not sure how much budget they had for this movie but i have seen all 3 of them, and the special effects will make you cringe.

I guess this is why i am more a fan of the animation series and movie than the live movies.

The live movies are not all that bad, the story is good, lots of things are going on, but sometimes it's hard to get past the bad special effects.

I really hope if they do decide to remake theses movie they put more budget on the special effects and CGI to actually make it believable.

Some of the effects with monster have the bad quality of the asylum movies which is very sad.

I don't remember much of how the manga was, but I know that I was both disappointed with the ending and angry because the story did not continue. So much universe, so much magic and interesting ideas and what... it was just over?! Something similar I felt for this third and final film in the trilogy, two hours and a half to tie up all the open story ends, which was both too little and too much. However I did not experience the same sense of loss when the film ended. It was necessary, just as it wasn't to make a live action film of any anime :)

The film was epic, I give it that, with all the characters coming together to defeat the final boss. Unfortunately, the story gets rushed, inconsistent with some ideas in the first two movies and with the same almost horrible acting as the first two movies. Can I rate it higher? Should I rate it lower because after all that setup it gets to a stupid all character fight where everybody talks too much and everything feels weird? Nah, it was just below average.

I highly recommend you read the manga or watch the anime. The films are for people who, just like me, felt a terrible loss when those ended and are able to watch anything, even the same story told horribly, just to not end. Hmm, the Alchemist Stone as a metaphor for our desire for our favorite stories to never end? Could be.

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.

Plot: Overall a miss.

Revenge of Scar is probably the best if I were to choose? Likely because there's not a lot of plot points that busy themselves in the story telling. So much of the plot points and what made FMA great wasn't present in these movies because they had to cut off so many. They just took what they thought were good memorable points then threw it in the pot with no seasoning. I am wondering if someone who hasn't seen the source material can really bond and understand the nuances of the characters.

Acting: Mostly miss if you're not used to the styling.

They chose to do an 'animated' telling... you know how in anime they react dramatically? That's in here. The slapstick comedic timing, exaggerated reactions etc. I have watched a lot of Japanese shows that do it this way so to me I'm used to it but I am aware it can be so cringy because it takes you out of the moment.

CGI: Miss with very few exceptions.

The bad effects are too noticeable especially in the first and third film. I know people can tell it's CGI because normally it's quite impossible for it to be done irl since it's clearly not animatronic nor practical but see they also didn't do the CGI any justice. You can tell they poured their heart out in making Alphonse look good because he actually is able to blend in with the environment, perhaps some of the alchemy effects as well are good but the rest... not so much

Costumes: Average.

Wigs were bad and you can tell they're wigs. First film Yamada (Edward) dyed his hair and it was really a trashy job people thought it was a wig. They sorta fixed it next installment but...eh

Costumes were I think the better part of the film. It looks worn in for the most part and they tried to really replicate what the anime characters were wearing so that was nice.

---- Overall not really something I'd recommend for a live action show but well some people clearly like it so who am I to say what other people will like or not but this review isn't it. Perhaps if you view this as like a fanmade trilogy with more budget in it then you might have a better time.