Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge of Scar

Title says it all, but to elaborate a bit - Japanese anime is somehow better because the 2D drawings lack emotional depth, so the sometimes-ridiculous dialog doesn't seem bad because it isn't paired with ridiculous acting. On the other hand, Japanese live action shows often have ridiculous acting on top of over-the-top dialog, which is just a bad combination.

Which is the problem THIS film has, which is evident almost immediately - the acting varies from stiff to overly animated with over-the-top and/or bad acting typical of a live action Japanese adaptation. Don't get me wrong, not all of them are bad, just most of them.

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.

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.

Full metal Alchemist is a fantasy anime that when done live requires a healthy level of suspension of disbelief to truly enjoy. Every aspect of this film looks so cheap with its cosplay level budget that it's impossible to appreciate any value the story may have. Though between the over acting and drawn out plot I'm not sure there is all that much here to enjoy in spite of the production level.

You can tell this movie was not produced by Netflix because even their awful adaptation of Death Note looked great. This movie has jarring green screens with poor post processing, props that look like foam, and dated CG that looks like it was added in as an after thought.

Sadly, I can't give this more than a 4/10.

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.