Memorable, crazy movie

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

By no means is "The Sacred Star of Milos" a bad film. For those wanting to feast their eyes on flashy Japanese animation, or simply to escape from the dullness of everyday life, this motion picture will be a good time.That being said, at no point does this truly feel like a "Fullmetal Alchemist" film.Throughout the entire viewing, I felt as though something was off. It wasn't the animation; though "-Milos" utilizes a completely different kind of design and animation than either of the two anime series, once you've accepted that contrast it's easy to marvel at how good-looking it is (almost like a cousin of Ghibli animation). But the story, the characters (old and new), the action, the (lack of) comedy, the (melodramatic) drama...It feels as though no member of the production had any previous history with the franchise. That alone wouldn't necessarily make this a less-than-awesome film, but the fact is that I never once cared about anything going on on screen does. I didn't care whether our heroes succeeded or if anyone were to die.In conclusion, "The Sacred Star of Milos" is a better-than-decent adventure film which features some cool animation, but it lacks the emotion to make us care, and - I feel - won't satisfy those expecting another adventure with the Elrics.

I'm a big fan of Brotherhood. If you consider brotherhood, you can tell something like sense of humor, drawings, drama and psychological factors.About this thing, when I saw Ed's face I thought I was watching a fan-made movie or something like. I don't know who visualized this time but It's kind of a betrayal to the original series.Story is also terrible. I couldn't wait until I see the next episode during the brotherhood because story was absorbing but This time Im so bored.As a fan after watching the whole episodes it's a great thing to see something new about Fullmetal Alchemist but not in this way...

I just watched the U.S. theatrical release of this at my local theater. The animation is very good, seeming to me to combine 2D techniques, computer-generated effects (smoke, water waves, flowing blood, energy beams, flames, lava, etc.) and of course lots of bright colors (but not so colorful and flashy it induces headaches:-). Visually, this doesn't take a back seat to anyone.It's obviously been carefully prepped for a U.S. release. Except for the credits being entirely Japanese characters, no clue is given to a naive viewer that this might be a variant. The voice actors (as far as I could tell all with names that can be spelled with Japanese characters) all speak completely un-accented idiomatic English. The problem of signs (shops, roadside, etc.) being in a different language is largely finessed by arranging that there just plain aren't hardly any. There aren't any written clues either - everything is drawings and diagrams. The few signs that do exist, the newspaper page we see, and even the inside of a book we get a quick glance at, have all been redrawn so they appear to have always been in English.The thing I noticed most was the characters' mouth movements have all been redrawn to match the English dub!(?) There's more music in the sound track than most animations (of course it's still not wall-to-wall music).A pitch-perfect dub, a redraw of all the bits of writing, new mouth movements, and significant music add up to quite an effort to pitch this to general audiences in the U.S. as a breakout movie.That said, the ethos just didn't mesh with my world.The storyline (which I assume is outstanding in the anime world) doesn't to me feel right for a movie. It's standalone (no background is required to understand it), and it's obvious a lot of effort has been spent trying to make it accessible to naive audiences. Yet its manga roots still show strongly. There's far too much dialog compared to what I'm used to, the plot is far too complex for the length of a movie, and there's too much abrupt jumping back and forth and back and forth between moralizing and joking. Many movies don't use the hidden identity trope at all; some use it once; but this is the first time I've seen the "hidden identity" trope _stacked_, so a character that's revealed to be somebody else is eventually revealed _again_.Likewise some of the attitudes just don't fit what I'm used to. I could eventually get into the inadvertently wisecracking, half-serious yet half-joking (or is it just plain juvenile?) attitude of the principal characters, but initially I found it jarring. I didn't realize until halfway through the movie that it was sometimes quite funny. The portrayal of the military as so central to the control of society, and the portrayal of military people with drab exteriors but bright interiors and plenty of independence and rather cynical attitudes, was foreign to me.Even though the visuals and the audio had gone out of their way to enter my world as far as possible, I was left overall with the sense of peering into a different culture. It wasn't necessarily one I dislike, just one that was different enough I couldn't really get into it right away. Maybe it's just my old age showing, or maybe some sort of cultural baptism into the anime world is needed, or ...

I had the chance to see this at my local theater, a treat since they usually don't get such obscure titles and I'm usually forced to resort to waiting on blu-ray releases. This time I was able to see the beautifully hand drawn animation up on the big screen in all its glory.I am a relatively new fan of the series but have been well exposed to the mythos by now. This film, unlike the film tied to the earlier series (Conqueror of Shamballa), is not an ending/finale as much as it is a filler episode that fits into the Brotherhood series. It should be viewed as another chance to spend time with the Elric brothers, though perhaps this time on an ever slightly more epic journey than usual. I feel viewing it this way, which is how I went into it, will merit the most enjoyment.I don't think anything needs to be said about the voice acting, this dub is terrific, truly one of the best. I know some fans only watch the subs but this is well known as one of those anime that almost every fan finds the English dub to be on par or in some cases above the original one.The visuals were fantastic and the action was excellently staged. The only downside is that Ed and Al seem to play side characters in this film, whereas in comparison to Conqueror of Shamballa they were definitely main characters there. While I would have liked more of them and more stakes for them in the story that didn't stop me from greatly enjoying the film. The story keeps one eager to see what will happen and where things will go, even though a few too many scenes without any presence felt by Ed or Al left me wondering when they would return to the screen.It isn't that I didn't enjoy the side characters, just that Ed and Al were always on my mind when gone too long as this is a Fullmetal Alchemist film. The side characters are interesting and well designed, there is a large back story about two warring countries and another caught between and a smaller back story about a brother and sister who, like Ed and Al, lost their parents The large amount of plot is well explained without getting too expository, several flashback sequences definitely help.The film starts out very linear, light and fun but soon gets very dark and heavy as it begins to pile on the plot twists towards the end, back-to-back-to-back at one point. I didn't mind personally but I mention it just to help others decide whether they want to find this in a local theater or wait for the spring blu-ray release.On another note, if this film didn't carry the title Fullmetal Alchemist or if Ed and Al hadn't been in the story I would have felt like I was watching an older Hayao Miyazaki film, which I say as a compliment. Even the character designs reminded me very much of Nausicaa or other similar films.So while I do wish Ed and Al were more involved both physically and emotionally, they mostly stand on the sidelines and give their opinions to these new characters who may make the same mistakes the boys once did, it is nevertheless a good if not great film. It is especially engaging for those who love hand drawn animation as I do.