Review for Fullmetal Alchemist Movie 2: The Sacred Star of Milos

Introduction

You can’t keep a good franchise down; or rather only a fool kills the goose that lays the golden eggs. But what do you do when narrative gives you a dead goose in the first place. The Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime has been one of the bright spots of the last few years in anime, finally adapting Hiromu Arakawa’s epic manga to the small screen. But it’s a story with a discrete beginning and end, and once the show wrapped up, the question arose as how to capitalise on its success. Unlike the first Full Metal Alchemist Series, which was made while the manga was in progress and had a different, open-ended conclusion that led to the spectacular Conqueror of Shamballa feature film sequel, there’s no similar open end to Brotherhood, no easy way to continue the story. Incidentally Conqueror of Shamballa sees a DVD re-release in the UK the same day as Sacred Star of Milos, as part of a two movie double pack, while the UK Blu-ray debut of that film has been delayed to December, when it will be released individually as well.

As for Brotherhood, while there are a few OVAs out there, due for UK release on Blu-ray DVD combo this autumn, spinning off a feature would appear to be difficult. Thankfully, the creators haven’t succumbed to the usual anime trick of re-editing the series into a movie or two, and have realised that while the beginning and end may be off limits, the middle of the story is still there to offer more adventures in the Fullmetal Alchemist universe. The Sacred Star of Milos then is a side story, another adventure that took place while the brothers were on their travels around Amestris, looking for a way to restore their bodies. Actually in the featurettes on this disc, the creators say that this is actually a third adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist, rather than a continuation of Brotherhood, and with the change in animation style, as well as a couple of apocryphal elements, you could see it that way. But there isn’t a lot to divorce this from the Brotherhood story otherwise, and it could be set just after Al sees the Truth.


Manga Entertainment release Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie 2 – The Sacred Star of Milos on DVD and Blu-ray, and as mentioned, there is also a DVD double movie set with The Conqueror of Shamballa released on the same day.

Alchemy is the art of the transmutation of matter by means of an incantation, a mystical circle, or sheer willpower alone. For centuries charlatans and the deluded pursued the creation of gold by alchemical means but to no avail. But in Full Metal Alchemist, alchemy is a realised science. Set in an alternative world during the early years of the twentieth century, the transmutation of elements is indeed a reality, and the state regards such talent highly indeed. Full Metal Alchemist tells the story of brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, two precocious alchemists who are on a quest. The young brothers had attempted the unspeakable, resurrecting their mother. But the Law of Equivalent Exchange cannot be flouted; only objects of equal mass can be transmuted, and the dead cannot be brought back to life. The attempt failed disastrously. Now, Alphonse is a disembodied spirit bound to a suit of animated armour, while Edward has replaced his leg and arm with metal automail, but it’s his prodigious facility with alchemy that has earned him the name, Fullmetal Alchemist. Now they search for a means to restore their bodies.


You wouldn’t think that State Alchemists would get involved with a simple prison break, but the escape that occurs during the Harvest Festival is no simple prison break, while Edward and Alphonse Elric aren’t your average State Alchemists. It appears that the thief Melvin Voyager decided to escape just six months away from the conclusion of a five year term, and he does so by revealing previously unseen and unknown alchemical abilities, unleashing lightning from one palm, and ice from the other. He even manages to evade Ed and Al’s pursuit, which is no mean feat. When they investigate what motivated the escape, they learn that Voyager was driven by a newspaper report of the arrest of a strange girl in Table City, on the border of Amestris and Creta.

The region used to be the nation of Milos, and Table City their holy city. But it became the battleground between Creta and Amestris, with both sides motivated by the legends and myths of Milos that promise great power. The Milosians became second class citizens, forced to live in a valley turned refuse dump around the city, made to toil first for the Cretans and then the Amestrisians. The girl’s name is Julia Crichton, and she’s a Milosian freedom fighter. More than that, she’s the daughter of a family of alchemists, relocated to Creta to complete their research against Milosian opposition, but then brutally slain, leaving her the sole survivor. Her parent’s research pointed to a secret hidden with the walls of Table City, the Sacred Star of Milos which will give ultimate power to he who wields it. Ed and Al get drawn into this fight for freedom, when they realise that this Sacred Star sounds suspiciously like the Philosopher’s Stone, and as usual where there is the Philosopher’s Stone, there’s corruption, betrayal, and death, all of it wrapped up in Julia Crichton’s tragic past.

Picture

The movie gets a 1.78:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p resolution on this Blu-ray disc. It’s a nice transfer of an anime feature, free of any print damage, with hardly any aliasing, and really only the perennial problem of digital banding to note. The animation is smooth and vibrant, the colours are strong, and detail levels are high. This film is replete with action sequences, from the opening prison escape to the Revenge of the Sith inspired ending, and it all looks absolutely spectacular.


Where The Sacred Star of Milos falls down is in the character designs. Full Metal Alchemist’s character designs were reworked for the first feature, and then when it came to Brotherhood as well, changes that took me a while to get used to. But here they get yet another makeover, and I’m not sure that it works, as for the greater canvas of the second feature, they’ve been unexpectedly simplified and take on a Ghibli-esque style. The difference between Ed and Al’s height has been emphasised, but the outline edges are rougher, less detailed, and different colours have been chosen. Ed’s eyes in particular have a green tint which is new for this feature and something I found distracting. The simpler character designs probably do make some of the more outstanding action sequences easier to accomplish, but there is an odd artistic choice for the more extreme moments to go with a pencil sketch style for a few frames that does jar.

Sound

No such complaints for the audio, as both English and Japanese casts return for the feature film ensuring continuity of voice, with Maaya Sakamoto joining the Japanese cast as Julia Crichton. The audio options here are Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English and Japanese with player locked subtitles and signs tracks for both, as appears to be the current state of play regarding Japanese fears of reverse imports. I went with the Japanese audio as always and was right at home with the voice actors performing the roles I’ve become so fond of once more. The action sequences come across well, although you may have to nudge the volume up a smidge to get the best out of the film. The film gets a couple of great theme songs, with L’Arc En Ciel returning to the FMA universe for the first time since Shamballa. I sampled the English dub, and fans of the English cast won’t be disappointed.

Extras

The Sacred Star of Milos doesn’t do too badly for extras, although pales in comparison to The Conqueror of Shamballa.

Full Metal Alchemist: Making of Sacred Star of Milos lasts 64 minutes, and on the surface seems like a long and deep documentary. Romi Park (Ed) and Rie Kugimiya (Al) narrate their way through the creative process, taking us from script to premiere with interviews with the cast and crew. It’s all pretty dry fare though, offering just the basics of the process, and with no real revelations to be had. You’ll have seen its ilk before if your anime collection is large enough. Newcomers to the medium will find much of interest though.

For English dub fans, we get the US Cast Commentary, and just as in previous Funimation commentaries for feature films, they take it a little more seriously than the usual TV episode free-for-all yak-tracks. Mike McFarland (ADR Director) hosts, and invites various members of the voice cast into the booth one at a time for a sit down interview about the movie. It’s not really scene specific, and with most of these actors having voiced these characters since the first Full Metal Alchemist series, there’s a fair bit of background to each interview.


The rest of the extras are promotional material, with the US trailer, the theatrical trailers, and the TV Spots. Of interest here are the Web Promos, 19 minutes worth, which feature crudely animated flash versions of the characters popping up to prepare fans for the movie.

Finally, and a legacy of the Madman release of this disc, you also get trailers for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and the first Eden of the East feature film.

All of the extras are in some variety of 1080 line resolution.

Conclusion

It’s gone all Naruto for Fullmetal Alchemist! Now don’t panic, what I mean is that with Naruto’s feature films, they can’t impact the ongoing and existing storyline, they have to stand alone to one side of the series. The same thing happens here, and while the characters and world are recognisable from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the story cannot have any impact or bearing on what happens in that series. In that regard, The Conqueror of Shamballa is preferable, as it continues and adds to what happened in the first series. The downside of this approach is that you see and discover elements that you may enjoy, characters that you like, and they’ll remain confined to this feature. There are also those little continuity flubs that you have to ignore when it comes to the main series, with indications here that the neighbouring state of Creta is a major alchemical power, almost at a state of war with Amestris, their use of werewolf chimera and the prevalence of their spies in Amestris, and alchemists that can unleash lightning from their palms like a dark lord of the Sith. As previously mentioned, the creators consider this a third adaptation of the source material, and it really is best to approach it that way.


As long as the film is good, the story entertaining, none of this will really matter. Unfortunately the fact that I have time to think about these things indicates that The Sacred Star of Milos isn’t all that it could have been. With Full Metal Alchemist, both versions of the anime, when the main storyline wasn’t taking precedence, the shows were made up of shorter stories that followed the brothers Elric down a blind alley or two as they sought the Philosopher’s Stone. This is just a feature length version of one of those stories, with the difference that it takes place at a point where the brother’s have learned the secret behind the Philosopher’s Stone, and now are looking for an alternative means to restore their bodies.

In this situation, they act as the external voice of reason, seeing Julia Crichton and the Milosian people on the verge of making a fatal mistake in pursuing the Sacred Star of Milos, and helping them find another way before it is too late. Another element of these side stories is that on occasion the main characters can appear to be guest stars in their own movies, and there is an element of that here, as the focus is very much on Julia and her story. That story is very simple, with Julia fighting for the freedom of the Milosian people, and needing the Sacred Star to achieve it, something we all know is a bad idea. The visual allegory does make it an interesting story though, with Milos potentially a representation of Gaza, a formerly independent people caught between a rock and hard place. The problem here is just how complicated and convoluted this movie makes things. It twists and turns and meanders like a wayward river, with the three-way confrontation between Amestris, Creta and Milos confusing enough.


What makes this worse is that hardly anyone that we encounter in this film is as they appear to be, and the story constantly switches and throws in surprises. I honestly thought the film would be over at the ninety minute mark, and then all of a sudden we get another revelation and a whole new act to the film. All this complication means that the emotional arcs to the film get lost beneath the narrative, making it harder to care for the central characters, and difficult to fathom their motives. Another disappointment is that a lot of the regular cast are wasted, with Winry, Mustang, and Hawkeye’s roles in this film token at best

Where Sacred Star of Milos excels is in the visual stakes. The direction is superb, the action sequences thrilling, and despite the made-over character designs, the film very much looks like a grand theatrical outing. If you just strap yourselves in for the ride, you’re bound to be entertained. It’s just afterwards that you realise that it is a pretty shallow adventure, one that opts for the basic Fullmetal Alchemist filler story, that of another fruitless pursuit after the Philosopher’s Stone. In that it’s little more than a high budgeted, extended episode. While it could never be the epic continuation that The Conqueror of Shamballa was to the first series, there was still an opportunity to do something different with this feature. Thinking back to that first series, there was a filler episode called The Phantom Thief Psiren, which was an interesting comic diversion. One thing that Fullmetal Alchemist is strong in, and was less apparent here is comedy, and going in that direction with this film may have resulted in a movie that could have been more memorable.

By sheer coincidence, I happen to be re-watching the Brotherhood series right now, and right after this film, I watched episode 50, Upheaval in Central. I got more jazzed by the story in 22 minutes of television animation, than I did with 2 hours of this movie, which can’t be a good thing.