Name(s): Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos / Fullmetal Alchemist: Milos no Seinaru Hoshi / Fullmetal Alchemist Movie 2 / Hagane no Renkinjutsushi Movie 2 / FMA Movie 2 / 劇場版 鋼の錬金術師 嘆きの丘(ミロス)の聖なる星 / Fullmetal Alchemist: La Estrella Sagrada de Milos / Fullmetal Alchemist: L’Étoile Sacrée de Milos / FMA Milos
Director(s): Kazuya Murata
Format(s): Movie (111 minutes)
Genre(s): Action / Fantasy / Shonen
Studio(s): Bones
Release Date(s): May 2, 2011
Related: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009-2010)

Published: October 10, 2015

To cut to the chase, Fullmetal Alchemist is my favorite anime of all time. Both of them. The individual great concepts the series share and have unique to themselves combine to create my ideal series, and obviously I don’t necessarily take offense at creative liberties, or in another words, deviations from the “canon” so long as it’s a place worth going to. Unfortunately, the non-canonical side story movie Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (TSSoM) neither possesses the same distinct qualities of either series and the superficial bases it copies aren’t taken in any fresh directions. In other words, it’s a pretty average non-canon anime movie made for a buck.

These sorts of movies are generally bogged down through weaker executions of more inventive ideas and series concepts used in what they’re based off of, and equally unmemorable new characters. TSSoM has the Elric brothers chasing after an escaped convict Alchemist who shoots lightning from one hand and ice from the other like some sort of X-Men, even though this should be impossible by the series’s Alchemy rules as he essentially conjures these things out of thin air and this is never properly explained.

The convict brings the Elric brothers to the Table City in the middle of Creta, which is undergoing civil conflict after the native Milosians were forced underground by invading armies after the Philosopher’s Stone. Thin reasons to add Winry, Mustang, and Hawkeye are given even though this situation isn’t particularly dangerous for the Elric brothers and the Amestrian military is already stationed at Table City. In one of the stranger attempts at fanservice we’re even given a Yoki clone in the form of one of the Amestrian military commanders that I already have forgotten the name of.

Only the Elric brothers and the original characters end up doing anything of real importance anyway, and the two get involved in the Milosian’s underground resistance who are also in search of the Philosopher’s Stone. This should sound familiar, as the whole situation is extremely similar to the Ishbalan plot from both series and none the better for it. The most baffling thing in the whole movie is that the Milosian resistance dresses up in bat costumes complete with plastic visors as they soar through the air above on hang glider bat wings attacking the military, even though this makes even less sense when you consider they begin several thousand feet deep into a valley.

Will the Elric brothers find out a secret to help them get their bodies back? No, you know they won’t because nothing in here has overall plot or character importance to the franchise. Will they be able to stop the bloodshed between both sides and prevent more tragedy? I know I personally never cared about the answer to that question, because original character Julia is basically just a stand-in for old character Rose in a less compelling situation. It’s also pretty funny that regarding her brother Melvin they use the same plot twist twice within about 15 minutes and this went unnoticed by the writers for how lame it was.

The biggest missed opportunity here is despite the movie’s reliance on constant long action scenes they’re all just a series of explosions and generic physical combat, with little of the Alchemic creativity or special powers of the series that make them suspenseful. There’s a ton of motion in TSSoM, but none of it gives the viewer a reason to feel excited. This also means Edward Elric’s fighting intelligence, his best trait, really goes to waste. The two mostly just do a lot of running and transmuting of stone walls.

For a feature film, the production quality isn’t particularly great, not looking much better than Brotherhood and still worse than the original series. The character cels are colored very simply solid, and there’s a lot of sloppy faces and background characters. The score has a few pretty decent compositions that beat out most of Brotherhood‘s OST, but the music hardly plays a large role in the events of this movie.

Though it’s unfortunate the franchise wasn’t held to the higher standard it deserved and the movie particularly suffers through very long empty feeling action sequences, it’s always nice to see Ed and Al again in any context. Even still, this is the least essential Fullmetal Alchemist entry. Its qualities have been done better before, and it offers no new ones to the franchise. If you haven’t seen the original or Brotherhood yet somehow, hop on it. Watch Conqueror of Shambala before this. Watch the Premium Collection. Hell, watch anything, because The Sacred Star of Milos should be pretty low on your priority list, even if you’re the biggest of fan.