Review of Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa

FMA is a great anime (on par with Cowboy Bebop), which made the movie all that more of a letdown.. It wasn't bad; the animation is good and the story was okay, however the plot was severely lacking. After I finished watching the movie, my first impression was that someone had made an excellent movie, removed a fifth of it, and replaced it with fan service. The plot simply does not flow; there are a number of instances where plot devices are randomly introduced and just as quickly dropped (e.g. the spear of longinus), where the story progression seems horribly contrived (Ed's conversations with Fritz Lang-especially the talk about parallel worlds), and where important scenes have simply been removed without compensation (most obvious in the opening subplot-why is Ed wearing that shiny helmet?). My other major gripe is the fan service. A little fan service is OK, but this is ridiculous. All of the popular characters from the anime had cameos, regardless of whether or not they offered any significant contribution to the story. Rather, they are just dropped in for a couple of scenes, did their trademark thing, and left. This wouldn't be nearly so bad except for the fact that important scenes were probably sacrificed so old favorites could have a minute of screen time.

That said, the movie is still entertaining. A lot of people disliked the ending, and while I don't think it was amazing, I believe it was consistent with the anime. My final recommendation: if you know nothing of FMA, watch the anime (which is far superior to the movie). If you've seen all 51 episodes, the movie is definitely worth watching, if for no other reason than that it significantly progresses the story.