Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos

PLOT (spoiler alert!!!):

The movie begins with a young girl, Julia Crichton, waking up from a dream about the day her family was forcibly taken from her home by soldiers beside her older brother Ashley, who is currently studying their parents’ alchemy books. Ashley then shows his sister some pages and explains that with the alchemy in the book, he hopes to make a world that no one’s seen before. Soon after discovering two strange rubbed-out pages, the siblings hear some strange noises and Ashley goes ahead to investigate, but a worried Julia follows to a room where she finds the bodies of her parents hung up and dripping blood. She watches in horror as her brother is attacked and presumably murdered to which she faints.

Years later, a criminal breaks free from prison in Amestris, and the Elric brothers Edward and Alphonse join the effort to recapture him. The duo confronts the escapee who proves himself a dangerous opponent able to create ice and lightning from the alchemy circles drawn in blood on the palms on his hands. Despite the Elrics’ efforts to capture the criminal, he ends up escaping, and after some investigation with Edward’s superior Roy Mustang and his assistant Riza Hawkeye, they learn that the fugitive, Melvin Voyager escaped despite him being weeks away from being released from jail. Among his belongings, they find a newspaper page with a piece cut off, and comparing with an intact copy of the same page, they find that the missing piece is a photo of a young woman named Julia Crichton who was arrested while entering illegally in the remote Table City, set in the border between Amestris and Creta.

Intrigued by the alchemy used by the criminal and his connection with Julia, the Elrics board a train to Table City to investigate further, but the train is attacked by an unknown individual who transforms into a wolf-chimera and takes control of the locomotive. While trying to retake the train’s control from the Wolf-Chimera, flying soldiers called the Black Bats attacked the train, attempting to rescue what they thought were ordinary citizens, but they fall back after finding out the prisoners were Cretan spies. Meanwhile, Melvin found his opportunity and escaped, followed after by the Elric Brothers. Ed and Al arrive at a prison, where Melvin destroyed the prison walls to find Julia Crichton, the fugitive in the papers. Voyager attempts to retrieve Julia, which is interrupted by Miranda, the leader of the Black Bats, who retrieves her and gets her to safety. Ed then challenges Voyager while Alphonse goes to save Julia. She and him fall into a village in a vast chasm (The Valley) that surrounds Table City, where Voyager follows and reveals his true identity as Julia’s brother, Ashley Crichton. While attempting to rescue his brother, Ed then ventures down to the Valley in search of Al, where he learns that Table City was originally the Hill of Milos, until Creta and Amestris tore it apart in search of the a mysterious object.

Inside the Black Bats secret base, Julia and Alphonse develop a friendship while Julia learns about Al and Ed’s tragic past of human transmutation. Later, when Ed meets up with Al in the Black Bats base, they find themselves hunted down by wolf chimeras from the Cretan secret police, prompting them to retreat further. They and the Elrics arrive in a room with maps and locations of Table City, where Miranda explains to the Elrics their mission; to reclaim Milos by using the Sanguine Star to control a powerful heat source called Magma. Miranda also explained that the Sanguine Star was a ‘red glowing stone of power’. Shocked by the description, the Elrics reveal a secondary name the Star had, and that name was the Philosopher Stone, a name given to a stone of great power, but was made from the blood and life-force of a large number of human lives.

Wanting to avoid a bloody war, Ed and Al return to Table City in an attempt to find the Stone and destroy it. Later on, past midnight, the Black Bats, lead by Miranda, begin their assault, searching for the Sanguine Star. Miranda, Ashley, and Julia then venture to the main tower, where, suddenly, Ashley fatally injures Miranda and explains to Julia that the use of Miranda’s blood activates a three dimensional transmutation circle drawn in blood to create the Sanguine Star. Julia then realizes that he is an imposter, Security Chief Atlas, who was enveloped by alchemy’s potential of creation and power, and killed Julia’s parents for it, and tore off the real Ashley’s face and the skin from his lower left side to deceive Julia and create the Star. Ed and Al arrive to rescue Julia and confront Atlas, who escapes to the location of the Star. As Ed, Al, and Julia chased after Atlas, a Cretan power plant explodes, pouring out a massive amount of lava towards the Valley. Al goes to help save the valley while Ed and Julia go after Atlas. Atlas nearly attempts to retrieve the Star, only to be confronted by Ed and Julia resulting in a minute-long fight. Julia then retrieves the star and decides to use it through saving the Valley.

Meanwhile, Alphonse’s attempt to stop the lava are futile until Julia arrives to help him stop the lava. Atlas arrives to take back the Sacred Star, only to be confronted by Colonel Hershel, who reveals himself to be Ashley Crichton. Angered by their (his and Julia’s) parents’s murder and his (Ashley’s) mutilation, Ashley kills Atlas with his (Ashley’s) alchemy causing Atlas’s head to explode. Julia wanted to know if what Ashely said was true, that he really was her brother. Ashley spoke true and confirmed that he was. He also apologized to Julia for leaving her alone for so long, and in order to keep her safe from Atlas, Ashley created Wolf-Chimeras in the Cretan army to protect her. Now that his sister was safe, Ashley begged Julia to leave Milos and go back to Creta with him so they could still make a world that no one had ever seen before, but Julia loved their birthplace and her friends, so she refused. Thus Ashley became angry and heartbroken and attacked her and Alphonse with his alchemy, but Ed and Mustang arrived to aid Julia against Ashley. Ed confronted Ashley in an explosive sword-fight, but Ashley was too much for him, so Julia stepped in and fought back with her powerful alchemy! Ashley was overwhelmed by Julia’s power and lost his left arm, but as he fell, Julia noticed he was wearing a necklace, and at the end of it was the earring she gave him! Unable to hate her brother, Julia caught Ashley with a large amount of snow. She then worked with the Elrics and created a massive gathering of hands from Table City to stop the flow of Magma and save Death Canyon. Julia then turned to her brother, who was already bleeding to death, so to save his life, she opened the Gate of Truth through the Sacred Star’s power and pulled him back! Alphonse and Edward noticed that Julia was missing one of her legs, but the exchange seemed worth it as Ashley’s face was fully restored!

The next morning, Ashley woke up in a hospital bed alongside Julia. He then found his face restored completely, and after noticing his sister resting in bed, he gently rubbed Julia’s cheek. Julia then woke up and found out that her left leg was gone completely, and Vatanen reported to her about Ashley, who had just left with one of the earrings he re-created. Vatanen also explained that Alphonse brought Julia’s earring to her, making her want to see him.

Outside Table City, Ed and Al marveled at the new bridge they made. And to their surprise, Julia came walking towards them with an Automail Leg. The three exchanged conversations about how Amestris and Creta will be retreating for now, and how a war will be coming. Julia knows this, but she smiles confidently about how she and Milos will work together and triumph. Before he left, Edward confesses that Julia was indeed reckless, but she was still heroic in her actions. Ed then pushed Al towards Julia, giving him some time alone. Al then commented on how different Julia looked, Julia believed that he was talking about her new leg, which she said will take her some time to get used to. However, Alphonse actually meant to complement her on her beauty, to which Julia smiled and said she’ll wait for him to come back when he and Ed find a way to restore their bodies. As Al and Julia parted ways, elsewhere, Ashley donned his Cretan uniform and mask and headed back to Creta…

The Elrics board the train with Mustang, Hawkeye, and Winry, and looked one last time at Table City.

REVIEW:

[adult swim] has lately decided that Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood isn’t worth seeing, so they’ve relegated episodes to the middle of the night. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Elric brothers star in their second film, but if not for a random comment on a youtube review site, I would not even know that Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Stone of Milos existed.

What is this about?

In this sequel to the anime epic Fullmetal Alchemist, the Elric brothers travel to the land of Milos, where people are rebelling against their masters. The brothers soon become involved in the cause, joining forces with a young alchemist named Julia.

What did I like?

Action. If there is one thing that can be said about this film, it is that the action scenes are a sight to behold. Stopping just short of being the best fights seen in the franchise, there seems to be a level of care that hasn’t been show before in the way they were animated. Dare I say these fights make the audience really believe that our heroes are getting their ass beat.

Locale. For the most part, Fullmetal Alchemist has stayed in Amestris. In the later episodes of Brotherhood and in the previous movie, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa, they journey to other lands. As much as I like seeing the countryside and city of Amestris, it is good to mix it up a bit and take us on a journey to a new land.

What didn’t I like?

Animation. I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something about the animation used here that is a slightly different than what we are used to seeing. Something about the way the characters are drawn seems a bit rough and not touched up. This wouldn’t bother me so much, except for the fact that this is not what we are used to seeing.

Winry and Hawkeye. As my good friend, and fellow FMA addict, Lisa can tell you, I love me some Riza Hawkeye! However, her and Winry just seemed to be thrown in here just to add a bit of familiarity. You can sort of throw in Col. Mustang, but he actually does have something to do with the goings on. Also, there is a 5 second cameo from Maj. Armstrong. I know how I am, and if they wouldn’t have been in there, I’d be the first one bitching and moaning that they weren’t, but since they actually did put there in, here I am complaining, anyway. Guess they can’t win for losing.

Pattern. For everything that is different and cool about this film, they keep falling into the same tropes that have become a bit tired, such as Ed’s automail issues, the Philosopher’s Stone, etc. I half expected the Homunculi to show up (I wouldn’t complain is Lust appeared, mind you). It would have been nice to not have seen these things for once, at least for me.

I really wish that I had stronger feelings for Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos, but it just wasn’t meant to be. There is a mystery as to where exactly in the timeline this fits. For me, this felt more like a cash grab than something to supplement the series. Yes, I could recommend this in terms of the film itself. You don’t necessarily need a working knowledge of the FMA universe, but it will help. When the smoke clears, this was a bit of a disappointment, but still pretty decent.

3 3/4 out of 5 stars