Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos

By: Robert Murphy

One of the things that I have always liked about Fullmetal Alchemist is that it was never a show that had a pointless plot line or filler type movie, that was true until The Sacred Star of Milos anyways. Some point after Edward and Alphonse first come to Central and Ed gets his state alchemist license is when the story takes place and it's a bit of a strange one. A mysterious man has broken out of prison and escaped to the land known as Milos, a desert and barren wasteland area that once was a holy land for the Milosian people but is now a beaten land. The people there do what they can to survive and there are those that fight for the freedom of their land from the Amestris (the State) and Creta who fight for their own control of the land. The Milosian's though hold a powerful alchemic secret which you know the Elric brothers are bound to solve once they get involved. 

The story really is a bad one but it will not by any means send you for a loop when you sit down to watch it. The oppressed Milosian people are much like the Ishvalans from the Fullmetal Alchemist series, they are a beaten people who now toil and make the best of what they're given which is extremely little. They actually live in a giant trench between the Amestris city and Creta and have garbage and waste dumped on them by the cities above, the people search for anything useful to help them survive. This, while a very sad story, kinda feels ripped off though by the Ishvalan story you have already scene, especially when it comes down to the mystery behind Milos and their Sacred Star that grants them untold alchemic power. See where they're going with this? Good because it's pretty straight forward and this brings up the other point of the story which is that everything is blatantly obvious to the viewers. Characters spend half the time explaining the information you already learned over again and acting surprised at the information while you sit their and scream for them to move on. One question I had when I started watching the movie was which Fullmetal series this took part in, whether it was Brotherhood or the original anime but after watching the dumbed down storytelling, I could tell it was the original.

This though was not the worst part for The Sacred Star of Milos, no, what really irked me was the animation and visuals for the story. The visuals are far from on par with what we have seen from any of the Fullmetal Alchemist series before, lines are noticeably off on characters faces, Ed's hair looks like a blob of yellow clay on his head and other terrible animations detract from the story. Whatever the issues was this time around, I certainly wasn't impressed with the level of detail presented. I made a comment to a friend about how it looks like the animation of something that was made when anime was first coming out, something right out of Cowboy Bebop territory but the thing is, Cowboy Bebop had an excuse. There isn't much of one here.

As for the character, Ed and Alphonse are still pretty much themselves. Ed seemed a little cockier and flashes around his state alchemy pocket watch like a wad of hundreds at a night club but I can understand being that he's young and appears to have just got the thing. I did not care for the way the Amestris was handled though. We've seen corrupt military people in Fullmetal Alchemist before but the story makes it look like the entire military is corrupt and evil this time around. Locking up illegal Milosian people and dumping trash on them from above, it was ridiculous and is far from what we've seen them do in the past. I use to feel bad for the Ishvalans but the Milosians gave them a run for their money.

I am a long time fan of both versions for Fullmetal Alchemist and so it is a bit hard for me to say when I say the words, don't watch this movie. The Sacred Star of Milos feels like a movie that was only made to cash in on longtime fans of the series. The story is just a watered down version of the Ishvalan story we all know and what shock there is to be added just was put in to make you try and not see the movie for what it is. The animation and visuals on top of this make for a very disappointing experience for new comers and fans alike. 

Good:

- A good, if not already done to death, Fullmetal plot

Bad:

- Much of the dialogue is exposition that never ends

- The beyond bad visuals and animations

- The need to make Amestris the evil ones in the story and basically the punchline for many of the jokes

Scully Rating: 2.0 out of 10