Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge of Scar Review

2.5

Summary

It’s a movie adaptation that should have stayed as the source material instead of live-action.

When adapting anime or manga to live-action, the beauty of the characters and the story can get a bit lost. There are some things that live-action just can’t do the same as animation, and that’s why these adaptations don’t work. The performances in Fullmetal Alchemist the Revenge of Scar are not believable at all. It’s a movie adaptation that should have stayed as the source material instead of live-action.

In this installment, the Elric brothers meet their toughest opponent yet — a lone serial killer with a large scar on his forehead. As they attempt to catch him, they learn a series of dark secrets about some of their fellow alchemists.

In a way, it is good because fans of the franchise can learn more about the other alchemists. But, the visual effects are not up to standard. Netflix has been a hit or a miss when it comes to how much they put into their special effects. So having that fluctuate between films and series is questionable.

The action scenes are good when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, but once the powers come in, it completely falls apart. The fight scenes are exaggerated, and it does not work in a live-action adaptation. The use of a green screen is visible and takes you out of the world created entirely.

To fans of the manga or anime show, it may be a bit easier to understand what happens in the movie. But for those who are just giving this a go because they enjoyed the other films, it is a bit jumbled and hard to follow. Too many things happen episodically in the movie. It doesn’t really flow from scene to scene. It’s hard to find some good in a movie that tries to emulate the essence of anime into a live-action movie when it’s impossible to do.

Nothing happens in the movie because smaller situations are resolved within minutes. It’s just a cycle of scenes that could be panels in the manga to fast-track the entire scope of the story. The breakdown of the alchemists should have been handled differently. There should have been some sort of structure to it.