Word has spread of a serial killer targeting State
Alchemists. He is an Ishvalan, codenamed
Scar, and not even the Elric Brothers are powerful enough to withstand his
onslaught. As a massive manhunt begins,
Ed and Al’s journey to find the Philosopher’s Stone gets complicated with new
players entering the fray, each with their own agendas and endgames for the
stone. All the while, the Brothers must
stay one step ahead of Scar while also learning about how they figure into an
apocalyptic plot by the Homunculi that could repeat a tragic disaster from the
distant past.
I was very surprised to hear that the Live Action
Fullmetal Alchemist from 2017 was getting not only one but two sequels.
From what I’ve heard, that movie didn’t
receive a lot of cricital praise (I reviewed it for this blog’s Fourth
Anniversary in 2018 and I was not a fan myself.
You can check out that review here:
http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/fullmetal-alchemist-2017-special-fourth.html).
Given how poorly received it was, it never
occurred to me that the Live Action Fullmetal Alchemist would continue, but
here we are.
Not only did we get two
sequels but the studio made the even more baffling call to try and wrap up the
entire story in a combined four hour feature (give or take).
Considering how dense and rich the entire
Fullmetal Alchemist series is, this was a bad call.
Maybe if you had three movies but two?
Well, to close out 2022, I’m taking a look at
both films back to back, starting with The Revenge of Scar.
Is it as bad as the original or does it give
me hope that this series can actually pull off a miracle and end on a decent
note?
I really wasn’t expecting much from this sequel
considering how much I didn’t like the first movie.
However, I’ll admit, when Edward finally
reacted properly to being called “Little” aka going totally crazy and chasing
down whoever did the deed, I cheered.
It’s like freaking finally, it actually happened.
Much to my surprise, it seems that a lot of
the criticism aimed at Ed’s portrayal in the first film has been addressed and
he is much more in line with his Anime counterpart than before.
Ed no longer acts depressed and cold the
entire movie.
Ryouskue Yamada is able to
imbue Ed with more of his trademark sarcasm, wit and, most importantly,
humorous side.
Ed is equally
entertaining in scenes with his father, Hoenheim of Light, especially when his
Dad notices they have the same hairdo only for Ed to swiftly undo his own braid,
and in more dramatic moments like when he helps Winry stand down from making a
terrible mistake.
An Ed that cares, they
should’ve been doing this from the beginning but hey at least the Director took
notes and fixed what needed to be fixed the most.
Unfortunately, while Ed is much better, the rest of The
Revenge of Scar presents all the problems you’d expect from a two part
adaptation of the last 2/3s of the Fullmetal Alchemist Manga.
We jump between a lot of scenes, sometimes
with little explanation or setup.
At one
point, Ed goes from waiting to get his arm fixed in Resembol to traveling
through the desert to find some lost ruins, seemingly overnight.
The story is certainly choppy all over the
place to move things along because there’s a ton of ground to cover.
It’s one of the reasons there should have
been three sequels instead of two.
One
particular subplot involves the Isvalan Rebellion and the Extermination
Campaign by the State Alchemists that plays heavily into many characters
motivations, especially the titular Scar.
While we do spend time in that bloody flashback, it should have either
been longer or its own separate movie.
It’s supposed to play heavily into the resolution of character arcs for
Scar and Winry and while those resolutions do have good acting, more time to
let the audience connect with their emotional states over the course of another
movie would make said resolutions feel more earned rather than checking off a
need to do moment from the series.
Also,
plenty of new faces make their first appearances but unless you’re already
familiar with the likes of Alex Louise Armstrong, Pinako, Hohenheim or
Mustang’s supporting crew, you wont be spending much time getting to know them
to care much about them being around.
Speaking of Scar, he might’ve been the one thing I was
looking forward to most about the sequel because of his actor.
Mackenyu made such a splash last year playing
Yukishiro Enishi in Rurouni Kenshin: The Final, able to nail the physicality
and fragile psyche of Kenshins final big bad.
Scar is a very different role for Mackenyu.
It’s still physically demanding but Mackenyu
isn’t given much range to work with.
Part of this comes from Scars more subdued and quiet demeanor.
Which is probably why Mackenyu is strongest
in the flashbacks when we see Scar in the events that made him his
namesake.
Dude can act his butt off but
as Scar, he literally just stands around, still as a statue for one very
pivotal scene like he’s processing key information as the Terminator.
That said, while I wish he had more acting to
do, Mackenyu does have good moments with Winry, with actress Tsubasa Hodna
getting a lot of dramatic range to work with.
Shout out also to Keisuke Watanabe, who is a lot of fun as Lin Yao,
Prince of Xiao.
The visual effects continue to be Fullmetal Alchemist’s
best and worst enemy.
Once again, Al
looks pretty good for a fully CG Character, though there are moments where he’s
supposed to be in a scene and he is suddenly absent, like the visual effects
team forgot to add him in.
The alchemy
effects look ok but not as spectacular as they could.
Some returning visual disasters like Gluttony
still look as bad as you remember them.
Now that I think about it, the green screen in this movie gets pretty
bad at times, especially when it comes to the overall environments of the
movie.
A lot of this film feels like its
shot on soundstages with a lot of green screen curtains behind it and you can
tell they look fake just from a single glance.
Granted I could chalk this up to the high bar set by the Rurouni Kenshin
films.
Sure it wasn’t completely free of
green screen use but they hand built a lot of those sets or used a lot of the
still existing architecture to recreate Bakumatsu and early Meiji Era
Japan.
It made those movies feel more
real, like you were watching a true historical drama.
Same cant be said for The Revenge of Scar
which looks like its trying to save costs with its backgrounds along with a lot
of story chopping as well.
It really surprises me to say that despite the hopscotch
story and compilation vibe, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge of Scar is a bit
of an improvement to its predecessor.
I
guess I’m just happy to have more Mackenyu in my Live Action Anime and that
they managed to give me an Edward Elric who will go totally nuts when someone
comments on his height at any given moment.
Still, this is clearly Part One of a Two Part finale and the movie is
rushing to cover ground without giving itself time to let new information
settle and get taken in before rushing to climaxes and resolutions before the
inevitable “To Be Continued…”.
And
there’s so much more to come based on the trailers too.
More characters to introduce and even bigger
plot developments that need to be touched upon.
Well…that’s a problem for the last movie in this trilogy.
As for this one, it’s got problems but I dare
say it’s actually kind of better…no where near as good as it could be of course
but still, better is better.
4.5/10
Better might be better but this series has been far from
perfect.
Can we at least get one more
passable movie before it closes things out?
My money’s on “no” but I guess we’ll find out when we look second half
of the two part
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Final Chapter saga,
Fullmetal
Alchemist: The Final Alchemy, Next Monday right here at the Gundam Anime
Corner.
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