Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: The Sacred Star of Milos Blu-ray Movie Review

Is there still magic in the air?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 2, 2012

It’s been a long and winding road for Fullmetal Alchemist, the saga of Alphonse and Edward, the legendary Elric Brothers whose noble if perhaps misguided attempts to bring their dead mother back via alchemy resulted in some disastrous results. We’re approaching the decade mark since the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime started being broadcast, and the intervening years have seen an enormous number of properties, including the second series, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, as well as a slew of OVAs, some films and of course continuing mangas. But if we’re to take some of the comments offered by the U.S. voice cast in one of the supplements included on this new Blu-ray of this feature film which acts as a sort of appendage to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, we may be at the end of the story. Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos is an enjoyable mystery-action hybrid that will probably appeal most to longtime fans of the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise, though it’s a testament to the creative staff’s skill that this film works rather well as a standalone entertainment, not entirely dependent on an audience’s acquaintance with the labyrinthine world of the series in order to glean a lot of what’s going on. While some may wonder why Edward is termed the “Fullmetal Alchemist” when in fact it’s his brother Alphonse who seems to be a distant cousin of Brad Bird’s Iron Giant, as well as some lingering questions with regard to the back stories of the Elrics and a couple of returning characters, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos quickly envelops the viewer in a new storyline that is more focused on two new characters who have their own independent backgrounds (could there be a spinoff in the making?).

It’s somewhat indicative of how at least relatively detached from the long story of the Elric Brothers Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos is in that the film starts with an interesting prelude which doesn’t even include the brothers. Instead we see a family evidently being deported, a la the Holocaust, with a small girl being haunted by sights of others not so :”lucky” to be boarded on a crowded train being summarily shot by a bunch of Nazi-like soldiers. That horrifying vision segues instantly into the girl, somewhat older now, waking up with a start, obviously signifying she’s been having a nightmare about a past event. She and her older brother are alone in a huge library and her brother is perusing alchemical texts that belong to their parents (could this have something to do with the deportation?). A horrible wail is heard and the brother takes off, telling the girl to stay put. Of course she doesn’t, and she enters another room to take in an even more horrifying scene than the long ago sight of her kinsmen being slaughtered. There, hanging upside down from the rafters like the carcasses of skinned animals, are the bodies of her parents, dripping copious amounts of blood onto the floor. Though we don’t see it, we suddenly hear her brother letting out a scream of terror, with sounds of a scuffle and attack, after which the girl collapses, unconscious.

After that alarming prelude we finally segue to some actual Elric Brothers sequences, as they inadvertently witness the escape of a government held prisoner, a man who is practicing a previously unknown kind of alchemy that enables him to shoot out huge blocks of ice, among other special talents. Edward and this mysterious stranger have a showdown in an alleyway, but the prisoner manages to beat a hasty retreat. The brothers then learn that the escaped prisoner was about to be released anyway, which makes his sudden escape unfathomable. With a little investigative work, they find a discarded newspaper in his cell, with a picture cut out of it, a picture which turns out to be of a mysterious young girl. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the prisoner, who has the rather unfortunate name of Melvin Voyager, actually turns out to be the long lost older brother of the young girl whose misfortunes started the film, and that she in fact is the girl in the newspaper photo. It turns out her name is Julia Crichton and Melvin’s real name is Ashley Crichton. It might take a rocket scientist, or at least a perspicacious viewer, to unravel a couple of major surprises about this pair that await as the film develops.

The story then shifts to Table City, an odd plateau thrust up in a wasteland that resembles the American Southwest, an area which is surrounded by valleys inhabited by a number of supposedly illegal immigrants, the people who were seen in the opening segment and who are Julia Crichton’s friends and collaborators (in the political sense of the term). There are a number of secondary characters and developments introduced in this middle section of the film, including several Chimeras, “wolfmen” like characters who seem to be out to get Julia for some reason, as well as a flying horde of attacking soldiers with large parasail like apparatuses, known as Black Bats, Milosian guerrillas who are attempting to take back Table City from what they see as an occupying force. Alfonse and Edward find themselves at the center of yet another political intrigue, as two warring factions seem to somehow be related to the troubling history of Julia and Ashley.

This is a brisk and often very exciting entry into the FMA franchise, one that should satisfy longtime fans while not leaving newcomers scratching their collective heads in befuddlement. The animation style here is very engaging (this is a joint Bones – Aniplex production), with some really nice looking CGI and a lot of quasi-3D effects. While the character designs aren’t carbon copies of those in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, they’re not so far removed as to make any character unrecognizable. Some of the backgrounds here are exceptionally well done and as weird as it may sound a lot of this film has the same elegant look as Steamboy, a comparison perhaps made more apt by Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos’ use of an out of control steam locomotive in one boisterous sequence.

There are a couple of very nice surprises built into the film, though some longtime fans may wonder why the Elric Brothers aren’t as central to this film as in the previous FMA outings. If this is indeed the end of the line for the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise, at least it can be stated that it’s going out with a fair degree of style and panache. That’s saying something, especially in the world of anime where projects often outstay their welcome and end up dying long lingering deaths.

Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: The Sacred Star of Milos Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a bright and vivid looking high definition presentation, one which features exquisite line detail and very sharp looking character designs which subtly reinvent the main characters longtime fans have grown to know and love over the years. There's quite a bit of great looking CGI in this enterprise, which is very well woven into the overall presentation. Colors are bold and very well saturated, and the quasi-3D elements look fantastic for the most part. The overall look of the film is very clean and sleek looking, and while this doesn't bear an obvious relationship visually to either Fullmetal Alchemist or Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, fans will probably not be too concerned and newcomers will most likely be enchanted by the look of Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos.

Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: The Sacred Star of Milos Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both the original Japanese language track as well as an English dub are offered via Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes on this Blu-ray of Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos. The Japanese track is just slightly less boisterous in the low end, as seems to be the case more and more lately, but it's fun to hear the original voice conceptions of the Elric Brothers and then compare them to the FUNimation dub. The FUNimation dub features a glut of returning regulars and it presents the soundworld of the film is a nicely splayed and often quite directional use of the surround channels. There are a number of fun effects, including the metallic reverb of Alfonse's voice emanating from within his robotic frame. The film is full of some nice attention to detail, with good panning effects and at least a couple great uses of LFE in some battle and action sequences. Fidelity is top notch and dynamic range is also extremely wide.

Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: The Sacred Star of Milos Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Fullmetal Alchemist: Making of Sacred Star of Milos (1080i; 1:04:25) starts out with the Elric Brothers in a bit of sibling rivalry, until they remember they're supposed to host a "Making Of" special, at which point we get a number of live action interviews with some of the creative crew. In Japanese with forced English subtitles.


• U.S. Cast Commentary features several FUNimation regulars, including Maxey Whitehead (Alfonse), who talks about what voicing this character, as well as many others in the FUNimation stable, has done for her life and career; Colleen Clinkenbeard, who has done a slew of different things for different FMA outings, including ADR Directing, Line Producing and Voice Acting; Christopher R. Sabat (Armstrong), who talks about some technical aspects of finding the right pitch for his character; Vic Mignogna (Ed), who gets a little weepy at the end of the movie, which may be the last FMA outing ever, going on at some length about how much the project and the fans have meant to him; and Mike McFarland, ADR Director and Voice Actor, who hosts the proceedings.


• U.S. Trailer (HD; 1:03)


• Web Promo (HD; 19:13) features some chibi-esque versions of the Elric Brothers submitting to an interview.


• Theatrical Trailers (HD; 4:07)


• TV Spot (1080i; 00:48)


• Trailers for other FUNimation Releases

Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: The Sacred Star of Milos Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I personally really liked Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos, though I had the recurring sneaking suspicion that we're being set up for a spinoff featuring Julia and Ashley (time will tell). But the film has an intriguing mystery at its core and manages to introduce several new characters and factions fairly seamlessly. What may bother some longtime fans is how Alfonse and Edward are kind of shunted off into the sidelines for large parts of the film. But this Blu-ray offers stupendous video and audio quality, as well as some nice supplements. Highly recommended.