Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa (2006)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

An action-packed slog

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

"Conqueror of Shamballa" serves to conclude the original anime after that series ended on a bittersweet note. I was excited when I first saw this film back in the day to see how everything ended and it didn't disappoint.All the characters who lived are back and everything is different. The characters are a few years older and more mature. The story does an interesting take on the idea of parallel universes and we get to see alter egos of characters in Ed and Alphonse's world in the real world setting of Europe cira 1925. Ed and Alphonse are separated on both sides of the gate and both are attempting to return to each other. In the midst of all this a fringe group of the Nazis is studying alchemy in an attempt to pass through the gate and conquer the alternate world in order to fuel their supplies for war. It moves at a brisk pace and has great action sequences befitting of FMA. The animation has much better production value than the show (although some of the CG used hasn't aged well) and makes great use of color for both worlds. The film has a good villain but not as good as in the series. I can't recommend this film to people who haven't seen the show because it requires prior knowledge of the show to understand the events of the film. If you liked the original "FMA" then you will most likely enjoy this film.

After watching the original FMA series and feeling disappointed with it's ending I immediately watched this movie which was suppose to bring the series to a conclusion. However I feel that the conclusion to this movie left me feeling even more unsatisfied than what the series offered and had me feeling confused with more unanswered questions. The problem with this movie is not only the ending but the writing and run time. It was dull, boring, dragged on too long and felt like a poorly written fanfiction. Nothing interesting happens and the action is lacking. What a waste of nearly 2 hours.

I'm all prepped to start FMA: Brotherhood on Hulu, but I have to get this review out of the way first. I wasn't expecting anything legendary when I started watching this movie, but I was relieved I didn't have to let the old series go right away. This movie is awesome! It has a bunch of things I liked about the FMA series (Mustang being awesome, Ed wisecracking during fight scenes, and HUGHES OMG), and combined it with new ideas (World War 2, for example). I would recommend it to EVERYONE who watched the FMA series. I realize people seemed to REALLY hate this movies's ending, but I was fine with it (I wasn't until Al came with him that I was really OK with it...). It gave me a sense of closure I didn't have before about the series. And I liked Noah a lot for some reason (am I the only one who noticed that she looked like rose??).9/10

FMA is a great anime (on par with Cowboy Bebop), which made the movie all that more of a letdown.. It wasn't bad; the animation is good and the story was okay, however the plot was severely lacking. After I finished watching the movie, my first impression was that someone had made an excellent movie, removed a fifth of it, and replaced it with fan service. The plot simply does not flow; there are a number of instances where plot devices are randomly introduced and just as quickly dropped (e.g. the spear of longinus), where the story progression seems horribly contrived (Ed's conversations with Fritz Lang-especially the talk about parallel worlds), and where important scenes have simply been removed without compensation (most obvious in the opening subplot-why is Ed wearing that shiny helmet?). My other major gripe is the fan service. A little fan service is OK, but this is ridiculous. All of the popular characters from the anime had cameos, regardless of whether or not they offered any significant contribution to the story. Rather, they are just dropped in for a couple of scenes, did their trademark thing, and left. This wouldn't be nearly so bad except for the fact that important scenes were probably sacrificed so old favorites could have a minute of screen time.That said, the movie is still entertaining. A lot of people disliked the ending, and while I don't think it was amazing, I believe it was consistent with the anime. My final recommendation: if you know nothing of FMA, watch the anime (which is far superior to the movie). If you've seen all 51 episodes, the movie is definitely worth watching, if for no other reason than that it significantly progresses the story.