I personally thought the movie was absolutely terrible. The only thing going for it is the soundtrack and the quality of the animation. Otherwise, it was just horrid.

Roy became a pathetic pirate who went up north to emo, Izumi is randomly dead, and bit characters appear with no explaination. Aka Alfons. The creation of a Mary-Sue pissed be off to no end, and that Ed suddenly forgets his three year mission to return home necause a gypsy with big boobies appears in a cart. Where did my EdxWinry go?! Equivalent Exchange was thrown out the window several times, and Roy, in a hot balloon, in the middle of a huge battle, shrapnel flying everywhere. That was just plain stupid! The emo-ing was toxic as well, and the end was the worst. He couldn't close it on the Amestrian side, noooooo. He had to go be emo. Oh well, thats what I get for watching season 2.

This is the reason we read the manga. Because it is SO much better.

And canon isn't killed.

Yay.....

Equivalent Exchange was thrown out the window several times
YES that was disturbing me, too !!! It just seemed that EVERYONE could travel through the gate as they wanted to, wtf ?? -_-;

This is the reason we read the manga. Because it is SO much better.
Really ? A lot of people said that the manga is not good at all ?!?
Guess I have to see for myself :)

I personally disliked the movie, and already knew that I would before I watched it. I simply didn't like the illogical twists at the end of the series, and those little illogical things carried over to the movie plot. I lost all faith in BONES and I still think they completely pulled the alternate universe out of their ass. I just watched it because I'm a huge FMA fan, and couldn't pass it up.

...I think it felt like one long, badly-written fanfiction (as anime movies are apt to). All the character-based humor, political intrigue, philosophy, etc, etc, was dumbed down and kind of silly, IMHO.

I have extreme opinions about it too, if you couldn't tell XDDD

they completely pulled the alternate universe out of their ass.
Yeah kind of .... what´s also getting on my nerves is that there is a double of EVERYONE ... they didn´t have to do it x___X ok, sometimes it´s funny ...

Hm, the movie has it good points, too, I think :) BUT over all you are right ! I personally consider the end of the anime series as the ONE and ONLY end there is !

XDD~

Personally, I thought it was all very deep and metaphorical that our world was all ugly and washed out. I was talking with my friends about a movie about the Holocuast in History, and they had this one scene of a school (which is still there today) in color. We were all like "whoa, you don't think about that times being in bright colors like that. You think of it as washed-out black and white." If you really think about, this world is incredibly boring, especially in the comparison to the Alchemy world.

Also, the OVA with Ed's grandkids, everything is all bright and in nice color then, so I guess the world isn't so dream-like by that time (Ed was turning 100 for goodness' sakes, he'd better be used to our world by then).

On another note, Al actually does need a circle. If you look carefully, you'll see that he's got the alchemy circles sewn on the palm of his gloves.

It was all very sad and all at the end, but I'd rather have them stay home. There's no alchemy in the other world so, they wouldn't be able to use the gate anyway, if you destroyed it from the alchemy side, right? On another note, I just can't see what they'd do with themselves now. Okay, go get rid of the bomb. Yeah. Then what? Try to find Ed some real arms? And how do you do that? Rip 'em off someone else and sew 'em on? Soo... Yeah. Ed better take extra special care of the automail Winry gave him, otherwise he'll be like before (which wasn't half-bad, actually, it was all flesh-colored and worked pretty well).

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention. Where the hell did all the Equivilant Exchange go? I seriously doubt that Wrath could get all those people through. Or was Gluttony used, too? And I have some questions on how the armor (when it first appeared in Lior(?)) was magically able to move, despite it's people inside being crushed to death?

i actually liked the movie ^_^!! i admit i wanted ed and al to stay in there world *b/c im a huge edxwinry fan* but im also kool with the EdxNoah pairing as well XD!!!!

Ed and Noah ??? *urg* >_> ... I don´t know about that, besides I don´t think Ed likes her THAT much, especially after what happend o__O;;
YES it´s GREAT that Ed x Al are together again, but not in OUR world pleaseee~ -.-;;

Only good thing about the movie was seeing the characters again...
meh, the movie was such a let down, i remember hearing that when it was released it was released at the same time as the naruto movie and that the naruto movie did better and i was like 'no wai' fullmetal alchemist kicks narutos ass! but now..i see why it did :(

I think ed and al shouldve stayed in their world and noah and her people shouldve destroyed the gate on the other side or something like that ;_;

i wanted roy and ed to be together!! (cough not a yaoi fangirl cough) i wanted all the characters to be together, ed and al back in auntie pinakos and roy and armstrong etc coming to visit them, it'd have been so nice! ;_;

The problem might be that the FMA anime series was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO great, that it was probably HARD to outreach that :/ ... but still I´m not satisfied :/ ... but NOW I´m really afraid of a second season x___X THAT would be horrible !

Yeah, but a series like FMA can´t have an overall happy end I guess ... but I hate the end not because it´s not THAT happy, but because it´s so definite ;__; ....

YES !!! ;___; .... *transmutes the anime series and the movie into one* XD That should fix it XD

The movie, for me, was good. It wasn't what I was hoping for, but it was a good close. I liek how our world was prtrayed! ^_~

I liek how our world was prtrayed! ^_~
But would you want to live in SUCH a world (ok we LIVE in that world, but you know what I mean XD)

I just watched the movie the day before yesterday, after having it on my comp for months. I had heard it sucked, and I really was afraid to watch it and be disappointed (again, like after the end of the anime). So due to this, when I finally watched it, I went into it with the mindset that it would br TOTAL CRAP, and I just watched it as if it were some fanfiction, really.

And to be honest, it was b/c of this mindset that the movie ended up being better than I expected. I liked the movie...until the end.

I watched the movie at first. I wasn't terribly inpressed, but I liked it. As it went on, I started ot get into it. It was actaully kind cool to see the charcters' counterparts in the real world. Adn as it started ot get closer to the end, I really wanted to see what was gonna happen. And I have to say, one of my favorite quotes is the one Alphonse H. says to Ed as he's about to leave in that jet-like-thing. It just caught me off guard, and I have to say, my opinion of the movie went up A LOT.

And then Ed finally gets to go back. And that's when it gets crappy.
That reunion between Ed, Al, and Winry is the most ANTICLIMATIC reunion EVER. So, yeah, we get a little EdWin with the hug, but Ed doesn;t return it. An dyou would think that the big build up, the final reunion between the brothers, would be the biggest thing in the series. Hugging, crying, who knows what. But no. They just say crap to each other and smile, and then AL runs off.
WTF.
Then the movie becomes so ilogical and incohenrent I can no longer just brush it off. It starts to get to me. But I keep watching becuase I got that far, and I was gonna finish.
I almost wish I hadn't.

The ending was disappointing. It was so bad that it tainted my view of the rest of the movie. Without the last (hmmm...let's say) 20 minutes of the movie, it would have been pretty good. If it had just ended when Ed got back home, it would have been REALLY good, even great. But it just had to end that way. Ed and AL were together, but not at home, and they pretty muchy gave up on th eidea of trying to get back home. Since when were thye ever like that? When would they ever give up? It made no sense to me that Ed even went back to "our" world. And what about WINRY?! *sigh*

And then there's Roy. He was so depressed, it upset me. He would just come up on the screen with those dead eyes, and I'd just feel icky inside. And what about Riza? Wasn't she taking care of him? Why would they spilt? And you only see Riza in the movie for, like, 15 minutes, if that. They should have had more time together.

At any rate, I can't really say the movie sucked. I enjoyed what I could of it, and that was a lot. In fact, if I really think about it, my impression of it was like my impression of the whole series wrapped up in 1.5 hours. Okay at first, then it gets better, then it's really good just before the end, and then....it turns to utter crap that destroys my mind.
If only the ending hadn't been so bad, I would have called it a great ending to the series. But now,...*sigh*

At any rate, I know I'm bellowing and complaining about it, but I wouldn't tell anyone not to watch it. It's watchable, at least.

And personally, I though that NoahxAlphonse was the pairing that jumped out at me. Ed seemed to be so absorbed with going home, he didn't want to hook up with anyone.

Ed and AL were together, but not at home, and they pretty muchy gave up on th eidea of trying to get back home. Since when were thye ever like that? When would they ever give up?
YES so true !!! I thougth that too, but I was too depressed back then, so I gave it up XD ... Just what were they thinking when they made this movie ?? OK you´re right it is absolutely watchable ... but ... ARGH !!

At least they should have made it appear in another kind of dimension .. so that we don´t have to consider the movie as the continuation of the anime series, but as just something that could POSSIBLY happen in another dimension ... -_-

Overall after reading the Manga I really don't like the series that much in compairison because different concepts are really explained all that fantastically. Considering all that they actually did a pretty good job with the movie and attempting to bridge the giant information gap that was left from the end of the series.

Now in response to the germany thing, the entire series has a TON of WW1 WW2 Germany themes running through it. Mustang's group of officers were all named after WW2 fighter planes. Even the word Fuerer(sp?) is a common term from that era in Germany. It is actually really fitting that they put the movie in it because if it were any earlier it would be difficult to pull off some of the things like attempting to actually attack Amestris and if it were any sooner there would be no way in hell Edward would be accepted so easily blonde hair'd or not.

And just the way "we" were portrayed as being spiteful and everything was actually really well done because thats how people were back then. It was extremely rare that you married someone from another country or another religion so it made sense that there would be that much hostility around that time.

And just WOW at Hughes being a member of the nazi party, I was a little concerned when I first found out about that one before seeing the movie, but I think the way they did it made alot of sense. Back when it first started it is easy to see how its possible someone like Hughes could get caught up in something like that because it was an idea, a movement to regain control of a country that was doing very poorly after WW1. So in its infancy one could consider joining to be the "right thing to do" when in hide sight how out of control that movement would get is so obvious that one would probably have shot Hitler down before he finished his first speech.

And its actually better than Ed and Al end up on "our side" of the gate instead Roy or anyone else because anyone else would be too attached to Amestris and Ed and Al really did not have a home to speek of in Amestris or "our" world. Sure there were people like Winry but that really wouldn't follow the point that was trying to be made when they burned their house down at the beginning of the series.

Yup that's just my very extended 2 cents on the whole thing.

Hm, your thoughts are very interesting !!
You could look at it that way, too. And you might be right, that at least Ed has no regrets by leaving his world behind. Furthermore he´s kind of used to our world already, no ? And the only thing he dreamed of the whole time was his bro .. ok and Winry ... so perhaps it´s really ok for him to stay in OUR world. But what´s with Al ? Ok, his most important wish is to be together wis his bro .... but I don´t think that he will be happy for the rest of his life in OUR world unless he and his brother will find a new task, a new goal to reach ... and THERE´s no clue in the movie ... so do both of them really give up ? Or is it just for now, because they´re still shocked about what happend to their world ? ... AAHH -____-; My head hurts XD

In response to the Nazi Germany thing.

Think about it. In the FMA world, the government is very similar to Nazi Germany. I'm not saying that Bradley = Hitler, but there are some similarities between them. In particular, the title of 'furher' and the annilation of an entire race. Sure, Hitler may not be a homonculous, but I feel that was the parellel that they were trying to draw.

And the movie/end of series just sucked ass. I perfer the comic book verison better. Shame it isn't in colour. *goes to read more Vertigo titles*

Really ? You´re the second person mentioning that. I´ve never realized it o__O; ... but you MIGHT be right. But nevertheless it was not SO obvious in the anime series then. But in the movie it was OF COURSE obvious and thus it was getting on my nerves ^^;;;

ARGH I so have to read the manga ;___; Why isn´t it released in Germany ? That´s unfair :/ ... *grabs some scanlations* x_X

I went into the movie with the mindset: "It's an AU fanfic, with funding."
And, well... With that mindset, it turned out to be pretty good. (Because more than half the stuff that happened in that movie didn't make any sense, canonly.)
Alas... My only real hope is in the manga. (I started reading the manga before I started watching the anime, so I'm biased. But... I recommend reading it, anyway.)

Yeah, I WILL read the manga, regardless of what other people may say about it ^-^;;
Well, that was a problem, too, I guess: I DID have high expectations concerning the movie, so no wonder I was disappointed :/

As for your thought about the armor Al being left over in the gate; didn't you pay attention to what Al said? That he attatches a small part of his soul to the armor to move it; and since he'd left one of the amors that resembled him to cross the gate, it worked sort of like remote control. Not very sensical, but kinda cool.

I personally am fine with both endings, but I'm not that hard to appease either. At the very least, it wasn't predictable. I could have seen a "Ed goes home and hugs ever'one and marries Winry and HAPPILY EVER AFTER!" from a mile away. But with the Nazis and the excessive gatecrossing and the twists and the biterweet ending of leaving everything behind; it at least keeps interest with a 'wtf' factor.

I guess FMA will get a legacy kind of like EVA. Among the elitists, they will have fun bashing it for being nonsensical and having so many loyal fans. They will have fans who hated and didn't understand the ending. They will have fans who hated the ending, and hated the movie more. They'll have the few rare fans who will say 'Know what? I liked the ending. Screw you!'

Come to think about it; it's disturbingly parallel. The plot holes and trippy twists in the last few episodes; the movie with the 'real' ending, that starts out with that intent, and goes all 'wtf-ness' all over again, and the fans who become bitter over the fact that it didn't end like they wanted it to.

That was not what I meant ! Why was there an armor looking like Al´s OLD armor to begin with ? This armor was fighting in Lior BEFORE Al got there ! So I thought this armor probably landed in OUR world when Al got his original body back in the series or so. x___X

Ed goes home and hugs ever'one and marries Winry and HAPPILY EVER AFTER!"
That wouldn´t fit to FMA, right ? FMA is no happy-go-lucky series, there is so much pain, death and whatnot !
So, I absolutely agree with you: It´s better to have THIS end than a total HAPPY END ! But it´s still feels very dissatisfying~

Well, I was fine with the ANIME end, THAT´S what´s pissing me off x___X;;;

I guess FMA will get a legacy kind of like EVA.
True, I personally like FMA more. NGE was too abstract for my taste.

i read your earlier summary, and i wanted to rant along with you, but i couldn't until you'd seen the movie! ^.^"

to begin with, the anime's logic is TERRIBLE. there are plot holes a tank would get stuck in. my personal belief is it breaks down right at the point where "homunculi are created when a human transmutation fails". once they came up with that, they had to create a huuuuu~uge uncessary additon containing dante and so forth.

but ignoring that.....

i was TOTALLY lost at the beginning, where ed + al were like they were at the beginning of the series. like, WTF mate?! WHY is al in armor, and WHY is ed with him?! and whats this with someone inventing a bomb?

HOW did ed find an alter!al? i mean WHAT was the probablility of that. and it may have been the subbed version that i was watching, but WHY was ed hanging around heidrich? WHAT was ed doing to bring in monies, eh? he obviously wasn't helping with the rockets at all.

and Noah who may-or-may-not have been alter!rose......was totally random. alchemy, sure. it was originally regarded as a science, and in FMA its a science. but telepathy!?! whoa, where'd that come from, eh? add to that a Mary-sue wimpy personality... *whiney wimp voice* TAKE ME WITH YOUUUU ED I AM YOUR ONE TRUE LUVVVARRRR~

As far as BONES was concered, equivalent exchange could kiss thier ass and mop thier floors and it STILL would end up ignored.

as for REAL Al.... HOW do you break up your soul and attach only PART of it to ANYTHING?!? that can't be healthy. where did he learn this? the gate? becuase he definitely said he DIDN'T remember the gate, thus he CAN'T have learned it there. and creating whirlwinds and huge fountains in the desert is pure bs. although, at least he had transmutation circles on his hands, so it LOOKED like he was doing ed's "clappy thing" ^.~ he wasn't really. (hopeless hero worship is kinda adorable, you gotta admit)

roy....WHOA! where did my dead sexy devil-may-care reach-the-top-and-fix-everything Colonel Roy Mustang go? he turned into a total angstpit, thats what! he survived ishbal, and he managed to move on with Maes help. you'd think that he'd either a)keep moving on in maes' memory or b)hawkeye would shoot his ass up and tell him to stfu and go do something useful. instead, he goes out into the middle of nowhere, and then INSTANTLY TELEPORTS HIMSELF back into central at the key moment. nice to see the attention whore part of him is alive and kicking. movie!roy can go slit his wrists, dark_delusions wants anime! or even better manga!roy back.

Finally, Ed and Al return to our world..whut? no. no. no. please..no. T.T ed and al can do so much more for THIER world, they have people who care tons for them, not just some loser mary-sue. they can't do alchemy over here, so they're just normal people. i mean honestly ed would NEVER be like "oh. hey al. nice fighting for 5 seconds next to you. give my love to everyone. kthnxbye."

This isn't even getting into Nazi!Hughes, the gate, envy, the other illogicities, the Thule society and everything else.

Summary: WHERE'D MY LOVELY YUMMY FMA-STYLE CRACK GO, EH? that was good stuff! The charachters were a bit odd, the plot holes were the size of amestis and the entire thing was angst. However, it was FMA, it had lots of heart-wrenching goodness, you got to see al alive an well and there was plenty of eyecandy. I surrender. I liked it. (such a sucker for anything FMA, i admit it <3)

and if anyone ever bothers to read that entire thing, they get my everlasting pity and a consolation cookie

wow long ass thread.
but yeah I liked the movie. I didn't think it was fantastic but I didn't hate it.

Yeah I thought the same thing when I was getting back from university a while ago XD wtf? happened here XD~
Well, I´m happy for everyone who likes the movie, I wish I could, too :/ ...

I'unno, I kind of liked the ending, because equivalent exchange is just a theory, no? What with everything Hoho-papa was talking about souls from our world fueling transmutations, I think of it something like heat exchange: perfect in theory, but entrophy and friction still exist. You will always get less out of an exchange than you put in. So the fact that the Elric brothers were able to come back together again whole(almost), but at the cost of their alter!selves, the hope of ever returning home again, and ending up in pre WWII Germany as they are fits in with the anime logic. Not that "FMA anime logic" is an oxymoron or anything...

The rest...the rest could just not exist and I'd be perfectly happy. wtf? The movie was there to tie all the loose ends together, not create more. <_<;;;

Yeah it´s just a theory, not a fact. And both Dante and Hohenheim said there is NO eqivalent trade .... and they both lived for over 400 years ?!? Shouldn´t we at least believe a little BIT of what they´re saying ? ^^;;;

I think a lot of people are even more confused after they have seen the movie, nee ? -_-;

Well I'm going to deviate from what seems to be the norm here, and say that I liked the movie. I'll also go ahead and say I like the manga a whole lot better than the anime and the movie put together.
Then again, maybe the FMA movie just seems good to me because I'm used to (most) anime movies being atrocious (at least the ones based on a tv series). The Inu Yasha movies are seriously disappointing to a fan of the manga, and the 4th one is completely unwatchable.

I'll admit that there were huge plot holes, and I could've done without Emo Roy and Miss Mary Sue. (Especially without the Sue, since there are more than enough of them infesting fanfictions.)
I thought it was interesting to see what the other characters' alternate selves were doing on the Munich side of the gate, even if Hughes was a Nazi.
As for the "Why did they have to set it in pre-WWII Germany?" thing: Amestris is basically intended as an alternate Germany during that time period. Sorry if you don't like it, but it's true. Look at what they call their 'president' and how they treat the people of Ishbal.

Since I have a tendency to mis-word things, let me say that I don't mean to offend anyone or start a fight with this.

Amestris is basically intended as an alternate Germany during that time period. Sorry if you don't like it, but it's true.

It´s not that I don´t like it. I just REALLY never have realized that Amestris had so much similarities with WWII o___o;; .... Maybe because I wasn´t really paying attention at the military´s actions, but more what Al and Ed did .... and the Homunculus .. and so :/ ....

I didn't hate it so much as I found it pretty disappointing.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for happy endings, but still. I didn't like the ending very much.

When Ed finally found a way back I was so happy! I thought that him and Al would fight side by side and everyone would be together and happy - but then Ed went off again and Al followed. Now they're stuck in our world with no way of getting back. It's like the writers finished writing everything, then wrote the beginning of a new season and left it. It's just so incomplete!

It leaves you hanging, but you know that there's nothing after it. So it is a bit of a let down. But if they actually did make a new season or whatever, I honestly do not think I would like it. Because they are in our world now, Ed and Al will be the only characters I remember as everyone else is back in Amestris. It was the characters of Amestris that I fell in love with, not this new bunch of characters from Germany.

That's basically what I think. It was just, so imcomplete.

Nah, I feel pretty the same way as you do ;__;

The big question: why they put Nazis in the Movie?? How they can relate to FMA?

Come on. When i I first heard about the Fuhrer King Bradley, I thought inmediately in Nazis. Amestris is so Germany alike! :)

Well, it seems that I'm the only one who liked the movie...:D
I love when an anime has hystorical or mythological references...^^
Sure, I would have liked a better ending. But the movie's good for me ^^

Yeah, the movie is not total crap XD BUT there were some things that disturbed me ESPECIALLY the end x_x
I like hystorical animes only when they refer to something of the Japanese or Chinese history ^^;;

When I first watched the movie I loved it, but maybe that was just my fangirlishness kicking in and my inner fangirl screaming 'yay! theres still more FMA!'

But when I watched the movie again, I got to see what the big fuss was about.
Before I start rambling, I'd like point out that you said 'Al doesn´t need a circle anymore ? Well, I guess he´s transmuted his bro, so no wonder ....'
That isn't true. On the palms of Alphonse's gloves he has transmutation circles drawn, or on the inside of his gloves or something.

Anyway, the part that I was most 'WTF!?' about, was when Edward was fighting with the people trying to get the gypsy who was hiding in the cart. He says 'it wont work anyway etc' and does something fancy with his prostetic arm.
What the hell did he do!? He just seemed to fiddle around with some wires, sparks went everywhere, and then he proceeded to kick the stuffing out of the thugs. Unless of course I missed something when he was playing around with his arm, I have no idea what the point of all that dramatic talking and flailing of the prostetic arm was about.
Could someone tell me what the hell he did to it to make him so super-powered or whatever?

Another thing. A giant flying-warship-of-doom explodes out of the sky, shooting and exploding random things and so on...
And Roy goes after it in a hot air balloon.
I think that was the point where I started banging my head against the table.

The hitler thing came out of nowhere, but while most of you guys thought it was pointless and stupid, I thought it gave the movie an interesting twist. Like Hughes being a Nazi on the other side, I had no god-damn idea where that came from, but isn't that a good thing?
I mean, don't we all love stupid and unexpected twists?

(By the way, Nazi Hughes spying on Flower-lady Gracia was so cute! XD)

I loved the emotions the movie evoked. Roy was giving his standard does of angst (And suddenly appearing out of a snow pile, THAT was amusing) and the whole 'Ed you're back, YAY!' *ed and al hug* that made me squeal with joy, and then there was 'Ed you're going? no!' that had me close to tears, and THEN there was 'YAY! AL'S HERE! *more sibling hugging*

I was cheering near to that point, and the parentals were in the next room yelling at me to shut the hell up :P

So yeah, the movie had its flaws, but all in all i think it was a good way to end the series or continue it or whatever :P
It does also leave it open for many fanfictions/fanart etc about different ways the Elric bro's could return to Amestris.

Okay, my rant is done now ^_^

Oh and human Al and older Ed? OMFG YUM. >.<

Oh and human Al and older Ed? OMFG YUM.
HELL YEAH so true <3333

That isn't true. On the palms of Alphonse's gloves he has transmutation circles drawn, or on the inside of his gloves or something.
Yeah someone else here told me that :/ BUT for some reason I think it´s better this way, so Ed is the ONLY one alive who can transmute things without a circle right ? ... well ... if he WERE in HIS own world that is ;__; ...

*hugs both the bros too* ^-^

Just got done rewatching the movie with a friend who had never seen it before, and I think I liked it even *less* than the first time. Equivalent exchange went *out the window* entirely, along with any sense of Amestris geography. Apparently, you can now get from Liore or Dublith to Risemboul as quickly as if you were going to the corner 711 for a loaf of bread. And please, do NOT get me started on the OOCness of both Emo!Roy and Human!Al!Ignoring Ed. (With all the love between Ed and Al in the series, all the sacrifices they made for each other, that reunion scene made me want to smack whoever wrote it). Oh, and what about Instant!Automatil Surgery and Winry *instictively* knowing *exactly* how tall Ed would be??? WTF??? In short, a HUGE disappointment, and the members of the fandom who want to consider it an AU are more than justitfied.

Hn~ so I think most of us would agree and say it would be WAY better if there won´t be a second season or PLEASE NOT a second movie x____X .... because we all expect the worst now :/ <- and that is justified, too -_-;

Overall, I thought the movie had some good ideas, but then it went and totally ruined them by drowning them in plotholes.
I won't comment on the Mary Sue, since I'm sure you got the idea, but MAN she was annoying.
They never did explain why Ed was wearing a lightbulb on his head at the beginning.
Personally, I think the series should be called 'How to Ruin Ed's Live in Fifty-One Episodes', and the movie should be called 'How to Ruin All the Characters' Lives in One Movie'. They could really give the angst a bit of a rest.

As movies go, it's not that it was bad. Let me make this clear- I love FMA, and I'm not here to say this movie was stupid and horrible and bash it into next week.
Ok, fine, so maybe I do want to bash it into next week.

It would've been ok, if only all the chars hadn't sacrificed their brains to the Gate somewhere around eps 40, and have never been the same since. It would've also been better if the population of Amestris hadn't mysteriously dwindled to about ten people, and the number of alchemists in the country dropped to exactly three ('cause Ed is stuck in the alter-world).

Fine, so they open the Gate, blah blah. I can live with that. Nevermind that Envy was acting like an idiot, for the three seconds approximately that he got to do what he wanted. Honestly...

The spaceship things. Give me a break. They didn't have that kind of aircraft in WWII! And what do the oh-so-intelligent Amestrians do when confronted with it? They shoot with guns. Yeah, that's gonna be reeeal helpful against airplanes. What happened to their cannons? Tanks? For that matter, why is the Amestris military suddenly composed of Roy's ex-unit and not much else?

And then we have the three alchemists, fighting so bravely and ineffectively against a bunch of planes. Because nevermind that we've seen that the Amestris military had hundreds of alchemists, the only ones left now are Al, Roy, and Armstrong, none of whom even consider transmuting something like rockets, cannons, airplanes, or just frickin sacrificing the idiots to a Philosopher's Stone. Or maybe pulling a Scar on them.
Nope, we're gonna do this the hard way.

Why is Amestris losing to Germany, anyway? Hello, alchemy? Why did they suddenly turn into a bunch of wimps?

Then Ed appears to save the day! Yay! And he promptly makes Al feel horrible about what he did! Great going!
And they didn't even hug each other, dammit!
Then we also discover that despite the fact that Ed spent about six years on crap fake-automail, he can still do backflips with the best of them and doesn't seem to be out of practice at all. 6_6 right.
Now there are FOUR alchemists fighting Stupid Lady. Lucky Amestris. Central gets trashed.

But now we're in trouble, because the Gate is still open!
ED: "Pick me! Pick me! I'll sacrifice myself! yeah!"
But if we just close up the Amestris side, nobody can get through-
ED: "No no, I have to sacrifice myself and be miserable!"
How about we drop a bomb through the Gate to blow up the other side, and then close it from this end-
ED: "That won't work, 'cause I can't be miserable then!"
Ok, so maybe somebody else in this huge country can go through with a bomb, maybe somebody who's fatally ill or something-
ED: "But I have to sacrifice myself!"
Fine. Ed goes through, plants a time-bomb, and goes back-
ED: "Let me frickin sacrifice myself already! Why are you making suggestions that demand stopping and thinking for goodness' sake?!

One thing I actually really did like was Alfons Heidrich. I thought he was a really interesting character (potentially, at least, since they don't bother telling us much about him at all). And I also found his and Ed's interaction interesting- they had a very bittersweet sort of relationship. I mean, the idea of Ed just...following him home or something 'cause he looks so much like Al (especially when Ed's so depressed in the alter-world), really appealed to me. I thought it was very sweet. I wish they hadn't killed him - he was the most successful of the 'invented' characters from the movie, in my opinion.

On one hand, I can see where all the people who say that it's good it wasn't just another kitchy ending are coming from. But I think after the complete and utter angst of the whole series, they could have given it a rest. I didn't really like the ending of the series, but I liked the ending of the movie even less. I'm now praying for the manga. (and btw, I second all the people who told you to read it- it's probably the very best manga I've ever read, and I've read loads of manga, and WAY better than the anime)

I utterly agree with everybody who complained about characterization, 'cause they were all acting ridiculous. It would probably take me several pages to complain about everything that was wrong with the movie, and if a bunch of fans got together we could probably make a full-length movie about everything that was wrong with that movie.

The animation was very good. I have to give them that.

...as you can see, this issue has been bothering me for a while.
Sorry for writing such a long post -_-U

Hn~ there was something crossing my mind after watching some FMA amvs.
You all (and me too) complain about the fact, that there is no HUGE hugging scene when Al and Ed get back together right ?
But ! Al meets Ed before that, when he´s transmuted a small part of his soul into his old armor (yes yes I know x_X) .... Al hugs his brother very happily !!!! Well ok Ed is very shocked XD but I guess that´s not THAT bad !
And when they finally meat from 'person' to 'person' it´s not the FIRST time plus they have OTHER problems right at that moment ... and when Winry hugged him .. well I guess he was very shocked and embarassed and ... yeah ... come on ED is a MAN ! XD

I could write a ten page rant about all the things that are wrong in the movie. But well, I don't see any point in that. ^^; I never felt too dissappointed even though it wasn't a very satisfying ending.

Mostly I was just WTF during the first time I watched it. :p There were three scenes that got a special reaction from me:
1: The Reunion. So frustratingly cold. .__o
2: When Ed said he'd return to our world. You know why.
3: When Al appeared from inside the armor. I was so relieved that I laughed. Aw.

Still I sort of liked it. At least I like watching it over and over again. It's beautiful (I like those subdued colours in our world). The music is beautiful, the mood (well at least in the first half) is kind of peaceful and melancholic. I think every time I watch the movie I just separate it from FMA all together and pretend that it's just a random film about random characters that I know nothing of beforehand. It doesn't make the plot much better but I won't be as frustrated about it. ^^;

The movie just wasn't right for FMA but it's still somehow nice to watch. In a "oo, pretty pictures~ ^__^"-kind of way. But as a sequel to the FMA anime it wasn't good. That's what I think about it.

About nazis... I know all the stuff about Amestris being a bit like Germany at that time (all though I don't think it's that obvious) but nazis and WWII are still an overused subject. x_X The good thing about it was that it wasn't about WWII but long before that. That's because you are not told much about that at school. The movie inspired me to research that time and I found that most of the historical stuff was actually correct; even the Thule Society existed. There was so much I hadn't heard about. o_O And since I like history I was pretty excited.

But I still think the whole thing has the sort of "our hero is so cool he even fights the nazis!!!1" ring to it. x__X Honestly, people, get over the nazi -thing already. There are other "EVIL" organisations and movements in the world too. And by this I don't mean to belittle the horrors of nazism or fasism in general. It just become a symbol of evilness somehow... I suppose it's because the winners write the history books as they say...

Of course the movie is made for Japanese people to whom the topic might actually be more alien. The way we don't know much about Japan's history.

All right, I have to add one thing that annoys me since no one has mentioned it: Since when can anybody do alchemy just by going to Amestris' world? Why the hell this psychotic woman can do all this badass alchemy without having studied it at all? -__- That's one thing I just can't accept even when I'm ignoring most of the plotholes.

The movie just wasn't right for FMA but it's still somehow nice to watch. In a "oo, pretty pictures~ ^__^"-kind of way. But as a sequel to the FMA anime it wasn't good. That's what I think about it.
Hn~ I guess that´s pretty the same way I think, too ^^;;;

but nazis and WWII are still an overused subject. x_X
*nods* x____X;;

I found that most of the historical stuff was actually correct; even the Thule Society existed.
Really ? That´s great ! I didn´t know about that ^^;; *feels ashamed* x_x

Of course the movie is made for Japanese people to whom the topic might actually be more alien. The way we don't know much about Japan's history.
Yeah I guess that´s true ! And for some reason Japanese people seem to like Germany very much o___O *still don´t get it* XD~
So it´s always CUTE to see a German sign somewhere or hear charas even SPEAK German XD

All right, I have to add one thing that annoys me since no one has mentioned it: Since when can anybody do alchemy just by going to Amestris' world? Why the hell this psychotic woman can do all this badass alchemy without having studied it at all?
Ah yes o____O; .... I haven´t paid attention to this at all o___o; ... That´s really stupid !! ARGH -____-; ...
Well, of course, when people start to be able to travel through the gate without problems why not give them 'super powers', too ?? ... -___-;;

Just a thought, but it´s really interesting, that NOONE complained about the age difference between Ed and Al ^^;
Ed is 18 and Al 13 in the movie o__O;; ....