Netflix’s Live-Action ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’ Movie Is Fun, But Lacks The Emotional Depth Of The Original

If you love anime and are in the mood for a bit of a streaming gamble, I have news for you. The live action version of Fullmetal Alchemist has just hit Netflix. Directed by Fumihiko Sori and starring Ryosuke Yamada, the film attempts to condense a 27 volume manga epic into roughly two hours with mixed results. The 2017 version of Fullmetal Alchemist runs through a lot of plot in a short amount of time. However, fans of the original manga and anime should find some things to love in this adaptation.

There’s a reason why Fullmetal Alchemist has had such a loyal and devoted fan base for so long — it’s a hauntingly great story. Written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa, the property is set in an alternate version of 1910s Europe where alchemy, the science of turning base metals into gold, is both popular and practiced by its population. Arakawa’s story follows the young Elric brothers, two gifted alchemists who are forced to learn and relearn the meaning of the word “grief” after their mother dies and they attempt to bring her back to life. In the process, Ed loses an arm and a leg, and Al loses his entire body. In their quest to right what they wronged, they’re forced to take sides in a war, learn more about the darkness in their world than they ever wanted to know, and ultimately help to overthrow their government.

Pacing is a problem that most anime adaptations struggle with, and this movie is no different. It’s just hard to fit volumes of a manga and hours of an anime into a typical movie run time.  The original Fullmetal Alchemist stands as a fast-paced and deeply emotional story about loss, responsibility, growing up, brotherhood, and the true value of life. There are notes of all those things in Sori’s adaptation, but the live action movie seems so focused on perfectly translating the big moments from its source material, it often forgets about the larger themes at play underneath Ed’s epic fights. Still, there are merits to the live-action version. The CGI sequences are cool, bridging the gap between serious takes on movie monsters and anime, and Ryosuke Yamada makes for a great, fiery Ed. If you’re a fan of the franchise, it’s worth checking out. It’s a watch that pales in comparison to the original, but Fullmetal Alchemist makes for such a good story, even a bad version of it has weight. However, if you’ve never seen FMA before, don’t start with this.

Stream Fullmetal Alchemist (2017) on Netflix