Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Review Rating: 7

The Elric Brothers are back, with a whole bunch of their friends, to free the Milos people from their years of Amestris-governed oppression and prevent more forbidden magics!

If you haven’t seen the second series of FMA, that is to say Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, then you really ought to not watch this film. Based on FMA: B storylines, Sacred Star of Milos is drawn in a very different fashion from the rest of the FMA cartoons, and is therefore even more odd to watch if you’re simply a fan of the original series. The storylines themselves happen to be rather similar too – alchemists with different magics are being oppressed by Amestris government control, and are willing to do anything at all, including using those really nasty Philosopher’s Stones, to accomplish their goals. However to get to that point, one needs to sit through replays of Julia’s past, the deaths of her parents and brother apparently, and a lot of other heartbreak and pain and awesome action sequences. Commander Roy Mustang and his adjutant Riza Hawkeye join the hunt for the escaped prisoner, only to be sucked into this whole mess of an ancient city underneath the city being ground into dust.

The movie certainly doesn’t work as a stand-alone, and it would help if you were familiar with FMA: B storylines recently to remind you of geography and such. But visually, the film is stunning. Towards the end when the final steps to that huge Philosopher’s Stone are being laid, I heard the theater go quiet in awe. It does come in both subtitled and dubbed flavors, personally I’m a purist and gladly saw it subbed. I don’t want to give the ending away, other than to say that while I did enjoy it, I saw the ending coming. But then, I’ve watched far too much Anime. The film is a bit of a side jaunt from what you normally expect of the Elric Brothers, at least visually, but character-wise they’re still all the same wise-cracking alchemist nuts. Funimation wins again!