Better Late Then Never

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

There are massive spoilers ahead for the show, if you haven't seen it - I would suggest watching it, it's probably the first 10/10 I've given a show in years, I'll also say you probably will be extremely lost in this review regardless. Well, if you're like me and thought the ending of after about 15 hours of the show ended terribly with Alphonse looking for a way to bring his brother back from beyond the gate, learning nothing from his entire experiences on the show because they wiped his memories and having one of the best sibling relationships ever conveyed in a TV Show ending with them separated across worlds and Edward still having a prosthetic leg and arm that looks too advanced for the technology back then and asking no questions about it at all among many other things. Here, this is the ending for those that pretty much said "WHAT THE F#CK!!!!!" to it, I'll say the ending in general is passable but underwhelming.Edward casually tells our world's version of Alphonse (I'll get to that later) about his exploits across the gate and ensures that yes, it was where he came from. When going to a carnival Edward saves a psychic gypsy from the ever-growing Nazi's but the Nazi's go full-on comic book super-villain when they decide to walk through to the world Edward is from to conquer it and bring back whatever weaponry they have so the Nazi's can take over the world. Meanwhile Alphonse (as in Edward's brother) is a trained alchemist looking for a way to get through to the other side of the gate to get Edward back.Okay, the story is very convoluted and... well, dare I say terrible? I'd say this is passable if you're a fan of the show but if you haven't seen the hours and hours and hours of the 2003 show beforehand, this would be about as easy to follow as a moth in a snowstorm. I'll also say that the whole other versions of the same character in the show popping up makes no sense to me. It just seems like service to the fans to say "Hughes is in this, and so is Edward and Al's mom, Alphonse and pretty much every character that dies makes an appearance in this movie." I'll say seeing the relatively minor characters make an appearance is very good because it gives a much better moment of closure than the show did. I also might not call the real world counterparts service to the fans because the dead characters seemingly have the opposite personalities that are in the show and they do NOTHING with it! And while I'm on the subject I don't really like the new ending of "They're in pre WWII Germany hanging out with gypsies but at least they're together"... To me that is not satisfying.Onto the compliments, the animation is much better here than at any other point in the show, it looks so good. The same with the voice acting as well, it's basically top notch. I'll also say if you are a fan of the show like I am than there are moments of drama in here that work so well. I love the scene where Edward says he has to pilot the Nazi-zombie spaceships (no... really, I said I don't like this movie's plot!) back through to the real world and destroy the portal from that side is really well done seeing Alphonse's reaction to it. If you think too hard about scenes like that however, it doesn't really work (especially considering Edward was the only one who could open the damn portal from that side! Whoops!).So... If you're a fan of the show this is a step down. I will say because of my love for the show and it ending in a way that was less awful than the show itself, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. I am glad I saw it but hearing the fan community be polarized on this movie is hardly surprising to me. I can see why some people don't like it but for me, I actually do.

I absolutely love the anime series! Everything about the series was awesome. I needed something to watch so I decided to pick it up one day and I love it. Its got a great story, excellent characters, character development, and the animation is awesome. I recommend it to anyone that likes anime or if you are just looking for something to watch.Now....when I finished the series I just had to know what happened next! So I paid 5 extra bucks on shipping and handling to get the movie faster.....it wasn't worth the 5 extra bucks...I don't really want to ruin anything for people that haven't seen it. The story line was only okay. it seemed like it was missing something though. Like some of the characters weren't right and the relationships didn't seem right or something. I guess I expected better reunions and stuff and like some stuff seemed like it was just thrown in there. I didn't like how Al stole Eds original look either. ANd they should have had more of Mustang, Winry, and some other the other characters. i don't know. And they also used CGI in with the drawing. I personally don't like when they use the computer stuff with the normal anime. If you know what I mean. I didn't like the ending either. Its not the way I would have ended it at least. Ed and Al should have ended up in their side of the gate. And Ed should have ended up with Winry.Its not like super terrible though. There were some good fight scenes and still the good animation(except for the CGI stuff). Edwards look is cool and he looks older. It was disappointing I guess is the way to sum it up. The series was just so awesome that I expected so much from the movie and it was just a letdown. Not the ending I wanted :( But you should see it and form your own opinion.

This movie was good, but it wasn't the best to end up the amazing FMA series. This movie had many plot holes, and if you watch it throughly you will understand what I am talking about.Good overall, animation was good, characters were good, and I absolutely LOVE the way they put it in our actual history and include the holocaust, and how they included an animated Hitler. It was a very good way to reference to the disaster.But every good movie I believe must have some horrible or bad part and something to criticize it. LIke for example, read the name of this comment. The ending. A very cliff hanger ending, left you hanging there. Al was being stupid and went with Edward across the gate. What will the people think in the alchemist world of him? A plot hole occurs doing the ending, how they both mention about trying to destroy the gate, but they cant use alchemy in our world, so why bother? Just stay in your world and destroy the portal.Many things like that did not make sense to me at all, and kinda left me at a angry state. The creators COULD of made this better, and could of made the story a little bit better, with fewer plot holes and more explaining.But good movie overall. Dosen't deserve anything higher than a 7/10.

Conquerer of Shamballa shows what happens when creators of an Anime fail to understand what their fans want. I as a fan did not want a 1920's Evil Nazi movie. What I would have liked to see is a real final showdown between Ed and Dante, as we don't REALLY know what became of her. I also would have liked to get Ed back to his world much sooner and have him stay there, to finally get a chance to be normal. You know, raise a family with a certain blonde mechanic, that sort of thing. No, instead I got a convoluted plot involving Nazi mystics, Fritz Lang and about ten minutes of Al, a joke of a Cameo by Roy Mustang and only one Armstrong joke, one short joke and no Winry hitting Ed with a wrench. Above all, it just didn't feel like Fullmetal Alchemist to me.