Fullmetal Alchemist Comparative

First off: yes, I know Fullmetal Alchemist is a TV series, not a movie, but there are movies made of it, and I want to talk about it so that's enough of a link for me to post it on this blog.  For those who don't know, Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are two TV series based off of the same series of graphic novels.  Fullmetal Alchemist was the first TV series and the graphic novels were still being written when the series was made so after more or less following the books in the first season of the show, Fullmetal Alchemist radically changed it's second season.  It had an entirely different villain, changing entire character arcs, and basically changing the entire story of the show.  After the first series became incredibly popular, the powers that be decided to make a second series, the graphic novels having now been finished, that followed the story of said graphic novels exactly, albeit slightly more sped up: the result was Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.  Brotherhood was also an incredibly good anime series, and with the raving fandom already following it, the budget for Brotherhood was drastically larger than for the original series.  So which is better?

For those who don't know, the basic story of Fullmetal Alchemist is this: two young brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, live in a world where a science called alchemy is the main area of scientific research.  Alchemy allows a person who understand matter to break things down and reconstruct them as something else by drawing a transmutation circle (it's an anime, so it has fantastical "magic" elements).  A transmutation may be anything from converting a tree into a wooden sled, snow into ice blocks, a steel rod into a sword, and so on and so forth.  However, alchemy has rules, the most important being equivalent exchange, you cannot gain something without losing something of equal value: in order to make that sled you must have all the wood necessary from the tree, the ice block may only consist of the water in the snow.  The story starts when the two brothers father, who is a genius at alchemy, disappears and they live with their mother for a few years, but their mother contracts a terrible disease and dies when the boys are only ten and eleven years old (Edward being one year older than Alphonse).  The boys, who were already naturally gifted at alchemy, find a teacher to study serious alchemy, the true science behind it.

After several years of study and training the boys attempt to bring their mother back to life with alchemy, using all of the elements that exist in the human body, as well as a drop of their blood each in exchange for their mothers soul.  But, the transmutation backfires and Edward's leg is taken as payment and Alphonse's whole body is taken.  In a desperate attempt to save the life of his brother, Edward uses his arm as payment to pull his brother's soul back from the gate to the afterlife, before it crossed over, and attach it to a suit of armor.  A year later, after Ed has been fitted with mechanical limbs to replace his lost arm and leg, he joins the ranks of the State Alchemists: militant soldiers and researches who are all incredibly gifted, almost genius, alchemists.  Using his state title and research grants he and Al begin searching for the legendary Philosopher's Stone, a substance that supposedly grants the holder the ability to bypass the law of equivalent exchange in alchemy.  Their journey is the main story of the show, that was just the first three episodes (sorry for the long description, but it was necessary).

The first thing I want to compare between the two series is tone:  Fullmetal Alchemist, particularly in the second season, is incredibly dark: Ed and Al face mass murderers, monsters that embody humanly sins, incredible atrocities committed by the military, and the darkest extents of human depravity.  Brotherhood has many of the same themes but comparatively the original series has a bleakness and sense of hopelessness that Brotherhood, which follows the theme of hope stays away from.  In terms of length Brotherhood thirteen episodes longer than Fullmetal Alchemist, but because of the scale of it's story it moves far more quickly.  About halfway through Fullmetal Alchemist, around episode twenty-five a major character is murdered, this same event happens in episode ten of Brotherhood, and it just doesn't carry the same emotional weight as it did in the original.  Not to mention that a lot of the early episodes of the original series which could have been considered "filler" turned out to actually be important because they gave the audience a sense of who the Elric brothers were as people, whereas Brotherhood skims right past them expecting the audience to already be connected to the Elric brothers.  Due to the increased budget, the animation and action in Brotherhood is like night and day when compared to Fullmetal Alchemist.  Brotherhood is far more visually pleasing, but the original series, in my opinion, has a better, more personal story, and better pacing.  Overall I liked Fullmetal Alchemist more than I liked Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

Both series have a movie as well, Fullmetal Alchemist has Fullmetal Alchemist: the Conquerer of Shamballa while Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood has Fullmetal Alchemist: the Sacred Star of Milos.  Between the two movies, Conquerer of Shamballa is undoubtedly the better of them.  It serves as a capstone to the original series, finishing the story and showing the final fates of the Elric brothers as well as all of the other characters.  The movie also has a noticeably dark tone, just like Fullmetal Alchemist and takes place in our own history, in Berlin, Germany in the 1930's.  Conquerer of Shamballa provides a satisfying conclusion to the series.  The Sacred Star of Milos however, is a singular story, only tangentially connected to Brotherhood.  In fact, I haven't been able to find out where in the storyline of Brotherhood the movie takes place, and the side characters that show up in it are basically cameos.  Now, don't get me wrong, it's a fairly good movie, but not up to what I've come to expect in quality from the rest of the Fullmetal Alchemist universe.

Overall
Fullmetal Alchemist
9.5/10
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
9/10
Fullmetal Alchemist: the Conquerer of Shamballa
9.5/10
Fullmetal Alchemist: the Sacred Star of Milos
8/10

Paranorman

Either I've become very good at picking out movies that I think I will like, or I've gotten very lucky.  Paranorman is a stop-motion movie about a young boy named Norman who's obsessed with horror movies and can also see ghosts.  Right off the bat one of the things I liked about this movie is that Norman doesn't have to go through that whole awkward section of realizing he can see ghosts and at first being afraid and then getting used to it and finally using that ability to confront the big baddie; from the very start Norman has pretty much accepted and come to terms with his ghostey-vision.  In fact, it seems as if Norman is more comfortable around ghosts than he is around living people.

The real story starts when Norman's uncle, who can also see ghosts, visits him, nearly dying, to pass on to Norman the duty of keeping the town safe from a curse cast on it by a witch a few hundred years ago.  Norman fails and now zombies are running loose in the town so Norman must put things right.  Paranorman is a childrens movie and that being said it's laugh out loud funny.  Seriously, I actually burst out laughing in the theater at a few parts, but it's also very dark, particularly when the zombies get to town.  Seriously, this movie has scenes of on-screen death as well as the some of the most shameless hate since American History X.

Paranorman seems to be almost a satire of other horror movies however because one of the main themes is fear, or more precicely, the horrors that people can commit when they're afraid.  Considering Norman is a horror movie junkie (much like myself) he seems to be the perfect character to drive this point home, we have to overcome our fear of the unknown so as to not do something harmful.

Up to this point I've only talked about the story so now I want to talk about the animation and how fantastic it is.  Thanks to the help of modern 3D printers, all of the characters have a huge variety of facial expressions and move far more fluidly than just about any other stop-motion film ever made (thats right Nightmare Before Christmas, I'm calling you out).  On top of that it has some of the best use of 3D in the theater since Avatar, particularly one scene which takes place on a tree floating through a void.

Overall do not miss Paranorman, a great childrens movie, and just a great movie all around.
8.5/10

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was a short, three-part, internet released film from writer/director Joss Whedon (one of my all time favorite directors, who finally hit mainstream success when he was commissioned to write and direct The Avengers) about a lovelorn super villain by the name of Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) who spends his time trying to win the heart of Penny (Felicia Day), the girl of his dreams, and trying to get into the Evil League of Evil (headed by the amazing super villain Bad Horse, who is actually a horse) while being constantly foiled by his arch nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion).  To make a long story short Dr. Horrible is AMAZING.  Followers of this blog will notice I have never put that word in all capitals before, the reason I'm doing it now is because Dr. Horrible deserves every bit of recognition it can get.  The movie is a cheesy, light hearted, pseudo-romantic affair about the clashing ideals of the hateful and cynical Dr. Horrible and the world weary but still naive and hopeful Penny.

Let's get the toughest part out of the way: Dr. Horrible is a musical.  Dr. Horrible is a damn good musical!  The music is so good, in fact, that I bought the soundtrack and I am listening to it right now while I write this, and the lyrics are very well written.  "Any dolt with half a brain can see that humankind has gone insane, to the point where I don't know if I'll upset the status quo if I throw poison in the water mien," is one of the best lines I have ever heard in a song written for a movie.  Perhaps I like this movie so much because I can identify so well with the main character; he's dry, cynical, and hateful of people, but he still holds out hope for love and a future with Penny that couldn't exist.

Dr. Horrible is one of my favorite movies ever, I literally watched it three times in a row.  It's light, cheesy, goofy, and it has a pitch-black ending.  Easily the best musical I've seen all year, possibly all decade.  Anyone who enjoys audio/video entertainment of any form should get Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog in front of their eyes as soon as possible.
9.9/10