Watch Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely the worst movie.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Blistering performances.

"Conqueror of Shamballa" serves to conclude the original anime after that series ended on a bittersweet note. I was excited when I first saw this film back in the day to see how everything ended and it didn't disappoint.All the characters who lived are back and everything is different. The characters are a few years older and more mature. The story does an interesting take on the idea of parallel universes and we get to see alter egos of characters in Ed and Alphonse's world in the real world setting of Europe cira 1925. Ed and Alphonse are separated on both sides of the gate and both are attempting to return to each other. In the midst of all this a fringe group of the Nazis is studying alchemy in an attempt to pass through the gate and conquer the alternate world in order to fuel their supplies for war. It moves at a brisk pace and has great action sequences befitting of FMA. The animation has much better production value than the show (although some of the CG used hasn't aged well) and makes great use of color for both worlds. The film has a good villain but not as good as in the series. I can't recommend this film to people who haven't seen the show because it requires prior knowledge of the show to understand the events of the film. If you liked the original "FMA" then you will most likely enjoy this film.

Before the two anime adaptations, "Fullmetal Alchemist" was originally a manga (Japanese graphic novel) written by Hiromu Arakawa and published in Square Enix's monthly magazine "Shonen Gangan". It was the story of two brothers who used the ancient arts of alchemy to perform a risky taboo: to transmute their dead mother to bring her back to life. As a result, the younger brother lost his entire body, while the older lost his leg. At the last minute, the older brother bounded the younger brother's soul to a suit of armor, sacrificing his right arm. With the older brother outfitted with artificial limbs made of steel (called auto mail), they then set out on a journey to find the legendary Philosopher's Stone and use it to get their bodies back to normal.While the manga was still being written, an anime series would be produced by Bones and Aniplex with Arakawa's approval. When it was released internationally (in my case, being a selection on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block), the popularity of the franchise soared, and critics took notice, with one saying that it was a perfect blend of action, comedy, and hard-hitting drama. They weren't lying in that regard. When the series ended, it was not the end of the story, so a feature-length movie was produced. This is where "Fullmetal Alchemist - The Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa" comes in.Directed by Seiji Mizushima, who also directed a majority of the episodes of the television show, the film takes place two years after the events of the last episode of the series. It's 1923 in Munich, Germany, and since his sacrifice leading to the separation from his younger brother Alphonse (Aaron Dismuke), Edward Elric (Vic Mignogna) has spent his time in our world studying rocketry with his friend Alphons Heiderich (E. Jason Liebrecht). One day, Ed saves a Gypsy girl who has the power to read minds, which throws Ed into a devious plot by the Thule Society and the Nazi party that could start a war between the world he's in and his home world, all while his brother Alphonse sets out on a journey to find his brother at the same time.Going in blind, the average moviegoer would barely understand what the hell is going on in this movie, if at all. This is why I would say to people when discussing the series as a whole to watch all 51 episodes of the original series before watching this, despite being an original story derived from the show (according to anime critic Ryusuke Hikawa). As for the movie itself, story-aside, the film captures the action, comedy, and drama of the show just fine, and also includes the show's musical score blending with tracks made for the movie. As someone who is a fan of the franchise, I can say that it's a definite plus. The downside is that the film is geared toward a limited audience. Again, if you haven't watched the entire series (the original, not "Brotherhood"), pretty much all of the movie won't make a lick of sense.While I do agree that "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" is a much better work with a superior ending, the original series and the movie itself is actually not too bad either. I kinda like it, and would give it a recommendation to fans of the series. Is it the best ending they could come up with? No. But it'll suffice.

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.