Previously on this blog, I have discussed certain aspects of
my own film-watching philosophy, in that I consider cinema to be an inherently
emotional art form and that it should be perceived and commented on as such.
However, I understand that there are parts of that mindset that contradict
others. Emotions are far from being simple things, considering we rarely if
ever experience just one of them on their own. By contrast, I tend to treat the
films I review on here in rather simple terms; this is why films like Moonlight
are as difficult to pin down as they are, since they actively go against my
usual ‘one and done’ methodology.
And sure enough, we have another example of
that today with quite possible the most perplexing emotional post-film reaction
I’ve gotten yet. Petulant anger, holding back tears, relief that came seemingly
out of nowhere? I barely know how to process these feelings in real life, let
alone writing about them at length in connection to fiction. Nonetheless, let’s
press forward with this incredibly odd feature.
Time for something with a bit more personal investment to it
than the last review. Fullmetal Alchemist, in no uncertain terms, is one of the
best anime series ever. Its characters, its incredibly dark and complex themes
about life and death, its airtight pacing and yet incredible variety; it is a
true-blue classic. It has had film iterations before, primarily the two
connected to the two FMA series (the original and Brotherhood, which actually
went in quite different directions due to their different connections to the
manga), but this is the first attempt at a live-action adaptation. However,
this is a wholly different beast to what we got with Bleach, for both good and
bad reasons.
