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Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (Japanese: 鋼の錬金術師 嘆きの丘（ミロス）の聖なる星, Hepburn: Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Mirosu no Sei-naru Hoshi) is the second Japanese animated theatrical film based on Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist franchise, released in 2011. The film was first announced after the airing of the final episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The Japanese premiere was on July 2, 2011.

Funimation Entertainment has licensed the film and released it in the United States in 2012. The film was distributed by Eleven Arts for North America, showing at more than 100 theaters. In the UK, Manga Entertainment screened the film at BFI South Bank on June 8, 2012, followed by a home video release on September 3, 2012.

Plot
The movie begins with a young girl, Julia Crichton, waking up from a dream about the day her family was forcibly taken from her home by soldiers beside her older brother Ashleigh, who is currently studying their parents' alchemy books. Ashleigh then shows his sister some pages and explains that with the alchemy in the book, he hopes to make a world that no one's seen before. Soon after discovering two strange rubbed-out pages, the siblings hear some strange noises and Ashleigh goes ahead to investigate, but a worried Julia follows to a room where she finds the bodies of her parents hung up and dripping blood. She watches in horror as her brother is attacked and presumably murdered to which she faints.

Years later, a criminal breaks free from prison in Amestris, and the Elric brothers, Edward and Alphonse, join the effort to recapture him. The duo confronts the escapee who proves himself a dangerous opponent able to create ice and lightning from the alchemy circles drawn in blood on the palms of his hands. Despite the Elrics' efforts to capture the criminal, he ends up escaping, and after some investigation with Edward's superior Roy Mustang and his lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, they learn that the fugitive, Melvin Voyager, escaped with only six months remaining of his five-year sentence. Among his belongings, they find a newspaper page with a piece cut off, and comparing with an intact copy of the same page, they find that the missing piece is a photo of a young woman named Julia Crichton who was arrested while entering illegally in the remote Table City, set in the border between Amestris and Creta.

Intrigued by the alchemy used by the criminal and his connection with Julia, the Elrics board a train to Table City to investigate further, but the train is attacked by an unknown individual who transforms into a wolf-chimera and takes control of the locomotive. While trying to retake the train's control from the Wolf-Chimera, flying soldiers called the Black Bats attack the train, attempting to rescue what they think are ordinary citizens, but they fall back after finding out the prisoners were Amestrians posing as prisoners as a trap. Meanwhile, Melvin finds his opportunity and escapes, followed after by the Elric Brothers. Ed and Al arrive at a prison, where Melvin destroyed the prison walls to find Julia. Melvin attempts to retrieve Julia, but is interrupted by Miranda, the leader of the Black Bats, who tries to rescue Julia as well. Ed then challenges Melvin while Alphonse goes to save Julia. She and he fall into a village in a vast chasm (The Valley) that surrounds Table City, where Melvin follows and reveals his true identity as Julia's brother, Ashleigh Crichton. Ed then ventures down to The Valley in search of Alphonse, where he learns that Table City was originally the Hill of Milos, until Creta and later Amestris invaded the city and occupied it, forcing the Milosians to live in The Valley, in poverty.

Inside the Black Bats' secret base, Julia and Alphonse develop a friendship while Julia learns about Al and Ed's tragic past of human transmutation. Later, when Ed meets up with Al in the Black Bats base, they find themselves hunted down by wolf chimeras from the Cretan secret police dispatched by Colonel Herschel, the Cretan commander of the area, prompting them to retreat further. They and the Elrics arrive in a room with maps and locations of Table City, where Miranda explains to the Elrics their mission: to reclaim Milos by using the Sanguine Star to control a powerful heat source called Magma. Miranda also explains that the Sanguine Star was a 'red glowing stone of power'. Shocked by the description, the Elrics reveal that the Star might be a Philosopher's Stone, which requires human sacrifice to create. Though shocked at the revelation, Julia is determined to do anything to secure the Milosians' freedom, and Ashleigh agrees to help her.

Wanting to avoid a bloody war, Ed and Al return to Table City in an attempt to find the Star and destroy it. Later that night, the Black Bats begin their assault on Table City. Miranda, Ashleigh, and Julia then venture to the main tower, where, suddenly, Ashleigh fatally injures Miranda and explains to Julia that the use of Miranda's blood activates a three dimensional transmutation circle drawn in blood to create the Sanguine Star. Julia then realizes that he is an impostor, Security Chief Atlas, who was enveloped by alchemy's potential of creation and power and killed Julia's parents for it. He explains that he tore off the real Ashleigh's face and the skin from his lower left side to deceive Julia and create the Star. Ed and Al arrive to rescue Julia and confront Atlas, who escapes to the location of the Star. As Ed, Al, and Julia chase after Atlas, Herschel detonates a Cretan thermal power plant, pouring out a massive amount of lava towards the Valley. Al goes to help save the valley while Ed and Julia go after Atlas. Atlas nearly attempts to retrieve the Star, only to be confronted by Ed and Julia. Julia retrieves the star and decides to save the Valley by swallowing it to use its power.

Meanwhile, Alphonse's attempt to stop the lava are futile until Julia arrives to help him stop the lava. Atlas arrives to take back the Star, only to be confronted by Colonel Herschel, who reveals himself to be the real Ashleigh Crichton. He survived by swallowing a Star and using its power to heal his wounds. Ashleigh then kills Atlas in revenge for the death of his parents. Confirming his identity to Julia while apologizing for leaving her alone for so long to keep her safe from Atlas, Ashleigh tells Julia to come with him to Creta so they can make a world that no one had ever seen before. Julia refuses and decides to fight her brother, with Ed and Mustang arriving to provide assistance. Julia ends the fight by destroying one of Ashleigh's arms. Then, together with Ed and Al, she manages to stop the flow of magma into the Valley. With the Valley safe, Julia uses the rest of her power to heal Ashleigh, restoring his face and saving his life. However, both Ashleigh and Julia's Stars disintegrate, and Julia sacrifices her left leg and glimpses the Gate of Truth. Meanwhile, on the Cretan side of the border, Milosian resistance fighters seize Creta's main base and declare independence. Without Colonel Herschel to lead them, the Cretan forces retreat.

The next morning, Ashleigh wakes up in a hospital bed alongside Julia and is surprised to find his face restored. When Julia wakes up, she is informed that Ashleigh had already left, and is given an automail leg. She then meets Ed and Al as they prepare to leave Table City. Ed chastises Julia, saying that her decision to use the Star was wrong, but he doesn't think she's a bad person. Al promises to Julia that after he and his brother get their bodies back, they will be sure to visit. Julia tells them she will be waiting, as she must stay to lead the Milosians and preserve their newfound independence. Meanwhile, Ashleigh is seen donning his Cretan uniform and returning to Creta. Ed and Al then board a train to Central and take one last look at Table City before leaving.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) The movie fits ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE in the timeline at all, Just like all the other Shonen Movies That are known to be very Pointless and boring. And what's the point of releasing it in cinemas????
 * 2) Every character in the film is given a new style of art which feels like someone else's version of Fullmetal Alchemist, resulting with some of the characters not looking the same like they look in the 2003 Anime series by the infamous "Bones"
 * 3) Not a single character in this film shows up, which is bullcrap! They only appear for like 3 seconds and that's it, the characters that don't appear are Fearbradly, The Hamoculiar, Father, Scar, Leng, Kimlee, And Marco. But some of the other characters do appear in this movie which is great.
 * 4) Julia is very generic filler character, And what's worse is that she's literally a Mary Su, There's literally a scene where she turns Super Saiyan! Yes, where not kidding, she really is that bad! Which is way worse than introducing Ashley
 * 5) The movie is 2 hours long, Which is very ridiculous for a shonen movie to last that long.
 * 6) The point of this movie is just someone trying to make a Philosopher stone, but it doesn't refer to it in this movie, except for Edward who for some strange reason thinks it is??? WHAT???
 * 7) There's a thing in the film when you eat a philosopher stone, you will lose your soul a lot, Which makes the stone eat it away from you,THIS NEVER HAPPENS IN THE FREAKING MANGA AT ALL!!! WHERE THE HELL DID THEY CAME UP WITH THAT CRAP??!! But Julia eats it anyways and her hair goes crazy for no reason.... since when did swallowing a regular Philosopher stone make you go crazy??? the people who worked on this film are Idiots!!
 * 8) Another Dumb thing in this film is that you need a Philosopher Stone to open the gate of truth, but Edward doesn't need a philosopher stone to go through??? ARE THESE PEOPLE THIS STUPID!? LIKE DID THEY EVEN WATCHED THE ANIME!? It literally showed them accessing the gate of truth without the stone!! WHAT THE HELL????!!!
 * 9) After Julia Goes crazy, She loses her leg at the end of the movie, and at the end of the film, someone gives her an automale leg, Depite the fact that she's a girl, if you watched the anime, Edward was known to have Automale body on himself and recover from it for a while, but in here, Julia Put's on the automale leg, and for some strange reason, she starts walking with it in like 2 seconds without waiting???!! This makes no sense at all!!!
 * 10) Boring actions scenes
 * 11) The Humor is very unfunny
 * 12) Everyone always thought that the Julia character was made by the creator of the series by Hiromu Arakawa, But the stupid thing is, is that her name is not on the credits, except for "Original Author" with some of the other Shonen Movies doing the same crap! so we have no idea if she created these characters for the movie or not!
 * 13) Awful Villians, with the main villian trying to get a Philosopher stone, how original... despite the fact that he can already transmute.



Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Beautiful animation, despite the bad execution
 * 2) Passable Voice acting, despite the wasted talents
 * 3) This movie is far better than "Conquer of Shamballa" which that movie is far worse



Reception
In its first weekend, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos earned $1,791,646 despite being exhibited in only 90 screens across Japan, ranking #4 in overall revenue. The film went on to gross $7,401,480 in Japan by the end of 2011. The film also grossed $177,802 in the United States in 2012, bringing the film's total gross to $7,579,282.

The film debuted in North America at the 2011 anime convention Otakon held at the Baltimore Convention Center on July 30. Funimation in coordination with Aniplex were credited with subtitling the movie and premiering it the United States only four weeks after its theatrical release in Japan. The former kicked holding the license for the movie, which saw a limited theatrical release dubbed in English in early 2012, and is slated for a DVD and Blu-ray release in the spring. The film won three awards at the Burbank International Film Festival, which hosted the West Coast premiere of the film. It won awards for each of the three categories it was nominated in.

Reception from American critics has been generally positive. Based on 12 reviews on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 6.42/10. It also received a weighted average score of 54 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 7 critics, denoting "mixed or average reviews".

Trivia

 * Milos could also be seen as yet another Ishval, but pursued by a number of forces due to it being close to the Amestrian border but within Cretan territory. Unlike Ishval, however, Milos was desired purely for the potential alchemic amplification any Sanguine Stars it could produce would give.
 * In a way, this film hearkens back to an image from the final arc of the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime series, in that Ed and Al find an abandoned city beneath the current Table City, and it seems that the underground city was either deliberately buried (both to hide it from the current population and also as part of its function in forging a Sanguine Star) or that it came to its current location because the original population of Table City created the cataclysm when they created a Star 400 years earlier, which drew the attention of the Cretans in the first place.
 * To mark the July 2 opening of the Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos film, the Pia Eiga Seikatsu website posted an exclusive video "interview" with the stars of the film, Edward and Alphonse Elric (as voiced by Romi Park and Rie Kugimiya, respectively). In keeping with the spirit of Hiromu Arakawa's original manga and the two television anime, the interviewer has trouble early on in figuring out who the "Fullmetal Alchemist" is. (The interview has cameos by the other stars of the anime.) Also includes 3 "Study" sessions with "Professor" Mustang, teaching Winry and Hawkeye about Creta and Milos. These specials are included on the DVD of the movie.

Videos
