But the story it tries to tell here can only be described as completely underwhelming. The only thing to wrap up per se is the reunion of the Elric brothers, which without doing so serves a major factor as to why the original ending works so well, following the constant idea of 'equivalent exchange' that is mentioned in every episode of the show. In achieving this goal we are introduced to a further exploration of Nazi Germany in which Edward currently resides and the bunch of non-characters that reside in it.
I must say I do like alternate world Alphonse, but when you have more development into a fictional version of Fritz Lang over your main villain some things need to be reconsidered. Plus who even was the guy in the prelude? He's there for a display of typical show antics and then isn't mentioned again until the very end of the film?? As for re-occuring characters it's just a case of "woah look here they are", it works in the shows logic that to open such a gate between worlds sacrifice would be involved, but to just off a character such as Hoenheim like that I can only find stupid. Sure Wrath's death is emotional but he's back for all of 5 minutes before it happens, I think as an anime original character there was a bit more potential to squeeze out of him when his character has done such a 1080 since the last time we saw him in the show.
But I think the greatest sin here is Ed and Winrey reunite for all of 2 minutes before they're separated forever. She is the main love interest of this show, Edward talks about her in his sleep, yet all they do is hug, exchange a few words and Ed is ready to instantly throw everything out of the window again just to nobley close the gate for good. The gravitas of this invasion isn't really felt because of how little time the fight lasts for, we see one casualty and then it's just a piece of cake for Roy, Ed and Al to destroy the ships and send the villain back to Germany.
There is a ton of ways they could have written this to serve as a happy resolution to the Elric brothers journeys, but instead they wanted to keep this darker tone which results in this movie feeling like a royal waste of time that achieves nothing. Whilst they are re-united under the guise of brotherly love, it's quite astounding to think both of them can rationally so easily ditch everyone else in their life for good in an ending that only feels as to take away from the greatness of the original.
