Evangelion Shin Gekijôban: Kyu

With a plot full of holes like Swiss cheese, setting and setup that will confuse even the staunchest long-time fans, script on the level of a bad fan fiction, countless disrepancies and abandoned plot lines from the first two movies and characterization taking 180-degree turns every two seconds, Evangelion 3.0 is an utter mess at best, and an open insult to movie watchers at worst. It's a colossal failure as its own story, as a follow-up, as a remake and a movie in general that renders the previous two movies and all their accomplishments completely pointless.

Almost nothing from the previous films is resolved in any meaningful way: Shinji's relationships with his friends and slowly growing confidence, Kaji's shady dealings with NERV, the Key of Nebuchadnezzar, Rei coming out of her shell, Asuka warming up to people, the growing threat of Angel attacks and much more are completely abandoned and forgotten about. In their place we get an endless barrage of new terms and plot elements which the characters talk about, but none of which are ever adequately explained or established. The first 30 minutes consist of nothing but action scenes with only the tiniest amount of context or setup, just a bunch of flashy stuff for the viewer to look at.

The characters have taken a total nosedive. Mari, who had a strange foreboding about her in 2.0 is reduced to a mere sidekick with no meaning. Despite the 14-year gap, Asuka is still her old bratty self despite now being 28 years old. The justification for her and Mari not having aged is so ridiculous you have to wonder if the writers are actually pulling a prank. Misato is so far removed from her previous persona she might as well be an entirely new character. Rei's character actually regresses, as all her development from the previous movies is rendered nonexistent, and is never properly explained how. Gendo has become a caricature of himself. In the original series he had an enigmatic presence and there were hints of his deeper motives, but here there's nothing under the surface: he's just a cartoon villain, practically twirling his moustache and cackling "JUST AS PLANNED".

But the change of setting is undoubtedly the thing that shoots this film in the leg and then some. So many questions rise and are never answered that the viewer is completely lost. The last 20 minutes will be spent in utter confusion as the viewer tries to grasp even the flimsiest straw of what is supposed to be going on, and why it should mean anything. Bombastic music playing over certain scenes is the only signal of something meaningful happening, but since the setting is so unestablished the viewer is just left thinking "I guess that's important because the characters act like it is, but why should I care?"

Perhaps the only saving qualities of this film are the music and the animation, both of which are great and work to put together some rather impressive action scenes. But that makes it only so much worse when you think what other projects this clearly great amount of talent could have been used for, rather than this 90-minute fart in the audience's face. At one point Fuyutsuki, the one character who gives the only direct exposition in the film, says "'Tis a wretched role I'm playing" to himself. It's almost if he's meta talking about his character having been reduced to a useless exposition device.

Add to all this meaningless shoutouts to the original like recycled shots from the series and Gendo's new choice of eyewear, occasional pseudo-philosophical lines which don't mean anything and some completely out of place piano playing scenes that add nothing to the story and you have an indulgent, incomprehensible, poorly told, plot less, pretentious, forced mess that doesn't even have a proper ending. Stuff explodes, characters talk about things you don't understand, Shinji sulks, some piano playing, stuff explodes again and then the movie just stops. Nothing has been achieved, learned or accomplished and you just don't care.

"Evangelion is like a puzzle, you know. Any person can see it and give his/her own answer. In other words, we're offering viewers to think by themselves, so that each person can imagine his/her own world. We will never offer the answers, even in the theatrical version. As for many Evangelion viewers, they may expect us to provide the 'all-about Eva' manuals, but there is no such thing. Don't expect to get answers by someone. Don't expect to be catered to all the time. We all have to find our own answers." - Hideaki Anno

End of Evangelion released on July 19th, 1997 in Japan Evangelion 3.33 released on November 17th, 2012 in Japan.

The story of 3.33 begins 14 years after 2.22's conclusion. Ultimately, the plot does not matter. The story was never meant to be about the lore, or the EVAs, or the Angels. The story is one of Japanese society, and those who reject society and seek ways to escape their lives. 2.22 was an idealised version of the original series by the fans, and in Eva's irony, Eva's characters have become caricatures on which Otaku and Hikikomori can escape reality, Rei in particular. 3.33 is Anno talking to the audience.

I feel like most of the hate for 3.0 comes from fans having to wait so long for the follow-up - this movie is very daring, taking this franchise in a very different direction and forming a more original take for these rebuild movies.

Unfortunately such a sudden change is tough to pull off in just 90 minutes, especially when most of the movie is confined to slower scenes focusing on the relationship between Shinji and Kaworu. Plus, the movie ends on what feels like a very abrupt 'conclusion', and it's painfully clear that this was intended to be released alongside 3.0+1.0.

The final nail in the coffin, however, isn't really related to this movie at all - it's the way that fans were forced to wait so long for the follow up - and it was only in the next movie that the many questions that bugged fans began to get given answers. 3.0 is not a great individual movie, and definitely works best when 3.0+1.0 is watched shortly afterwards.

However, this movie is still a great movie. The gorgeous visuals/soundtrack elevate the experience of watching 3.0 greatly, and it's slower pacing to focus on a movie confined character-focused story made for a unique change to this franchise. The animation is as good as ever (the cgi really isn't that bad guys), and this alternate (yet reminiscent) take on Shinji and Kaworu's relationship gives their characters far more depth.

It's not a perfect movie, but it's a damn good one and is certainly better with the added worldbuilding of 3.0+1.0.

9/10.

Ah look, the black sheep of the rebuilds.

Look, this film was just ok when I watched it. It's dramatically improved by the sequel, which makes a lot of this film (notably not all) make actual sense. The goal of Anno it seems, is to show the plot from Shinji's perspective. So basically, confuse the hell out of the viewer to make us empathise with this kid. This is an interesting, but flawed decision I think. Why not trust the viewer to empathise with this traumatised, anxiety filled teenager that's forced to risk his life constantly? Is your target audience children?

Regardless, knowing what comes next does improve this aspect.

The film does start out strongly, with a fight on a scale not before seen in Evangelion. The 3D, while looking a bit cheaper, does allow for this to happen. I liked it quite a bit, and the general sense of overwhelming information at first is refreshing.

It's important to note that we are so far detached from the main series at this point, this is a fresh new experience with slightly different versions of characters that you probably love from the original series.

Don't let the feedback of this film scare you away. It's probably due to how confusing it is, and the 9 year wait people had to endure to actually get some answers.

For me, I just had to wait 5 minutes.

It's great that they finally tried to do something a little different, but here we are missing everything that made the franchise special or the first two films remotely good. We are at a point in the story where the focus should be finally moved to the characters, but most of them have been suddenly cut out or turned into something completely different. The personalities of the ones who are still around have been strangely flattened, with important issues often being resolved in a short conversation if not a casual shogi game (??). On the other hand, things that should be kept simple are made overcomplicated with no apparent purpose. I dare anyone who is not familiar with the series to understand the point of this film.

Shinji's struggle mostly came from the inside, but this time they decided to let the world end earlier so that he could have something extra to whine about for a couple of hours. I was initially pleased to find out that the film would be focused on the relationship between him and Kaworu, as the original series only spends 15 minutes on it. Still, it felt like they could develop that aspect a little more as well. Maybe they spent too much time working on the (boring) CGI action sequences to make people happy.

I am confident that "3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time" will be better, but as this is no TV show, each individual film should be satisfying with its own definite narrative arc.