I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

If you are like me, you grew up with Evangelion; it was one of the very first anime you watched along with the likes of Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z; however, unlike Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z, Evangelion was a special anime that focused on the deeper meaning behind it all. That of course was the human instrumentality project; the symbolic purpose of the EVAs, and the interactions and characterizations of the characters. This made Evangelion special; it had a unique focus in addition to being a typical anime; it was, needless to say, at least ten to fifteen years ahead of its time. The series ends with a lackluster finale, but is re-envisioned as a movie to help better deliver an ending to the series.However, the series is far from over. Rebuild of Evangelion is testament to this. It is nearly fifteen year after the events that took place in the series; things have changed as Third Impact has rewritten the face of the Earth and otherwise brought humanity nearly to extinction. All that remains is the destruction of the human civilization, all human souls contained within an sea of LCL fluid, and a few survivors of NERV that otherwise wish to finish unfinished business. Many of the cast of Evangelion are back along with some newcomers; characters have different personalities, and the movie is often direct and to the point with their interactions. Any loose business with characters from the previous series, is largely finished and tied up nicely.As for the movie itself; the plot is a bit of a weird one, but go figure – this is Evangelion we are talking about. If you are familiar with the series and the movie conclusion, this will feel like a continuation of events prior. What you would expect from the series, but with more modern animation and computer effects is here. In fact, that robust frame-skip style animation that includes cellshading, as well as neon lighting is also present. Camera angles are a plenty, and there are also lots of movement effects to keep scenes enticing. Scenes are executed wonderfully and the pacing of the movie matches; there is a lot of action, story, and otherwise conclusions and continuation of what has been, and what will be. The movie is not shy to admit this with a 'to be continued' at the end of the movie. In a word, it feels like an episode of Evangelion as it was always meant to be intended; it is just too bad we don't get twenty six or even thirteen of these style of episodes in a series to finally conclude it once and for all.It is not dry, it is not dull; and it makes no attempts to shy around changing the story for the better. The movie is seriously in a light of its own; it features special effects that are not normally seen in animation even these days and there was clearly a big budget that played a hand in it. The animation style is wonderful; character expressions are simply top of the line and more expressive than I've ever seen in anything animated. The characters' interactions are what this movie is really about, and it makes for a good two hour watch. I recommend the movie for anyone that likes symbolic anime with a lot of good art for effect; this anime uses special effects and is hardly what you would believe or expect – be ready to suspend your belief of realism and enter the unknown.Originally posted to Orion Age (http://www.orionphysics.com/?p=6178).

It must first be said that this film is superb in terms of visual quality. Opposed to many opinions, the film is well edited, well animated, and is essential perfect in the details pertaining to image and sound. But the major problem with this film is that it is completely filled with set-ups that do not pay off. Which basically means the entire film is one big tease. Much of the controversy and anger surrounding the latest Rebuild stems from the fact that it felt incomplete. And although other Rebuild films have ended on cliffhangers as well, 3.0 specifically is frowned upon. The difference with 3.0 and previous entries in the series is that the previous films still fulfilled a basic arc of some sort for the characters to develop by the end of the film. They overcome an obstacle and move forward as people, and the audience gets to witness that. But by the end of 3.0, we're left with what feels like half of the story. Although the story certainly spans all for movies, this felt like a baby step compared to the leaps and bounds that were 1.0 and 2.0.

When you watched the preview to 3.0 after watching Evangelion 2.0, it seems like we're still in that year where the kids are the same age and Seele finally shows its full color. Whatever you watched before, you will be shocked at how 3.0 is.I was fortunate enough to watch Evangelion 3.0 in Japan with English subtitle, and although many fans were disappointed, I wasn't really letdown although the universe of Evangelion has been tossed out the door.The story is set 14 years after the second film, many things have changed, a lot of the characters have switched sides and people that Shinji came to know is no longer those same person. Misato and the rest of the characters along with the new characters are now his enemies. Only people that seems to be on his sides is his father Gendo, Fuyutsuki, Kaworu, and Rei. Even the mighty Seele is nothing more then AIs and are on Gendo's side this time. The new Evangelion No. 13 sports a more futuristic look that is a site to behold.As the story goes, Shinji is the main focus of the movie and we see him having to deal with the future while everybody else is 14 years older then him. Everything has completely changed for him and the city that we see in Evangelion 1 and 2 is completely gone. None of the characters are explored like we don't know why Misato and the rest have switch side other then she is a commander in the organization called Willie whose mission is to destroy Nerv and its Evangelion. Interestingly, Willie has its own Evangelions piloted by Asuka and Mari.The color of the animation is just as modern as ever, computer graphics mixed in gives this movie a life in itself and thats what I loved about the three movies. Lively is also key to movie's success. The music also drives the movie too and the composer did a fantastic job in being the proper background as well as mixing the great master's like Beethoven into the mix.Sadly, because I watched the subtitle, the English voice actors won't be available until the movie hits the United States. I have no doubt when it hits the state, I'll be back in line to watch the movie again as well as buy the DVD or Blue Ray.Some people have complained that the movie is completely different from the Evangelion that we all know and love, but this is a different road Evangelion is taking and the creator has already said there will be lots of surprises and shock like how Yamato 2199 is turning out. No doubt all Evangelion fans should watch the movie.

The first two "rebuilds" of Evangelion crammed twenty episodes of the 1995 Shin Seiki Evangelion TV series into a span of three and a half hours, upping the musical and animation ante every explosive step of the way. Three years later, Evangelion 3.0 showed such promise: A teaser trailer so confident that it revealed only the internal workings of a piano; previews of an eyepatched Asuka spiraling through space with a shield and massive rifle to soul-rousing operatic strains. Yet after all the fervent build-up, Eva 3.0 feels like one of those reboots where a project was taken over by people who never understood why the franchise had rabid fans in the first place. Creator Hideaki Anno is still at the helm—and even back in the director's chair—yet when the film is over, the subtitle "You Can (Not) Redo" feels, more than anything, like an apology.Anno opens with Asuka and Mari deploying multi-stage booster rockets, high-powered sniper rifles, massive shields and a brand-new pink Eva to fight off an Angel while retrieving Shinji and Unit 01 from Earth orbit. The sequence is brilliant, operatic, even tear-inducing: Then Shinji wakes up in yet another intensive care unit and the roller-coaster ride crashes straight into a ditch from which it will never emerge.In 1997's the End of Evangelion, Shinji was offered a world in which he could merge with all of humanity so that he would never again have to feel alone. In Eva 3.0, he is offered a different world—one in which no demands are made of him at all. Enter ninety minutes of nothing.This is not like what Anno did when he ran out of budget for the animated series, when he drove fans berserk by throwing out all the robot rumbles to dive into the characters' psyches for the last two episodes. Eva 1995 was all about the characters, putting broken human beings in a world-on-the-brink environment with the idea that their most intense struggles would still be to be loved, cherished, and accepted for who they were. Eva 3.0 strips away both the characters and the environmental crucible, even eliminating the deeper question of why everything is happening, and leaves us only with the hum-drum intellectual exercise of finding out what happened.Shinji awakes into what is essentially the set of Das Boot melded with the bridge of the Macross. Misato is captain of a giant whale-like flying ark called the Wunder, the Nerv command crew man her bridge, and the cast is rounded out by a trio of space opera stock characters who get more lines than all the old cast combined. Even Mari, who had 'dark impending purpose' written all over her introduction in Eva 2.0, turns out to be nothing more than Asuka's sharp-shooting, one-liner-dropping sidekick. And despite the Third Impact having begun just to save her, when we finally meet Rei, she has no memory of the event and no connection to Shinji—or anyone else—whatsoever.It turns out that the Third Impact was aborted part-way, and Shinji has been fitted with a Battle Royale-style choker designed to pop off his head if he shows any sign of becoming a deity again. While for a time it seems that we have been immersed in an alternate-universe Eva redesigned as a space opera, it is actually fourteen years later, and all the character dynamics that brought fans to the series have withered and died away. Rei, Asuka and Misato speak so little it's as if they aren't even there, and even Shinji doesn't wallow in self-pity; he is confused by all the changes, but with all the characters so different, the emotional boil we would normally expect to see at this stage of the series simply cannot emerge.Having achieved friendship and affection in Eva 2.0, Shinji is much better adjusted than in his television iteration, and when he is whisked away from the Wunder to meet Kaworu, he's not desperate for approval—he just wants to know what's going on. Separated from all the people who cared about him, Shinji wanders through the hollowed-out remains of Nerv headquarters playing piano with Kaworu, stacking books for Rei and playing shogi with Fuyutsuki. And if that sounds about as exciting as a lazy Sunday afternoon, then you can imagine just how agonizing the middle hour of the movie becomes. By the time Kaworu outlines what Shinji could do to fix the world, there's just no reason to care. While there's an attempt to create drama over whether Kaworu's late-emerging MacGuffin will actually bring a 'fix' or the Fourth Impact doesn't really matter—from the audience's perspective, either change would be welcome. Even Ode to Joy can do nothing to elevate an Eva-on-Eva battle when there's no longer anything significant at stake.Aside from the opening, the most exciting part of Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo may be the pre-film. In what is perhaps a dark parody of Pixar, the movie begins with a short film by Studio Ghibli showing the arrival of Nausicaa's God Warriors in Tokyo. Although inexplicably completed using people tromping around a miniature city in creepy God Warrior suits, the piece, narrated by the voice of Ayanami Rei (Megumi Hayashibara), is unusually grim and captivating.