END OF EVANGELION
Get the halleucinogenic drugs for another bout with Hideaki Anno!
Review by: M.H. "I'm melting, melting, oh, what a world!" Torringjan
Length: 1 hour 30 minutes
Genre: BFR, mind fuck, action
Watched: Entire movie, subbed
Having subjected myself to the entire series of Neon Genesis Evangelion and been thoroughly mind-fucked, I decided that it couldn't do much more damage to watch the movie at the end to figure out if it could provide any clarity. Frankly, for a while, I wasn't quite sure of what had happened during those last two episodes, and I was not very satisfied with the lack of a real ending. When I watched the movie, I found the issue somewhat clarified, but clogged with religious allusions and imagery.
Plot Summary: After the destruction of the final Angel, NERV comes under attack from SEELE, trying to initiate the Third Impact. Gendo Ikari makes a power play to initiate it himself with Rei's help to shape the future of mankind in his own image. Meanwhile, outside, Asuka fights a losing battle against SEELE's mass-produced Eva and Shinji fights with his demons over the loss of Kaoru (squeezing your friend�s head off *does* tend to dampen one�s spirits).
Artwork: Not much of a change from the series in terms of quality, and the character designs were essentially the same. The only difference is the scale of the apocalyptic images presented in this finale, and the smaller frequency of the shortcuts seen in the series (due to sufficient funding for the movie). The combination of the grotesque and sacred images present are much more fitting of the finale of a series like Evangelion than what was done for the final two episodes. And for my money, there were fewer pictures that could have been drawn by a three-year-old, which really helps.
Music: Again, not much of a change from the series. The grossly overstated battle themes weren't quite as much of an issue, being replaced by religious-themed music and original tracks, which much better fit the material. The deceptively upbeat "Komm, Susser Todd" (or "Come, Sweet Death," a song to commit suicide to) was a well-done track, and sounds really nice, despite its subject material.
Characters: Same old, same old. Shinji's still a whiny, self-loathing little bitch, Asuka's still a primadonna, psycho, frigid bitch, Rei's still an animated sex toy, Gendo's still a conniving Mr. Burns wannabe, and Misato's still a raging nymphomaniac. The only change in the movie is that these characters are stretched to their limits as the plot reaches its climax, and the extremes of their personalities show themselves on the way to their downfalls.
Plot: Since the plot is about the same as the end of the series, I won't comment on it directly. See the series' review for that. The issue that's at question here is the presentation of the material. The material itself is all fine and good, but the insistence to add references to religious texts that only people who've studied the texts would understand (the Kabbalah and the Old Testament, for the most part), and then only vaguely explaining them in the context of the plot is somewhat of a different matter. I found that this bogged down the flow of the movie and only confused the matter for me. Not that I'm objecting to using religious references, I'm a big enough fan of Xenogears and -saga, but basing your story on it and then lobbing veiled inferences at us gets old after a while. The development of the characters was well-done, though, and the movie did explain much better than the final two episodes what was going on. The downside is that you still need an outside reference material to understand exactly what happened.
CHICKS!! The fab three are back, and just as scrumptuous as ever! Rei gets props for having the most onscreen naked time, Asuka gets props for toning down her attitude (well, as long as she's unconscious, anyway), and Misato gets props for being herself. I feel I should point out, though, that most of the naked time for Rei is in an extremely non-sexual fashion, which does dampen the mood, although only slightly. And no, they're still not 14 frickin' years old.
Overall: Even though the flow of the story was bogged down with the religious references, I still enjoyed this film as a conclusion to the series. The complexity of the characters with their evolving personalities, as well as the slightly less abstract presentation of the plot material, made this a more intellectually satisfying climax and resolution to one of the more complex stories in anime. The art style and music selection rounded out this excellent movie that you really should watch as the end of the series, instead of those two stupid episodes.
IN A NUTSHELL:
+ Excellent apocalyptic artwork
+ Nice music selection
+ Still complex characters
+ Satisfying end to intellectually challenging series
- Bogged down by religious references
Final score: 9/10
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