I thought to entertain myself, and possibly a curious reader or two, with this review of The Rebuild of Evangelion: 2.0. If you do not want your viewing experience SPOILED, you need not read further.
Upon seeing RoE: 2.0, I changed my position on Hideaki Anno, a bit. He is not just the George Lucas of Japan, anymore. He has also become the Michael Bay of Anime. I come to this conclusion on the grounds that 2.0 is little more than a whirlwind of high budget effects with standard anime characterization cliché sprinkled throughout. The story lacks a good sense of pacing, jumping between enigmatic exposition by Gendo and scenes of forced dialogue about motivation and perception and then throwing a giant Angel fight at you. Not to say that this was not present in the series. That was the series. Insane plans to subdue alien invaders with giant robots piloted by socially stunted children is silly. However, over the course of twenty-six episodes the story remained engaging enough to keep it is audience, only to fail (or triumph, depending on how you look at it) when the money ran out. (Hopefully he won?t do that again.) So, I guess, the core narrative remains intact, warts and all. Two differences to mention are that the relationship between Rei and Shinji and the relationship between Misato and Auska are fleshed out in the movie. The latter seems warranted, but the former just reduces the relationship to cliché.
I believe one of the key failings of this movie lies, not with the story and it is telling, though that is a problem, but with the characters. Without their back stories and presentation as people with lives, rather than cells of animation walking around animated explosions, they are not relatable and, so, do not garner sympathy. On top of that, the characters lack the fire and wit of their series counterparts. Gendo is even more stoic, if you can imagine that, Misato and Kaji are far less charming and human, the ancillary characters from Aoba to Ritsuko are merely present to spout plot points, and Rei has lost all her appeal as an inhuman stoic and is now just a very shy girl. I will say that having less time on screen, makes Shinji a little less annoying, so there is that for the positive.
Now, we get to this whole business with the new character and the ?changed? Auska. The new girl is named Mari Illustrious Makinami, though I do not remember anyone calling her by name, which is part of the problem. She forges no relationship with any of the characters in the ensemble. Honestly, she is a completely foreign element in this story. She beats a foreign Angel in an American version of nerve (I think) and then we don?t see her until halfway through the movie were she lands on a roof, drops off the map until the next angel appears and then jacks Eva Unit 2 to fight it. She is a shallow character with nothing but an eager battle-lust as a motivation. As for Auska, she two gets her development routed. I have heard a lot of complaints about how changing her name changes her character, which is bologna. Changing her character, changes her character and that is no lunch meat. She is reduced to every confrontational, boy repelling, Anime girl ever conceived and then her and Rei get in a fight for Shinji?s affection. It is not even a good fight, either (like jello wrestling, foxy boxing and such and such): they want to cook for him to show their affection. Then she pilots Eva Unit 3, instead of Toji, and the same scenes follow the series, verbatim. I assume she will appear as a plot point in the coming movies, but I do not really care about her anymore.
As to the voice acting, let it be known, I cannot speak Japanese (took a course and failed), but I know good acting when I hear it and this is not it. It may be that the dialogue they are being handed is not all that good or that the subs were bad or that the cultural distances was too great to translate to my English sensibilities, but, whatever the reason, I was not compelled by the portrayal of these animation cells as people. One particular scene I remember from the show sums up my view on most of this ?rebuild.? When Shinji is getting choked out by Eva 3 and Gendo cannot get him to fight, we see Gendo lose his cool, which was a really powerful scene in the series. In the movie, he just sits there like he always does, speaking in even, insensitive tones. As I said before, the fire that burned in the characters before is not present.
The one thing that does shine in this reproduction of Eva is the animation. It is vibrant and fluid and awesome in scope. The Angels are breathtaking to behold, in all their alien terror. They seem otherworldly, even in their animation, probably because they are mostly CG over the illustrated background of the world. I will say, some of the set pieces seem a little excessive at times, like the panels that come out of Tokyo-3 to make a NASCAR-esque bank turn for Eva Unit 1. I am sure Anno just did not know what to do with all the extra money and time he had left over due to his recycling of scenes and scripts, so he just went for broke and made ridiculous spectacles, which are cool, if you are into that sort of thing and not inclined to ask practical or realistic questions like, ?Where did all the buildings go and how are they back again??
Personally, I am a very sonically inclined, so music has a significant impact on me as an audience member. It may not have the power to make a bad story good, but it can lift good visual media to greatness. I would argue that Shiro Sagisu?s off-beat, Morricone-like scoring of the Evangelion series is part of the reason the show is so fresh and original when set against any other giant robot Anime (to say nothing of the color and bleeding). Since this is a remake of the old series, and most of the scenes are exactly the same, it stands to reason that the music should be the same too, so it is. A third of the score is just Sagisu dusting off his old sheet music and handing it to the musicians after he tacks on a few extra harmonies, synth and percussion parts, and maybe a mixed choir for added scale. There are ?The Beast? themes revamped, Auska?s bombastic début battle theme, and ?Thanatos? given a bit of a shine.
The other two thirds of the score are divided into slightly original, yet still very generic, fully orchestrated, epic movie music and what I refer to as ?crap.? Though Sagisu?s style rings out, the full on, epic battle music does not help to set it apart from any other battle theme out there. However, I have never heard straight English sung by a full mixed choir as though it were Latin text in a movie before. That is rather original. Been done in musicals, but original for epic movies. The final third of the score is two songs at two key points in the movie. They are listed as ?Tribute to ?Sound of Music?? and are the most god awfully sung pieces of music I have heard in a big budget animation. Actually, that may not be true, but it is terrible all the same. The singer sounds like a wailing cat, emptying it is bowels. I know Anno was going for that same effect that he got from The End of Evangelion, with the happy strains of ?Come Sweet Death? playing throughout the apocalypse, but this time it failed to make the same impact. Lightning never strikes twice, especially when the second time it is crap striking you in place of lightning.
All things considered, your better off wasting your time on some other endeavor or, better yet, just re-watch the old Evangelion series. Sure, you will not get all the big budget flair and CG of modern day animation, but you will get a chance to see a compelling story with well rounded characters involved in ridiculous situations. The plan to dance the Angel to death in perfect sync still makes me laugh. Misato, you are such a drunk, and we love you for it.
Good News: The ending of RoE: 2.0 looks to skip straight to the second half of The End of Evangelion, so it is utter, unabashed insanity from here on out or maybe even something new.
Bottom Line: A ?rebuild,? in the purest sense of the word. Pretty though.
Recommendation: Exactly the same thing that ?The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? says on the subject of Love: ?Avoid, if at all possible.? You?ll just get your heart broken.
Upon seeing RoE: 2.0, I changed my position on Hideaki Anno, a bit. He is not just the George Lucas of Japan, anymore. He has also become the Michael Bay of Anime. I come to this conclusion on the grounds that 2.0 is little more than a whirlwind of high budget effects with standard anime characterization cliché sprinkled throughout. The story lacks a good sense of pacing, jumping between enigmatic exposition by Gendo and scenes of forced dialogue about motivation and perception and then throwing a giant Angel fight at you. Not to say that this was not present in the series. That was the series. Insane plans to subdue alien invaders with giant robots piloted by socially stunted children is silly. However, over the course of twenty-six episodes the story remained engaging enough to keep it is audience, only to fail (or triumph, depending on how you look at it) when the money ran out. (Hopefully he won?t do that again.) So, I guess, the core narrative remains intact, warts and all. Two differences to mention are that the relationship between Rei and Shinji and the relationship between Misato and Auska are fleshed out in the movie. The latter seems warranted, but the former just reduces the relationship to cliché.
I believe one of the key failings of this movie lies, not with the story and it is telling, though that is a problem, but with the characters. Without their back stories and presentation as people with lives, rather than cells of animation walking around animated explosions, they are not relatable and, so, do not garner sympathy. On top of that, the characters lack the fire and wit of their series counterparts. Gendo is even more stoic, if you can imagine that, Misato and Kaji are far less charming and human, the ancillary characters from Aoba to Ritsuko are merely present to spout plot points, and Rei has lost all her appeal as an inhuman stoic and is now just a very shy girl. I will say that having less time on screen, makes Shinji a little less annoying, so there is that for the positive.
Now, we get to this whole business with the new character and the ?changed? Auska. The new girl is named Mari Illustrious Makinami, though I do not remember anyone calling her by name, which is part of the problem. She forges no relationship with any of the characters in the ensemble. Honestly, she is a completely foreign element in this story. She beats a foreign Angel in an American version of nerve (I think) and then we don?t see her until halfway through the movie were she lands on a roof, drops off the map until the next angel appears and then jacks Eva Unit 2 to fight it. She is a shallow character with nothing but an eager battle-lust as a motivation. As for Auska, she two gets her development routed. I have heard a lot of complaints about how changing her name changes her character, which is bologna. Changing her character, changes her character and that is no lunch meat. She is reduced to every confrontational, boy repelling, Anime girl ever conceived and then her and Rei get in a fight for Shinji?s affection. It is not even a good fight, either (like jello wrestling, foxy boxing and such and such): they want to cook for him to show their affection. Then she pilots Eva Unit 3, instead of Toji, and the same scenes follow the series, verbatim. I assume she will appear as a plot point in the coming movies, but I do not really care about her anymore.
As to the voice acting, let it be known, I cannot speak Japanese (took a course and failed), but I know good acting when I hear it and this is not it. It may be that the dialogue they are being handed is not all that good or that the subs were bad or that the cultural distances was too great to translate to my English sensibilities, but, whatever the reason, I was not compelled by the portrayal of these animation cells as people. One particular scene I remember from the show sums up my view on most of this ?rebuild.? When Shinji is getting choked out by Eva 3 and Gendo cannot get him to fight, we see Gendo lose his cool, which was a really powerful scene in the series. In the movie, he just sits there like he always does, speaking in even, insensitive tones. As I said before, the fire that burned in the characters before is not present.
The one thing that does shine in this reproduction of Eva is the animation. It is vibrant and fluid and awesome in scope. The Angels are breathtaking to behold, in all their alien terror. They seem otherworldly, even in their animation, probably because they are mostly CG over the illustrated background of the world. I will say, some of the set pieces seem a little excessive at times, like the panels that come out of Tokyo-3 to make a NASCAR-esque bank turn for Eva Unit 1. I am sure Anno just did not know what to do with all the extra money and time he had left over due to his recycling of scenes and scripts, so he just went for broke and made ridiculous spectacles, which are cool, if you are into that sort of thing and not inclined to ask practical or realistic questions like, ?Where did all the buildings go and how are they back again??
Personally, I am a very sonically inclined, so music has a significant impact on me as an audience member. It may not have the power to make a bad story good, but it can lift good visual media to greatness. I would argue that Shiro Sagisu?s off-beat, Morricone-like scoring of the Evangelion series is part of the reason the show is so fresh and original when set against any other giant robot Anime (to say nothing of the color and bleeding). Since this is a remake of the old series, and most of the scenes are exactly the same, it stands to reason that the music should be the same too, so it is. A third of the score is just Sagisu dusting off his old sheet music and handing it to the musicians after he tacks on a few extra harmonies, synth and percussion parts, and maybe a mixed choir for added scale. There are ?The Beast? themes revamped, Auska?s bombastic début battle theme, and ?Thanatos? given a bit of a shine.
The other two thirds of the score are divided into slightly original, yet still very generic, fully orchestrated, epic movie music and what I refer to as ?crap.? Though Sagisu?s style rings out, the full on, epic battle music does not help to set it apart from any other battle theme out there. However, I have never heard straight English sung by a full mixed choir as though it were Latin text in a movie before. That is rather original. Been done in musicals, but original for epic movies. The final third of the score is two songs at two key points in the movie. They are listed as ?Tribute to ?Sound of Music?? and are the most god awfully sung pieces of music I have heard in a big budget animation. Actually, that may not be true, but it is terrible all the same. The singer sounds like a wailing cat, emptying it is bowels. I know Anno was going for that same effect that he got from The End of Evangelion, with the happy strains of ?Come Sweet Death? playing throughout the apocalypse, but this time it failed to make the same impact. Lightning never strikes twice, especially when the second time it is crap striking you in place of lightning.
All things considered, your better off wasting your time on some other endeavor or, better yet, just re-watch the old Evangelion series. Sure, you will not get all the big budget flair and CG of modern day animation, but you will get a chance to see a compelling story with well rounded characters involved in ridiculous situations. The plan to dance the Angel to death in perfect sync still makes me laugh. Misato, you are such a drunk, and we love you for it.
Good News: The ending of RoE: 2.0 looks to skip straight to the second half of The End of Evangelion, so it is utter, unabashed insanity from here on out or maybe even something new.
Bottom Line: A ?rebuild,? in the purest sense of the word. Pretty though.
Recommendation: Exactly the same thing that ?The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? says on the subject of Love: ?Avoid, if at all possible.? You?ll just get your heart broken.
