Evangelion 3.0

[FPLOON]

Alright... You know this song and dance (I figure), but just to clarify once more (for formality sake):

Have you seen Evangelion 3.0 or are planning to in the future?
What do you guys think about this one and/or the "reboot" movies (in general)?
Have you seen the original series and/or movies?

And, since I never liked making predictions in general, this next question's more optional and/or can be the only answer you feel like going into detail for:

Do you think these movies (so far) had been worth doing in general?[footnote]Granted, I was never one IRL to ask this particular question, but I like hearing comparisons between similar source materials, even if someone knows more about one over the other...[/footnote]

For me, I just saw 3.0 with my friend, who's only been watching these Evangelion movies... We've obviously been enjoying these movies for different reasons, but for me, I'm mostly watching how these movies would turn out especially after the approach of the second of the four movies. I have seen the original series and their movies on a binge watch a long while ago and I'm trying my very best to not compare the two versions unless my friend asks me about the original series... (which he mostly does in this situation...)

In my opinion, these movies are kind of worth it, especially in the pacing department... If I personally wanted to compare the two versions of Evangelion, I would most likely do it the same way I compare Persona 4 to it's anime counterpart... If you don't have the time to go to one of the versions, them by all means go to the other one and draw your own conclusions afterwards...

Now about 3.0 itself... Without spoiling, I will say that I loved it and I can't wait until the final movie... My friends thinks 2.0 was better, which I can understand, but honestly, once the final movie is out on Blu-Ray, I'm more than likely to buy them all at once and then proceed to marathon them all back-to-back...

 

[Zontar]

So far I'm enjoying it on the same level as the first two acts of the show. It's decent, not amazing, but it is something that's enjoyable to watch and seems to be fairly consistent. All I'm worried about is that 3.0 will go full retard on us like act 3 of the show and lose its own footing or, worst, lose all narrative structure (though since it's unlikely they will run out of money again this time, I don't think this will happen).

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

I've seen Eva 3.0. and it was a colossal disappointment.

I loved the first two films. I thought they did a good job at reintroducing the series to a new audience, while still keeping the bare essentials of the series and adding what I think are interesting new ideas.

But man, they dropped the ball with 3.0.

While it does introduce what could've been an interesting new idea, and it certainly takes the series back to its psychological mindfuck routes the series is known for, most of the film was nothing but spectical. Literally the first 30 minutes were just action scenes, with barely, if any, context given. Most of the series characters has barely any screentime or development, and some has gone through a drastic change of character, and were never given an explaination or exploration of those characters. The film doesn't feel like a whole movie, it feels like half a film. I will say, however, that the relationship between Shinji and Kaworu is well-done, and the music is fantastic.

The movie feels like it's been through several rewrites and feels hastily put together. It makes me less enthused to seeing the fourth film. If they fuck up again, then maybe in 20 more years we'll get another Rebuild series.

If you want a better Evangelion movie, watch Madoka Magica: Rebellion. It does the same thing this movie does, but good.

 

[Maxtro]

I just saw it a few hours ago.

It was pretty cool but I was so lost. I saw the original series a long time ago, but I didn't have a clue what was going on in this movie. Yes I saw the other two movies.

 

[Grach]

Okay, I have seen Eva 3.0 and the original series so, my opinions, let me show you them:

It's bad. It's not horrendously bad, but bad enough to notice.

Spoiler: Ye Olden Evangelione Spoileths

So, Shinji wakes up 20 years later, Earth is destroyed and everyone hates him because he destroyed it to save his sweetheart Rei. One would think that the movie would at least show you whats going on with the world, how the 3rd impact affected it. Why there is strange symbols instead of letters, what exactly happened, what are these fucking "Nemesis" angels, right?

It doesn't do any of that. It keeps you so much in the dark that it's kind of a storytelling black hole. In the end, you're just confused and kind of dissapointed that you had to endure shinji's whining and his newfound stupidity, only for it to end in his catatonic state again. Ugh.
Besides, all this protecting the remnants of humanity sounds weird when you don't see anyone other than the main and supporting cast. It just looks too barren to be believable. Even more when WILLE fucking destroys a fleet when they fly their flagship. They're supposed to be the ones PROTECTING humanity.

So yeah, I don't like it.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Piano.

Piano piano piano piano piano piano piano, moon piano piano piano piano hill of corpses, piano piano piano.
Piano? Piano, piano piano.

But at least Asuka got a cool hat.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'm not the biggest fan of the Rebuilds. They've got a lot of visual panache, but that's really it. Where the original series and End of Evangelion were a plate with meat, potatoes, and assorted vegetables, the Rebuilds are just a plate filled with candy; Tasty for the moment, but nothing that's in any way filling.

As for Rebuild 3... It sucks. And that's in comparison to the previous rebuilds which I already don't like too much. It literally feels like nothing happend by the end of it, because nothing really did. They throw in yet another Impact-but-not-really, as if we hadn't had enough of those yet.

The whole plot is horribly forced, where Shinji leaves with Rei because everyone is an asshole to him for no reason at all. This could've been an interesting set-up, seeing as he was originally coddled by nearly everyone, but there's no motivation given other than he might be a walking Impact waiting to happen. It's made even worse when you remember it was Misato egging him on in Rebuild 2 not to give a shit about the rest of the world and just save Rei. And now she's a fucking queen ***** to him. And then they act shocked and surprised when Shinji of all people decides to run away.

This also makes what many consider the best part of the movie, even the people who hated it, completely devoid of any emotional weight; The relationship between Shinji and Kaworu. Even the ripped 'Ode to Joy' scene from the original series fell totally flat.

Meanwhile Mari has managed to become even less pivotal to the plot than she was in Rebuild 2, Kaji, Toji, and Suzuhara are never followed up on, and Eva pilots don't age just cuz.

But I guess it looked nice.

 

[Azkar Almsivi]

3.0 was great, that's my opinion. I let my self get immersed in it and immensely enjoyed myself and had a lot to think about. Then I talk to some people about it and see them pull out their anime tropes checklist, "Anything I dislike is garbage" notepad with bullet points and their amateur reviewer fedora and I just leg it.

I think my parrot is in the oven. Goodbye thread. This wasn't bait, please continue your hatewagon in peace.

 

[UPISTRVIMYD]

3.0 was Anno spitting in the face of everyone who enjoyed the past two films. The energy? Gone. The interesting ways old characters could have developed? Oh look everyone hates Shinji now, Rei is back to her original self, and Gendo looks like Keel Lorenz... brilliant. Everything from the trailer? Gone, except for Kaworu. Look, I enjoyed his episode in the original as best I could, but we did NOT need a whole movie of him and Shinji dicking about while the world crumbles around them; if you must do that, save it for the inevitable EOE remake 4.0 is going to doubtlessly be at this point. The whole movie was a slow, boring, frustrating mess that literally spent half it's runtime throwing random footage at us until Fuutsyuki, bless his soul, dragged Shinji's useless ass into a room and laid down the "Evangelion," so to speak. Then Kaworu and Shinji play panner and inspire Pacific Rim. Shit goes wrong, the end of 2.0 happens AGAIN, and Asuka drags Shinji off into the sunset, presumably to beat some sense into him.

What a fucking waste.

Rebuild has always had some story problems(namely the fact that Mari is literally pointless to the point of actually being detrimental to the plot and only exists for merchandising purposes), but this movie's attempt at giving us things from "Shinji's perspective" was utterly moronic. NO ONE LIKES SHINJI, ANNO. We watch in hopes he will man up. He did, then you neutered the plot with a chainsaw.

Congratulations.

 

[Zetatrain]

EVA 1.0 was a stripped down version of the first 5 or six episodes, but it covers most of the major plot points of said episodes so it was nice refresher that set the stage for the upcoming movies.

EVA 2.0 in my opinion was brilliant, it was a excellent combination of old and new material, battles were awesome, and it showed great hope for Shinji's future development as a character.

EVA 3.0...was a disappointment to say the least. It had good battles but even then I think they took up a bit too much time. They should have either cut out the second fight or at significantly reduced it's time.

Now as much as I like the first two EVA movies I will admit that some of the character were in dire need attention and character development. EVA 3.0 is where, IMO, Anno's efforts should have been focused. Instead we get a new world, new characters, both of which get very little explanation and the same goes for the old characters as well.

All of this is due to the fact that most of the movie is focused on Kaworu and Shinji. Now while I do believe that movie handles the relationship between the two rather well, the Kaworu and shinji dynamic is not enough to cover 1/2 of the movie and it just gets boring and tedious after awhile.

To top it all off, and I didn't think it was possible, Shinji by the end of this film is an even greater emotional wreck than he ever was in the series. I get that Anno's going for the "things will get worse before they get better" approach, but given that there is so much left to do and only one more movie to go I am doubtful that the final movie will be able to successfully wrap everything up.

EVA 3.0 has so much to say, and so little time and yet Anno neglects most of it in favor of the Kaworu shinji dynamic which just doesn't justifying taking up 1/2 of the movie. I'll still watch the final movie when it comes out, and while I do want it to give the series a proper conclusion, I'm a bit less than optimistic at the moment.

 

[Dyan]

It just seemed kinda "meh" to me. I can remember plenty of great moments from the first two Rebuild movies, but 3.0 just blends into this grey mess. I guess the action was good, but again not many scenes that stood out from the first two movies.

 

[Chavendi]

I love the first two because and most people see to think the same thing. I share a different opinion on the third film than most people.
I for one think the third film was genius.
By keeping us out of the loop we identify with Shinji. It would have been easy to explain some of these loose ends everyone complains about with a few sentences exchanged by the supporting cast. However we feel his frustration of not knowing, we feel confused and are being kept so out of the loop that while all these giant battles are taking place we can't help but feel like something is not right with everyone. The only character that makes any sense is Kaworu and that is exactly how Shinji sees it.
Yes the film as a standalone is horrible but it was known from the beginning that there would be more films. This third film was necessary if the fourth one is to be something extraordinary and not just a rip off of "End of Evangelion" or something along those lines. I do however keep an open mind and it is entirely possible that the creators will drop the ball so hard with the next film that it will shake the Earth but I think the awkward third film was needed to build something greater.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

It's an insult to Evangelion fans, it's an insult to people who like to watch films, and it's an insult to storytelling in general. It takes a full third of the movie before any sort of context is even established. Character motivations are nonexistent and the changes in their personalities never justified. Its first 10 minutes consist of dialogue that matters so little it might not be there at all and some flashy action porn without any context or setup. The first 30 minutes are nothing but action scenes with absolutely nothing explained.

It's a terrible, indulgent, poorly told incomprehensible mess. I can just imagine Anno laughing his ass off at all the pathetic attempts to "dig into the undertones" and "analyzing the religious subtext".

 

[Chavendi]

It's an insult to Evangelion fans, it's an insult to people who like to watch films, and it's an insult to storytelling in general. It takes a full third of the movie before any sort of context is even established. Character motivations are nonexistent and the changes in their personalities never justified. Its first 10 minutes consist of dialogue that matters so little it might not be there at all and some flashy action porn without any context or setup. The first 30 minutes are nothing but action scenes with absolutely nothing explained.

It's a terrible, indulgent, poorly told incomprehensible mess. I can just imagine Anno laughing his ass off at all the pathetic attempts to "dig into the undertones" and "analyzing the religious subtext".

Woah, chillax kid you are going to blow a fuse. What context and/or character motivations are we missing after the first 10-15 minutes? They explained everything, quickly yes but explained never the less. As I stated in my previous post, we are seeing the events happen from Shinji's perspective. If you focus on more than one perspective certain sides become one dimensional and one dimensional characters are not the reason NGE fans love the series.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

What context and/or character motivations are we missing after the first 10-15 minutes?

I don't know if they were explained earlier in the 3.0 version, but in 3.33 15 minutes in we have the following questions unanswered:
- Why was Unit 01 floating in orbit in a cube-cross?
- Why was Unit 02 sent to retrieve it?
- Why is everyone acting so coldly towards Shinji?
- Why are we in (apparently) an arctic sea with a naval fleet instead of NERV headquarters?
- Why is there no sign of Rei?
- What is the Nemesis series, and why are the characters fighting against it?
- Why is there no sign of Kaji anywhere? This remains unexplained for the whole movie
- Why does everything look like the aftermath of Second Impact, especially when we saw Third Impact get aborted by Kaworu at the end of 2.0?
- Why haven't Mari and Asuka aged a day despite the 14-year gap?

And the movie only serves to bring up dozens more during its runtime.

 

[Loop Stricken]

- Why haven't Mari and Asuka aged a day despite the 14-year gap?

That part, I seem to recall, is explained. Or at least it's been explained to me at some time. Basically it's a side-effect of being immersed in LCL for so long - they just stop ageing.

Also it's so they can still market the characters out as 14-year old fapbait.
But come on, Asuka looks cool in that hat.

 

[debtcollector]

I can't really say this with certainty until 4 shows up, but I feel like 3.0 was a good idea that tried far too many new things to make good on them. The way I see it, 3.0 tried to juggle a fuckton of new balls--14-year timeskip, pilot immortality, possible angel in Asuka's eye, Wille, Adams vessels, new Rei, new Angels, new Evas, new Spears, airship, Neo-Tokyo obliterated, to name but a few--and I really don't think that half of these will be resolved to any satisfaction by the end of the Rebuilds. I'm impressed in the direction they tried to take Evangelion, but I feel they should have done it sooner instead of teasing us with minor aberrations throughout the first two.

As for the movie itself, I found it the least engaging of the three so far. Maybe the separation from everything familiar is what triggered it, but I felt like I was just following Shinji around without actually learning anything about anything. After being presented with effectively an entirely new world, we are shown a few new features, but we don't get any context for why they are. So we just sort of watch it, waiting for cool stuff to happen. Over time, I've grown to accept the timeskip as a pretty interesting tool, but again it raises far more questions than it answers, which is par for the course, I suppose, but infuriating nonetheless.

What I was hoping for 3.0 after 2.0 went eight-ways bananas at the end was for an ensemble production featuring Emotion Rei, Injured Asuka, Bewildered Shinji, Smug-Ass Kaworu, and Mysterious Mari (who would actually, you know, do something), wherein the five have interpersonal drama, conflicting emotions, ulterior motives, and general mistrust. You know, Eva stuff. Instead, the only character interaction we got was between Kaworu and Shinji, which, while well done, is insufficient to carry most films, particularly not one with this many irons in the fire. Maybe we shouldn't have focused so much on Shinji's perspective.

Yeah, I'll just say that. TL;DR, Shinji fucked it all up.

EDIT:

- Why haven't Mari and Asuka aged a day despite the 14-year gap?

I'm actually hoping that Shinji's being punked. Like, he's only been out for a few months, a year at most, and everyone's just fucking with him for reasons. It would certainly be more believable than the fluid they had since the beginning somehow causes eternal life and nobody knew it.

 

[SajuukKhar]

- Why was Unit 01 floating in orbit in a cube-cross?
- Why was Unit 02 sent to retrieve it?
- Why is everyone acting so coldly towards Shinji?
- Why are we in (apparently) an arctic sea with a naval fleet instead of NERV headquarters?
- Why is there no sign of Rei?
- What is the Nemesis series, and why are the characters fighting against it?
- Why is there no sign of Kaji anywhere? This remains unexplained for the whole movie
- Why does everything look like the aftermath of Second Impact, especially when we saw Third Impact get aborted by Kaworu at the end of 2.0?
- Why haven't Mari and Asuka aged a day despite the 14-year gap?

- It was put there by NERV as part of gendo's "master plan", and Evangelion has always used christian imagery.
- So that WILLE could use it to power Wunder
- Because he killed most of the known world after illegally hijacking military equipment for his own personal gain?
- Because WILLE is fighting NERV?
- She ded
- Artificial Evangelion/angel hybrid things, and because NERV sent them.
- Because he isn't important any longer and likely dead.
- Because it wasn't, Near Third Impact was stopped, what Shinji did set into motion a series of events that started the REAL third impact.
- curse of EVA resulting from prolonged LCL exposure.

 

[debtcollector]

- It was put there by NERV as part of gendo's "master plan", and Evangelion has always used christian imagery.
- So that WILLE could use it to power Wunder
- Because he killed most of the known world after illegally hijacking military equipment for his own personal gain?
- Because WILLE is fighting NERV?
- She ded
- Artificial Evangelion/angel hybrid things, and because NERV sent them.
- Because he isn't important any longer and likely dead.
- Because it wasn't, Near Third Impact was stopped, what Shinji did set into motion a series of events that started the REAL third impact.
- curse of EVA resulting from prolonged LCL exposure.

The best part about this post is how many of these were explained in the movie. Seriously, the only ones that they even touched on were Rei and why they got Unit-01 back. And considering how freaked out everyone got when Misato used it to power the boat, I doubt that's why they wanted it.

Everything else was not mentioned in the movie, and only comes from Word of God or speculation on the wikis or something. Which is not how you make movies, man.

 

[SajuukKhar]

The best part about this post is how many of these were explained in the movie. Seriously, the only ones that they even touched on were Rei and why they got Unit-01 back. And considering how freaked out everyone got when Misato used it to power the boat, I doubt that's why they wanted it.

Everything else was not mentioned in the movie, and only comes from Word of God or speculation on the wikis or something. Which is not how you make movies, man.

Whut? did you mean weren't explained? because the rest of your post doesn't make sense if you did mean to say were explained.

Also.
-The giant space-cross holding EVA01 has the Neo-NERV logo on it, so we know it was made by them, and Gendo says "everything is going according to plan" like twice in the movie, so we know everything that happens is according to his plan.

-They got freaked out because Mistao wanted to start Wunder right away, without doing any prelim tests, not because she used Eva 1 to power the Wunder. This is outright stated to be their concern.

-The WILLIE crew show their hatred of Shinji when he asks to pilot the EVA, showing that is tied to why they hate him, and given how we are outright told everyone blamed him for the state of the world.... its not even speculation as to why they hate him.

-Mistao both specifically says they are fighting NERV, and that Rei is dead, during the scene where ReiQ takes Shinji.

-The space-Nemesis unit have the IPEA logo on them, and they have giant eva legs coming out of them, so we know IPEA is working with NERV, as they were in the Neo-Nerv space cross, that they built the nemesis units, and WILIIE even says they are fighting NERV, so its easy to deduce where the nemesis came from.

-Kaji not being important to the movie isn't speculation ,the fact he isn't in it shows he isn't important to THAT movie.

-Again, what happened during third impact/near third impact is mind-crushingly easy to deduce from what we say in the movie.

Absolutely none of this requires word-of-god quotes or speculation, it just requires that you actually PAY ATTENTION, to the movie.