User reviews

14 years after the Third Impact, Shinji Ikari awakens in an unfamiliar world where he's blamed for the destroyed world. Misato Katsuragi now leads an organization, Wille, along with several other former Nerv members including Asuka in a battle against Nerv and Shinji's father Gendo. When Shinji is rescued from Wille by Rei (or what appears to be Rei) Shinji is taken to the ruins of Nerv headquarters where Gendo is still working with Rei and Kaworu Nagisa on plans to bring about Human Instrumentality.

Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, the third in Hideaki Anno's Rebuild of Evangelion film series, is probably the most ambitious of the series yet with the moviemaking a fourteen year time jump and creating a desolate red landscape with the characters we've come to know unrecognizable in the time since we've last seen them. While certainly ambitious, I find myself at odds with myself over the end product. On the one hand the movie goes into a bold direction the series has not yet traversed, but on the other hand I can't really say it does it well.

When the movie starts, we're thrown into an elaborate fight scene in Earth orbit with Asuka and another Eva pilot, Mari (who was introduced in the previous film, but factored so little into the plot I didn't even mention her in the previous review) fighting against an unknown enemy while escorting a package back to Earth. In terms of opening sequences it's a well-choregraphed sequence that's unlike any of the other fight sequences we've seen in the TV series or other Rebuild films so it gets off on the right foot....and then Shinji comes into the story. When Shinji comes into the story not only are we thrown into an unfamiliar environment with Misato Katsuragi piloting a ship called the "Wunder" now carrying a hardened edge and telling Shinji to "do nothing" which leads into a lengthy fight sequence against more nameless enemies before we're given very vague exposition on the "Third Impact" Shinji caused in the last movie that completely ignores the post credit scene where Kaworu stopped the Third Impact which leads to lingering questions that are never really answered over the course of the film. Even the time jump feels like this movie is detached from the other two films and dangling plot threads are just brushed by the wayside.

Despite the many missteps taken by Evangelion 3.0, I do think it does some things well. Shinji's relationship with Kaworu Nagisa was a large point of praise in episode 24 of the TV series, and the film expands on that relationship here giving us more time with Kaworu and Shinji in some truly amazing scenes such as the scenes of the two of them playing pion together or watching the stars. It's unfortunate that there aren't more of these types of character moments with other characters and instead the movie often feels like it's ambling along in search of a direction. Despite being the shortest of the Rebuild of Evangelion film series, Evangelion 3.0 feels like the longest because there's a barrier erected between the audience and characters that never really gives way through the entirety of the running time. The cold indifference with which Shinji is treated by Wille coupled with Shinji's regression to a state of helplessness feels like it's there simply to drive Shinji to Gendo and Nerv because it needs Shinji to bring about the Fourth Impact. Why exactly? I'm not sure, granted Gendo says it's to reunite with his wife Yui, but given the state of the post Third Impact world a Fourth Impact feels like it'd be putting a hat on a hat at this point. I wasn't particularly invested in the characters making up Wille because despite them being characters we've come to know over the course of two films and the TV series, for all intents and purposes they may as well be different characters.

Evangelion 3.0 is frustrating. While the film takes a massive departure from the original narrative of the series going into new territory, it does so rather sloppily brushing aside the plot threads from the previous two films and leaving us in a state of confusion for most of the runtime that leaves us not only wondering what's going on but why should we care. There are glimpses of greatness such as the elaboration on Kaworu and Shinji's relationship, but for the most part the movie feels mostly like a "bridge" episode of this film series whose job is only to keep the seat warm until the real sequel comes out.

Finally new material after years of remakes and recycled material and reshuffled scenes.

It is glorious to behold!

But, at the same time, it was a whole lot of setup and build up for the final part in the series. So, it didn't have as much bang as I would have liked.

Overall, it's very true to what came before, and it's nice to see these characters doing something new even if it was a bit of a tease to wait for the final movie.

"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.

The Rebuild saga blazes onward in Anno's world flipping master act. This is the world of Evangelion unlike anything that's been done before, boasting a new, clear and confident vision that brings our heroes and anti-heroes through endless strife and the most horrific of imaginable emotional confrontations. At times it's hard to watch for that reason, but the fact that an 'out' even exists, in all of its mysterious grandeur, shows us that this doesn't have to be the end… and it's already gone beyond THE End that we've previously been met with.

Atmosphere is what the entire movie is about. Dialogue is minimal, and much is left to the visuals to tell the story of the Fourth Impact. Those visuals are quite unlike much else I've seen in a film, carrying on Evangelion's hellish, dreamlike tradition of an original, complex, and thought-provoking art direction. The cryptic nature of every artistic level, be it writing, animation, design, or music cues, that the feature works on, recalls once again, the work of Stanley Kubrick and his 'Kubrick's Cube' of visual parallelism. Aside for some visual nods to Kubrick's work (2001: A Space Odyssey, in particular), Hideaki Anno produces a visual wonder through animation, as he has with the previous Evangelion entries (and the parallels between NGE and Rebuild, in their universe hand-offs, progressions, and quantum entanglements), and goes above and beyond. It's truly a masterpiece worthy of seemingly endless dissection.

One shot that stands out in particular for me is Shinji, listening to his Walkman in the foetal position in the ruins of NERV HQ as the green grass that has grown through the oppressive concrete floor over time rustles softly in the wind. It's melancholic and establishes the feeling of the film's middle act- its heart. Between that is the confusion of being in Shinji's shoes and facing a world fourteen years passes, for what is mere moments for him. It is effectively soul-crushing, driving one to desire a brighter future for all who still live on the Earth; but there's no way it will ever be reached without a battle hard-fought.

This is much the story of two particular characters, Shinji and Kaworu than the others and while at times that can feel disappointing, to recognize the importance of the plot's gaze is essential to understanding where the Rebuild is going. For every time I crave more of Mistato's development or an appearance from Kaji, the look back toward Shinji and Kaworu is ultimately as fulfilling. Visually, the movie presents so much to analyze and merely take in, that I feel we'll have enough to puzzle over right up until 4.0— Final. It's an absolute beauty, and to watch it in anything less than high definition is more than a disservice.

As if the startling premise wasn't enough of a radical change, the final 20 or so minutes takes Evangelion to unheard of heights and, in some cases, lows. These are the best kinds of each.

Though I can understand the dislike for this movie from fans of Evangelion, I urge them to look back upon it with eyes and a mind free of expectations and see it as something that isn't meant to be the Evangelion we know- the point of the movie is to venture into the unknown, not follow the path we've seen in Neon Genesis; from the end of 2.22, it would seem this was made clear.

It's new, it's mysterious, and quickly advancing toward a new ending that could be the end of all things, the breaking of the cycle that we've been experiencing for the past 18 years, across anime, manga, and feature film. But what is the element that Shinji must perform to finally defy every quantifiable expectation? Let's see what Mr. Anno has to present him.

"Everybody finds love in the end..."

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.

I must have watched the End of Evangelion about 50 times. I absolutely loved everything about the original series and, to this date, i still think the original ending is my single most favorite piece of media. That's part of the reason why i wasn't very excited with the whole rebuild thing at first, and especially seeing as how the ending was going to be changed.

This movie has totally redeemed rebuild for me. It has turned out to not be the visually better, slightly refined more-of-the-same I (and perhaps several others) were expecting. It is a different story, but it's more of the genius Anno building on the core concepts that made Evangelion the classic it is.

The Eva fan will find an alien world, the grand-scheme of things that helped you understand the original series (if you ever did try) has changed, shifted. And just like in the original, that grand-scheme isn't really critical information, because the center of Evangelion is the story of Shinji Ikari dealing with a (now completely) hostile world that will try to manipulate, shock and break him in every way.

To those that are disappointed and confused about this movie just as i was when i first watched End of Eva, i personally recommend to watch it again as many times as necessary, as the story has several "layers", like any great work of art.

I haven't checked who wrote Evangelion 3.0 but it's worlds apart compared to the first 2 movies with countless discrepancies throughout the script. In the 2 first movies the main character (Shinji) was infatuated with Misato and then fell in love with Ayanami. At the same time Misato and Ayanami also had feelings for Shinji. So when the 3 movie starts and Misato finally sees Shinji after 14 years she is stone cold something which continues for the first half of the movie. Now i know that Shinji and EVA where responsive for the near-third impact so some people got mad at him but at the end of the day Shinji didn't wish for that nor did he do something for that to happen, it just did so behaving in such an irrational way towards him is not something i would expect. Also for most of the movie Shinji is not at the helm of an EVA something we were used in the first 2 movies and perhaps that's the main problem with this Evangelion. You see just like their can't be a Gundam SEED/Destiny without Kira Yamato flying a Gundam there can't be an Evangelion without Shinji inside an EVA. Bottom line poor implementation of something that could had been a great Evangelion movie.

After watching the 2.0 rebuild I was hyped to see the 3rd part. 3rd part of the rebuild series came off as a major disappointment and look no further than that.

The stroy was just atrocious, a 15 year time skip! And the number of flaws and inconsistencies. For like 27 min we don't get any exposition and even after we got some details alot of my questions were still answered. The pacing was really bad. The final battle was like half the movie. And we get these usless dialogues and scenes which don't even mean anything. And lastly for the plot it doesnt even make sense, after I watched 2.0 I thought it would go in any interesting direction but no it just hit a dead end. Oh my the characters what in the world did they do to the lineup. They skipped 15 years of character development and we don't get any background details deep enough for it to make much sense. The characters are shells of their former selves.

The constant mix of CGI with hand drawn animation was really annoying, there was too much CGI at times and the animation production dipped a bit compared to the prequel. The music composition and sound choices were similiar to the prequel.

Never watching this movie again...

First: If you didn't enjoy the first two movies, don't get your hopes up. This movie is a prologue to the 4th movie, if anything. It throws questions on your face untill the end, and gives like 3 answers only. The remaining you will get only in the last movie (hopefully), that will release next year. Also there's no character development, not even THAT new character since it has been done in the anime before, nothing new here. If you really want to watch the Rebuild series until the end, then wait until next year to watch it. That way you won't need to wait ages to get the answers.

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.

Can redo - Ayanami and Ikari - cannot redo

Can redo - NERV and WILLE - cannot redo

Can redo - Music and Fate - cannot redo

Can redo - Sin and Hope - cannot redo

Can redo - Yui and Rei - cannot redo

Can redo - Adam and Lilith - cannot redo

Can redo - Human Instrumentality - cannot redo

6/10.

Asuka is my favorite character in this anime franchise. All her scenes are fantastic. The problem is, she deserves more. Shinji is really hard to relate to and like in this movie. I wish she was the main focus instead of Stupid Shinji. He literally has not changed at all.

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.

A fantastic continuation of the mecha series, Evangelion Movie 3: Q has a bizarre and thought-provoking plot. With a focus on examining the psychological and emotional effects of apocalyptic events, director Hideaki Anno delves deeply into character intricacies and unveils new mysteries. The animation in the movie is amazing; it features violent mecha fights, breathtaking scenery, and bizarre scenes. The intricate story provides significant insights about the nature of Eva units and the protagonists' psychological difficulties. Fans of the mecha genre and beyond will find Movie 3: Q to be a daring and thought-provoking addition to the Evangelion series, combining philosophical depth, innovative visuals, and an engrossing story to produce an outstanding cinematic experience.