Review of Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo
Oh, Evangelion. What to do with you. Let's start with what little good there was. While I can't truly judge the art, as I only saw a camrip, it seems to have the same quality as the previous two movies - that is, very good. At times things seems very busy, like there was a lot of junk on the screen that didn't need to be there and a lot of unnecessary camera work (rotating around and such), but maybe those things would be fine in a normal presentation, rather than a camrip. That's all I'll say on that, as any morewould be speculation.
The soundtrack was, as always, top notch. Wonderful orchestral and choral compositions provided an excellent soundscape for the movie. I didn't pay much attention to the sound effects (camrip), but they certainly seemed functional. However, I've listened to the OST over and over, and it's still fantastic. Great soundtrack.
Unfortunately, that's where the good in this movie stops. I've been a fan of NGE since watching the TV series five years ago, loving the characters, art, music, and plot. The first Rebuild movie blew me away, and the second excited and intrigued me for what was to come. After watching Rebuild 3, I was sorely, sorely disappointed.
If you came into this expecting any of what was in the last movie's teaser to happen, think again. I don't believe a single scene from the teaser was present in this movie, and it almost makes me wonder if I watched the right thing. Obviously I did, but there should not be that much of a disconnect.
The major problem is that this movie plays out as though it was written by someone who saw only the faces of the characters and heard only the ending of Rebuild 2. NOTHING is the same as how it was before. Unit-00 makes the tiniest of cameos (I think; remember, this was a camrip), Unit-01 is present but never really visible, and Unit-02 is barely anything like its original imagining. Mari now pilots Unit-08, Rei pilots Unit-09, and Shinji pilots Unit-13. Almost everyone has a new plugsuit.
Worse still, the pilots are still their same ages, but everyone and everything else has aged fourteen years since the end of the second movie. This means we see characters that never existed before, don't see characters that are familiar, and Misato, Ritsuko, Gendo, and Fuyutsuki are all older and not really displayed in any capacity that reminds you of how they once were. NERV is almost gone, and there's a new rebel faction that's been fighting it. None of it offers any connection to past movies, and its presentation makes the movie feel like a completely different movie with pseudo-familar NGE faces pasted on top.
Kaworu is present and plays what we're told is an important role, but the movie could've gone on without him. The Rei that's present is a different clone from the one in the two previous movies, and adds nothing to the movie. Mari has as little development and character as before. And finally, the plot is pointless and meandering. The movie is truly little more than, "Okay, you just saw Third Impact, now let's kick off Fourth Impact." It's bad.
If you were hoping for a triumphant third installment in the Rebuild movie quadrilogy, I'm sorry. This isn't it. This is a poorly made, poorly executed failure of a movie.