Review of Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo

Quite possibly one of the worst Anime Films that I have ever seen. And I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say so. While I'm sure there are other Films in the Anime Medium that are far worse, judging from what I've seen - this is the absolute worst so far. Its position in the Evangelion Franchise is confusing. As even people who liked the more campy/bombastic bad Michael Bay esq. parody movies like Evangelion 2.0 cannot defend this in terms of its entertainment value. The only thing that gets people to defend this garbage project is rabid-fanboyism. Contrary to popular belief, this film isnot in the least psychological, although it is framed as such. I could understand people mistaking it for a psychological film due to its presentation, however the content runs completely hollow. The Plot doesn't make any sense, the action sucks and the CGI is overused but that is the least of our concerns. The biggest problem is that there isn't a shred of substance in any of the dialogue. The characters aside from Kaoru and Shinji are not even given much screen-time or any meaningful lines and what happened in this 14 year timeskip after N3I (that was somehow Shinji's fault - but not really because they retconned it, a movie later) made the other characters unbearably disconnected. Misato is not Misato, Asuka has very little dialogue, we never get to know how she feels, she's completely forgotten. Rei is just a hollow emotionless doll - which ironically goes towards the opposite of what Rei's development was meant to represent in Eva, making her a fucking parody of herself. Shinji's just depressed as usual but somehow comes across completely emotionless this time instead of being lonely. Which at some point started to get on my nerves. Not only are the characters a parody of their original counterparts with any sort of depth removed, they are also hollow figures within the narrative, thereby making the Film not only shallow but also boring.

Now a rabid fanboy will say: that was the intent. Anno wanted to make you feel disconnected. Let's grant him that, however one must ask to the purpose of such a decision, to which a rabid fanboy may reply: It reflects Anno's mental state. That counterpoint is meaningless, to put it bluntly. The Room reflects Tommy Wiseau's mental state. Batman & Robin reflects Joel Schumacher's mental state. However does that make "The Room" or "Batman & Robin" good movies? Precisely Not. Every Art-piece reflects the Author, but whether that Art-piece itself is meaningful has nothing to do with who the Author is. I have seen countless videos of rabid fanboys trying their hardest to analyze this Film to reach for a message and they all fail. They try to assert that Anno gave the Otaku what they wanted by trying to show them what their decisions lead to. The truth is: he made a bad corny blockbuster movie out of Evangelion and then tried to counter it by making an even more shallow yet meaningless piece to cash off of rabid fanboys that being as pretentious as they are, eat the same Otaku crap that they claim this movie criticizes, despite the rebuilds being the same Otaku garbage that they think it's not.