Review of Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo
I liked the first two rebuild movies, I really did. I gave both of them an 8/10 and while the second movie was a little lower on that spectrum, It came through in the end by fully realizing my absolute favorite angel battle of the old TV series, it was really that awesome. And boy was all of those angel fights just wonderful! Absolute splendors to behold, at least all the ones they focused on which is the reason I say 2.0 is a low 8, but boy did it set me up for the 3rd movie! I'd get to see shinji get turned intogoop along with Rei and they would have their moment and we'd find out what happended to Shinji's mother and Kaworu seemed to have been built up pretty good so I wouldn't doubt that the final battle at the end of the movie wouldn't be even better than the one in the TV Evangelion. There was even a trailer at the end of the second movie that seemed be just that: the last arc of the show, and it was glorious.
.
.
.
And then I saw 3.0, and it wasn't what I wanted, it wasn't the trailer that was shown to everyone at the end of the second film, it was Anno's fan fiction fun time, oh boy was it Anno's fan fiction fun time. Look, I love Anno's NGE, I love how Anno's His and Her Circumstances is shaping up to be, and I loved his live action film: Love and Pop, and I certainly loved the first two Rebuild films; so why did we get Anno's fan fiction fun time?
This movie wouldn't even have been that bad if it came after the rebuild's version of the Death of Evangelion film, it would have been kind of dumb, but I would have still had fun watching it. I still like all of Anno's things too, he did pretty good with the Rebuild films even, so why in God's name did this have to come after the second film right after Kaworu had clearly stopped the third impact?
Just watch the first two films, and when the credits are done, stop. There is no need to watch this: all the character that you loved become unlikable jerks, Kaworu is never gets fully realized as a character, Genji is barely in this film at all, Rei was completely sidelined, and to top it all off every new thing they put in this movie makes as little sense as everything at the end of Death of Evangelion times three, and might as well have just been Shinji's dream all along after being turned into literal TANG; but it isn't.
Now that I mention Shinji, he is the best character in this film. Since all the other character decided to either be mostly dead, barely shown, or a caricature of an authoritative character that appears in every teenage-pandering story, he is by default the most relatable character here, because he is about as lost as you will be if you do decide to watch 3.0, and you will have given up on life just like Shinji when the credits roll. This movie could have been great, but this wasn't what they had promised after the 2nd film now was it?
I could tell you what exactly happened in this movie, but I think I'm already doing you a favor by telling you to just leave it at 2.0; You really don't need that movie spoiled for you.