Protraph
Lack of good storyline.
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Claire Dunne
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
lightningbarer
I've argued against the consensus that Hideaki Anno hate's his fans before, I've tried to say that just because he feels the need to change some things and dislikes rabid Evatards, it's not reason to think him wrong. This movie has changed my opinion of him.I'll say this first off, you want to change continuity in a story, fine. It's your work, you can do whatever the hell you want with it, whether it's a good thing or not, we've seen that with some of the best sci-fi epics in the last 40 years.But don't expect to write utter rubbish and not be called out for it.A lot has been said on the depression that Anno went through in the writing process of the Eva TV series and how it's effected his story structure, you can see it around the mid-point of the series changing gears at a horrible rate, if I'm honest, this movie shows that he needs someone to rein him in, there have been changes to story structure(I mean 14 years of character destruction just because he wanted it) additions and retcons.This movie is a mess, from start to finish there seems to be no reason for it, nothing really happens in this other than build-up for the final movie. We've had major reset buttons being hit for major characters, we've had horrible, disgusting plot conveniences of no-aging for the Eva pilots without anything substantial being shown for them and the burden of spending 14 years in an adolescent's body (you know, the whole tortured Claudia style character). A major character was introduced just to be killed off, without any major development! AGAIN! I could let Anno off in the series, he'd come up with a brilliant idea, but the money was running out and he had to cut and paste together a quick resolution to probably the most important character interaction for Shinji. But doing this. After Two Films of build up, with a full movie to show just the blossoming friendship and possible love between a young man and an alien in the guise of a young man. This is unforgivable, I can't forgive a horrid mess of this mistake, Anno had the chance to give us what he'd complained so much about before. And he gives us the same basic thing, no character development, a choice to kill or not to kill and a breakdown of a Human mind.Like I said before, if you want to change continuity then that's perfectly fine, I don't mind that. Lucas and Roddenberry both did the same with their stories(with a sliding scale of success). Now I know he'd already changed a lot of stuff in continuity by the second movie, but doing this is idiotic, he's changed continuity within his own movie series, while it's still running. You don't DO that. Breaking continuity while you are still telling the story doesn't work, saying something like: "billy went to the supermarket and picked up dry cleaning from the laundromat for his new book, then on his way home, Jenny found a £1000 and was evicted from her home because she was flat broke" yes there's a story there, but it doesn't make a lick of sense.In essence, that is what he has done here, taking a story structure of "there was the First Impact 65million years ago, Humans came, then Second Impact came with Adam and brought the Angels, a union between Adam and Lilth will bring Third Impact, causing the end of the world." And stating now "Whoa, what are you saying, Third Impact is just a step along to the Apocalypse of Fourth Impact, didn't I mention that before?" If you'd stated that Third Impact was the end of the world, then stick to that and show a world in Purgatory for the third movie, you know because Kaworu stopped it at the end of the second movie. That could work, 14 years of a living purgatory would harden anyone, even people like Misato. So you can create a sacrificial Saviour of Shinji for the Fourth movie, you know like you're planning to do anyway.The visuals are the only major tent pole holding this film up, because that're amazing as usual, but as for the rest, it's terrible.The story is crap. It's a reason to turn away from the Rebuild series, I'll still see the final movie, mainly because I'm in too deep now and just have to hold my nose and swim through, if I'd fallen in on this just now, I'd have been easily able to give it up.The only bright point is that I've got the full series limited addition boxset on my shelf and all the movies, that's enough for me and even though it's ending is as convoluted as this one is currently, I'm more willing to forgive that than this. Hideaki Anno hasn't impressed me with this sharp right turn, can his final movie change my opinion. I seriously doubt it.
Space-Sweeper
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..."
Nik Kastrantas
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.
Manuel de la Fe
This movie is simply the complete destruction of several years of work, and all the expectation of the Evangelion fans.The 1.0 and 2.0 movies are good anime, with the limitation of the time to tell the history, but retelling the original plot clearly.The 3.0 chapter is full of plot holes. The history is simply ridiculous and breaks any previous relationship with the decent Rebuild movies and the superb 90's anime series.Hideaki Anno, like George Lucas did previously, has destroyed in one movement a legendary legacy.It has no remedy for this. The last Rebuild 4.0, looking the preview scenes showed at the end of the movie, could be worst than 3.0.