Forum - View topicREVIEW: Evangelion 3.33: You Can (Not) Redo Blu-Ray
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Panoptican
Posts: 160 |
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Great review. My biggest issue with 3.33 is that I have no idea what's happening with the fourth movie. I remember telling some friends that it would be hard to truly judge 3.33 until after I've seen the next movie. It's now years later and I'm no longer sure there will ever be a another Evangelion movie. If there isn't that would be truly sad. Evangelion could still be a solid third movie out of a four movie series, but it makes a terrible finale and end to one anime's biggest franchises.
Last edited by Panoptican on Tue Feb 02, 2016 4:49 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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This movie is pathetic. Limp, rote, tiresome and broken. It adds no value to the overall series of movies and completely derails the momentum and story arcs of the previous two. Misato, Asuka, Mari, Rei, and any character who isn't Shinji or Kaworu are merely window dressing, and even then, they have to force Shinji into a situation that a short conversation would fix utterly just to push him into that "lesson" that he's already basically learned, only to leave him exactly the same at the end as he was at the beginning. When even the naval-gazing is anemic and wanting, you know they've failed at even the basic thematic thrust of Evangelion, shoving narrative out the window for the sole purpose of delaying the conclusion, giving us nothing to chew on but visuals and cheap "feels".
It's a truly disgusting production whose self-indulgent claptrap fully realizes the "Evangelion is pretentious nonsense" charge leveled at the franchise years ago, as if to justify that notion and exalt it, whether knowingly or not. It's so sickingly self-assured by its own brilliance it takes no time to serve anything but its own notion of its weight, eschewing even basic plot structure not for some avant garde or novel new intellectual vision, but rather a needlessly overextended conceit better examined in the previous films. The great lengths they go to put Shinji in that position are laughably overcomplicated and unnecessary and threaten to throw the baby out with the bath water to make a(n impotent) point about isolation. Garbage to the nth degree. Everybody involved in the production of this insult should be taken to task for wasting money on a lot of mindless distraction while they think up the next chapter. It sickens me to the very core that anyone can praise this in the slightest, as even the production values seem lesser and the action elements are just rattling keys for infants. The much delayed English dub version isn't even of any great improvement on the previous movies'. Spike Spencer still delivers Shinji Ikari's lines as if he's doing a parody and Tiffany Grant fumbles through Asuka's composed contempt and even the less subtle moments with the grace of a falling down drunk. Greg Ayres is the only emotional core in the performances and even he seems bored in a few scenes. Whatever they paid Allison Keith-Shipp was too much, but it has nothing to do with her talent. Khara paid Mitsuishi too much to show up and bark a handful of lines. After all, Misato and Ritsuko as well may as well not have even been in this movie. {Edit: No need for any pointless disgusting comments about Mari and fans. Nor is there any need for your own self promotion link either. ~ Psycho 101} |
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Beized
 Posts: 129 |
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Did you even read the review?
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The.Drmcvey
Posts: 6 |
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Nah, he's too busy promoting his own hate-filled review. :/ |
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The.Drmcvey
Posts: 6 |
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On a side note, I really enjoyed this movie. Yes there are contrivances, but it definitely landed an emotional impact on me. Really enjoyed the quiet scenes in the ruins of Nerv and every moment with Shinji and Kaworu.
It's a well directed film that probably could've gone through a couple of draft re-visions. Also great review Zac. You handled your review in a professional manner, which is something rare to find when it comes to a movie like this. Last edited by The.Drmcvey on Tue Feb 02, 2016 3:52 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
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Real good review Zac, kind of agree with most of it.
If 3.33 has one big handicap though, it's that it feels like an entire movie's worth of events happened between this film and the last. And we as the audience are left just as confused and ignorant as Shinji. This does offer lots of shocks and surprises, but the viewers constantly have to play catch-up. People point to things that either do or do not look familiar to fans and shout things like, "Look, it's changing!". Wait, what's changing? Is that really what I think it is? Why is it like that? Things like that aren't really pass the norm for NGE, granted, but in this instance in just feels a lot more...sloppier, then usual. The original TV series had a very nebulous and mysterious backstory that we don't get to see too much of, and that's fine. The Rebuild films have a very nebulous middle act. Last edited by Shenl742 on Tue Feb 02, 2016 3:55 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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omiya
 Posts: 1827 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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The music didn't work for me when I saw it at the Milano in Seibu-Shinjuku late in 2012. (If the reviewer believes it deserves an A, please say why in the review).
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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There's a lot wrong with this movie. But there's enough good stuff in there too. Frankly the whole first chunk was bad enough to make me angry. With the ship thing. Shinji and bis best Bro in the middle was the highlight.
I'm pretty sure from what I know about Anno, is he purposely went so far off the rails to promise people that this won't be the same thing again. He purposely shattered the expectations of what people were expecting from the 3rd Rebuild. I would have preferred he did that without making so much of the movie bad. I do agree Mari is 120% pointless and hurts every scene she's in. The thing is Rei's character was a pioneer of her archetype. Mari's just kinda a jerk, in a world where everyone is emotionally abusive be default, while not bringing any depth to it. Thinking about it, while The Force Awakens wasn't as twistingly absurd as this movie was, we got a time skip, death of old favorites, and a lot of unexplained stuff. But what TFA did was also pander a ton to the old nostalgia feelings of fans. Eva 3.33 went in such unpredictable territory that NOTHING we know about the franchise really could apply. So if we can get a 4th Eva movie with the making-sense of the previous movies with the uncharted unpredictable path that we have at the end of 3.33. Also I discussed this with some, that this movie also can be seen as Anno trying to use his pet franchise to try and communicate how he feels about the industry. Some want him to carry Miyazaki's torch, but he's also married and settled down now, and now has the legacy of Eva to continue to steer, and the Studio he leads, and the animator expo stuff he helps on. He's feeling just as lost and confused as Shinji in the movie. The core of Shinji sitting around Nerv and talking about his feelings seem to be words out of Anno's own mouth. If you're looking at Eva 3.33 as another chapter in some grand narrative, it will disappoint. But if you're looking at it as a movie that is a door into Anno's mind at the top of the industry, it has much to talk about, and that's the kind of odd psychobabble talk fellow Eva fans and I have enjoyed taking part in for decades. So yeah, it was bad. But its a bad I can enjoy talking about. The reviewer seemed to enjoy analyzing the movie, too. I think we all had fun with it, to a degree. Great review. Digging Deep is half the fun of Eva. Last edited by H. Guderian on Tue Feb 02, 2016 4:01 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Keichitsu0305
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spoiler[Only for 3.0 Rei to pick it up and walk with Shinji and Asuka into oblivion.] So...*shrug* After seeing the Animator Expo short "Until You Come to Me", I honestly believe that there will not be a satisfying way to end the Rebuild series preciscly because Khara are in uncharted territory. There are so many ways to complete Shinji's arc but, much like Rebuild 3.0 or EOE, not everyone will come to the same understanding or enjoyment. I didn't like Rebuild 3.0 in terms of storytelling, the pacing just dragged in the middle, the characters act completely weird for no reason other than "it's a timeskip deal with it" (I hated what they did to Misato or how Asuka seemed more mean spirited than ever) and, yes, the interactions between Kaworu and Shinji felt like fanfic; I still shipped them. So, I ask this: should a strong message/theme be the major factor of a film when the narrative/writing is weak? That's always been my concern with the Eva franchise (the TV series, films, and the Sadamoto's manga to a lesser extent) was that at its core the message of deep seated self-hatred and depression cannot be cured by feather light wish-fulfillment notions such as getting a hot girlfriend or being a badass mecha. BUT at the same time, I love those moments in the series and Rebuild 2.0 where things felt right; the grand monster vs. mecha battles and seeing Shinji relax every now and then. BUT I hate how with each new film I have more questions on the world building than answers spoiler[Why was Shinji in space if they needed Unit 01? How did all those skeletons get in the basement? Did Kaworu have the ability to remember his past lives? The Eva Curse? Really? Just draw them 10 years older. ] I enjoy reading other people's analysis that go beyond "Oh it sucks because not enough action" and I'm glad Zac pointed out the flaws that can't be excused or ignored like the film being split into two parts. I respect Rebuild 3.0 but, now that I get the general idea, I have zero desire to rewatch it anytime soon. If (not when) Rebuild 4.0 comes out, then I know to keep my expectation low to the ground but, be more aware of what Anno is trying to convey. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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spoiler[You made me nervous so I just double-checked and Rei is specifically not shown picking it up. She looks at it - next shot is the horizon. If she had picked it up that would change the meaning of the ending a bit thematically and I'd need to rework that conclusion!] |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2421 Location: Germany |
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I am with penguintruth (5/10 from me) and the only thing you will find after digging is the Holy Grail of Shark Jumps. The one redeeming feature which "saves" the movie are the production values and i had to fast forward through half of it when i gave the "film" a second try after 2 or so years past by. How do you make an entire cast unlikable withing 2 direct entries in a series and how do you make a re-imagining of Ep.24 / Kaworu boring? The manga´s take on him is the best if you ask me and the crazy delays of the last entry (let´s see about that...) speak volumes.
This movie is the textbook definition of how to take palpable forward momentum and then violently choke it do death beyond recovery within 20 minutes. This "film" is what Eva haters accuse the core parts of the franchise to be! I will probability deduct one further point depending on how things will shake out in the end. I couldn´t be more curios though how the next one turns out. Don´t start here if you never watched or read Eva... The closest comparison i can make to this mess is the equally derailed time-skip "sequel" The Dark Knight Strikes Again but it at leasn´t didn´t try to sell you 2 new Moe waifus. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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I first saw this movie around the same time I saw the third Madoka film, and to some extent my attitudes towards both films are the same: both are very pretty, both are in some ways flawed, and both belong to franchises that I enjoyed but never felt "needed" more installments.
On the other hand, if you are looking for more Evangelion, it's either this or Impacts. |
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Levitz9
 Posts: 1022 Location: Puerto Rico |
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This is a pretty awesome review. Zac did a great job at taking this series apart.
I'm not too keen on the Rebuild movies myself, seeing as I can't shake the feeling that they were just made to cash in on Otaku with a plugsuit fetish (or else they wouldn't have made lame new EVA units... or Mari), but I can really gel with Zac's review here. Good discussion to be had. And, I think he has a point: regardless of what you might think of the Rebuild films, they're still worth discussing, even if you're like me and think they just exist to bilk money from otaku. |
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Cptn_Taylor
Posts: 925 |
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Well the review doesn't exactly damn the film eh. It's actually a pretty good endorsement of it. Just as Penguintruth I don't understand why. The film is a failure, a complete failure whatever way you want to look at it. As a sequel to 2.22, a sequel to Evangelion the franchise, as a solo film, as the first part of a film whose second part will probably never be made. Lots of people love Evangelion, but they see this film through rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. They're projecting what they would love to see in it instead of seeing what actually is in it and it doesn't work. It doesn't work because Khara uterly failed to deliver a good film. It happens people. Evangelion or not, sometimes studios don't know how to deal with sequels. And while Penguintruth in his essay is quite vitriolic, I just cannot blame him. This film simply has no redeeming value. Especially on the character front. |
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Keichitsu0305
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spoiler[No worries! :3 It's been two years since I've seen 3.0 so it's clearly out of date. I thought after Asuka started dragging Shinji, Rei looked down and grabbed the player. Not only would it devalue the overall theme but, it wouldn't make sense. 3.0 Rei doesn't know the value of Shinji/Gendo's player. Most likely, as you said, she just glanced at it.] |
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