Reviews for Evangelion Shin Gekijouban: Ha (6.97)
Varaxis
Anno Hideaki
Masayuki
Tsurumaki Kazuya
I became interested in watching this because I liked the series for a number of reasons, but I thought that a lot of things weren`t explained clearly, that a lot of story was left to individ...
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- Unrated
18.01.2011 00:47 - direct link
(rs7690)
I became interested in watching this because I liked the series for a number of reasons, but I thought that a lot of things weren't explained clearly, that a lot of story was left to individual interpretation, and that the ending could've been much better. I hoped that this remake would make things clearer, giving an official interpretation/perspective, and improve upon the series. Along with the high ratings and positive comments from Eva fans, who are supposedly insightful with their multi-page walls of text to explain their rational perspectives, I watched this with high expectations.
Visuals: 8/10
Visuals are much better than the original series, which was top class in its time, but it seemed like they didn't take too much advantage of current techniques to really make visuals blow you away. It's in HD, it has colors that aren't washed out, lots of glow, and lines are much sharper throughout. It's good, just not very good compared to other movies, like Eve no Jikan, which set the current standard for amazing visuals.
Audio: 6/10
Audio is average. The sound effects are great--no complaints. It's also great that they got all the original voice actors to do the voices for this, but I think they weren't really that great to begin with. The original series was probably the only anime that I found my preference for Japanese voices to be no higher than the English voices. They have talent and played their role well, but I think it sounds odd; it kind of sounds like they chose seiyuus that sounded more western, despite basing the setting in Japan. The BGM was the same classic stuff from the original, but cranked up so loud, in comparison to the dialog volume, that it was overbearing. When the only music that I really liked was the "danger" music, that kind of ruins the experience. The whimsical/country music that played during the character interactions didn't seem to fit with the overall story. I got an overall impression that they really wanted it to feel more western (western to the Japanese) and it just didn't have a positive effect on me--it reminds of many of the Japanese's other attempts at "Engrish", which tend to fail.
Story: 4/10
The series had an interesting (not great) story, but there's only so much that you can fit within the time-frame of a movie, so I'll try not to be too critical. This was supposed to be a new and improved remake, but there wasn't much added to the story, except for a little background about what the world is like now, as shown on that tour to the marine-life sanctuary. The things that made no sense in the series returned, but seemingly magnified unfortunately: where are all the people, why are there late 1900's weapons present in a post-modern era and why do they keep showing up despite being ineffective? Just to blow up into a cross? I know it's iconic to NGE, but after seeing it so many times, it just got cheesy. There's absolutely no tension in the battles--one Eva goes down and the others show up to help or the Eva just goes berserk. The injuries the pilots sustain as result of being linked up to the Eva through their nervous system, are apparently no problem here. What is this, a typical shounen battle anime now? I didn't even know why an Eva went berserk until an Eva fan told me. Where's the sense that the world is coming to an end and the terror that the next angel to come will be when humanity is wiped out? It feels like a game now; you just have your main characters and pit them against the enemy in a setting and it doesn't matter if buildings and such get destroyed in the process. I had a high impression of the NGE universe due to the post-modern apocalyptic image, with the retracting buildings and underground self-sustaining geospheric habitat, but there's hardly any focus on it. There's no tension whatsoever when the angels discover and target NERV HQ and the geosphere, since there's lack of meaning given to it. Things in general are just too clean, neat, and "beautified" to offer any sense of continuous struggle of survival as a race. Also, what about the other nations? It's a huge world and I suppose it's only Japan's problem? The only hint of help from other countries is Asuka and her Eva unit, but even that's seems to have it's own set of mysteries that never get explained. I understand the "Second Impact" had something to do with it, but I got the impression that was a band-aid cover-up. It's not like what you hear with a large meteor crashing into Earth and sending a bunch of particles in the air which trigger the next ice age. In the NGE universe, the condition of the Earth looks good. If they try to give the impression that such a disaster seized the progression of tech and they're stuck in an era trying to recover, how the heck can they explain NERV, Evas, the holographic meetings Dr. Ikari has, n2 mines, and all the other new tech. It's no wonder NGE nerds put up multi-page walls of text to try and explain these holes. I didn't expect much depth in the story, but it's just a mess and previous knowledge from the series doesn't help fill in hardly any of the holes in the movie.
Characters: 5/10
The characters seemingly got the majority of the attention in this movie. Unfortunately, the characters themselves have flaws and don't fit in the story well at all. From the perspective of someone watching in modern society, it's hard to believe that someone like Kusaragi, considering her general demeanor, is a high ranking official. They kept the pointless penguin pet--I bet they thought is was a good idea because it'll get a few smirks and is original! They twisted the hot-headed hotshot pilot chara/persona and turned it into a "hot loli tsundere pilot"--they must've thought the audience will love it! Make a young, vulnerable, quiet, and shy, but oddly capable Asian girl that would be as normal as possible--I guess they hit the jackpot here, since a huge cult following worshiping her emerged. This cast, in a serious atmosphere, just makes the typical formula with a noobie maverick, clumsy cowardly supportive cutie, strict but caring leader, and vet tactician seem so much more welcoming. Their overall development seemed to be limited to the "basic programming" of the character personalities, though it Rei seemed to be tweaked from the start compared to the series. When something tragic happened to them, even in heroic sacrificial fashion, I didn't feel moved at all. I didn't even think, good riddance. I didn't hate the characters, they just seemed badly done. Again, where are all the other people? I see a few classmates of the pilots, but wait, they still have to go to normal school under these circumstances? The director must've been watching a lot of harems, since he added the "glasses" girl, except he made it so she wasn't the nerdy type, but the gung-ho jock type--something original for the guys who like girls with glasses? Much of the movie followed the girls with Kusaragi and Dr. Akagi appealing to the older guys with a playboy like Kaji helping to show their sensual side and the pilots appealing to the younger types using a wide variety of fan service techniques. NGE just changed genres; NGE is now a fan service harem show and that tries to cash in on crossing the line of general morals by including a pedophile (Dr Ikari). Apparently, according to some NGE fans, it's always been this way and is part of its appeal, but that doesn't change the fact that such fan service does nothing for me and seems like a waste of screen time, which could've been used to add substantial depth to the story.
Value/Enjoyment:
I found this to be very disappointing. You're not missing much if you skip this and if you do end up watching due to the inflated ratings, this movie may just leave you confused and disappointed if you were expecting a top quality film worthy of its hype for having an epic/deep setting and story. It makes me kind of wish the NGE universe would just end here, yet I still hope that they improve on it, since there's still great potential. The movie has nostalgia value, but that's it. This is more or less simply fan service for NGE fans in which they doll up the characters and present polished up "cool looking" action sequences (old tech weapon volleys and explosions) and try to milk more money out of the franchise without spending any effort on creating anything original that would actually be good. They worked on "beautifying" the things I found most questionable rather than making them fit in better, so the end result is something along the lines of a polished turd in my perspective.
Visuals: 8/10
Visuals are much better than the original series, which was top class in its time, but it seemed like they didn't take too much advantage of current techniques to really make visuals blow you away. It's in HD, it has colors that aren't washed out, lots of glow, and lines are much sharper throughout. It's good, just not very good compared to other movies, like Eve no Jikan, which set the current standard for amazing visuals.
Audio: 6/10
Audio is average. The sound effects are great--no complaints. It's also great that they got all the original voice actors to do the voices for this, but I think they weren't really that great to begin with. The original series was probably the only anime that I found my preference for Japanese voices to be no higher than the English voices. They have talent and played their role well, but I think it sounds odd; it kind of sounds like they chose seiyuus that sounded more western, despite basing the setting in Japan. The BGM was the same classic stuff from the original, but cranked up so loud, in comparison to the dialog volume, that it was overbearing. When the only music that I really liked was the "danger" music, that kind of ruins the experience. The whimsical/country music that played during the character interactions didn't seem to fit with the overall story. I got an overall impression that they really wanted it to feel more western (western to the Japanese) and it just didn't have a positive effect on me--it reminds of many of the Japanese's other attempts at "Engrish", which tend to fail.
Story: 4/10
The series had an interesting (not great) story, but there's only so much that you can fit within the time-frame of a movie, so I'll try not to be too critical. This was supposed to be a new and improved remake, but there wasn't much added to the story, except for a little background about what the world is like now, as shown on that tour to the marine-life sanctuary. The things that made no sense in the series returned, but seemingly magnified unfortunately: where are all the people, why are there late 1900's weapons present in a post-modern era and why do they keep showing up despite being ineffective? Just to blow up into a cross? I know it's iconic to NGE, but after seeing it so many times, it just got cheesy. There's absolutely no tension in the battles--one Eva goes down and the others show up to help or the Eva just goes berserk. The injuries the pilots sustain as result of being linked up to the Eva through their nervous system, are apparently no problem here. What is this, a typical shounen battle anime now? I didn't even know why an Eva went berserk until an Eva fan told me. Where's the sense that the world is coming to an end and the terror that the next angel to come will be when humanity is wiped out? It feels like a game now; you just have your main characters and pit them against the enemy in a setting and it doesn't matter if buildings and such get destroyed in the process. I had a high impression of the NGE universe due to the post-modern apocalyptic image, with the retracting buildings and underground self-sustaining geospheric habitat, but there's hardly any focus on it. There's no tension whatsoever when the angels discover and target NERV HQ and the geosphere, since there's lack of meaning given to it. Things in general are just too clean, neat, and "beautified" to offer any sense of continuous struggle of survival as a race. Also, what about the other nations? It's a huge world and I suppose it's only Japan's problem? The only hint of help from other countries is Asuka and her Eva unit, but even that's seems to have it's own set of mysteries that never get explained. I understand the "Second Impact" had something to do with it, but I got the impression that was a band-aid cover-up. It's not like what you hear with a large meteor crashing into Earth and sending a bunch of particles in the air which trigger the next ice age. In the NGE universe, the condition of the Earth looks good. If they try to give the impression that such a disaster seized the progression of tech and they're stuck in an era trying to recover, how the heck can they explain NERV, Evas, the holographic meetings Dr. Ikari has, n2 mines, and all the other new tech. It's no wonder NGE nerds put up multi-page walls of text to try and explain these holes. I didn't expect much depth in the story, but it's just a mess and previous knowledge from the series doesn't help fill in hardly any of the holes in the movie.
Characters: 5/10
The characters seemingly got the majority of the attention in this movie. Unfortunately, the characters themselves have flaws and don't fit in the story well at all. From the perspective of someone watching in modern society, it's hard to believe that someone like Kusaragi, considering her general demeanor, is a high ranking official. They kept the pointless penguin pet--I bet they thought is was a good idea because it'll get a few smirks and is original! They twisted the hot-headed hotshot pilot chara/persona and turned it into a "hot loli tsundere pilot"--they must've thought the audience will love it! Make a young, vulnerable, quiet, and shy, but oddly capable Asian girl that would be as normal as possible--I guess they hit the jackpot here, since a huge cult following worshiping her emerged. This cast, in a serious atmosphere, just makes the typical formula with a noobie maverick, clumsy cowardly supportive cutie, strict but caring leader, and vet tactician seem so much more welcoming. Their overall development seemed to be limited to the "basic programming" of the character personalities, though it Rei seemed to be tweaked from the start compared to the series. When something tragic happened to them, even in heroic sacrificial fashion, I didn't feel moved at all. I didn't even think, good riddance. I didn't hate the characters, they just seemed badly done. Again, where are all the other people? I see a few classmates of the pilots, but wait, they still have to go to normal school under these circumstances? The director must've been watching a lot of harems, since he added the "glasses" girl, except he made it so she wasn't the nerdy type, but the gung-ho jock type--something original for the guys who like girls with glasses? Much of the movie followed the girls with Kusaragi and Dr. Akagi appealing to the older guys with a playboy like Kaji helping to show their sensual side and the pilots appealing to the younger types using a wide variety of fan service techniques. NGE just changed genres; NGE is now a fan service harem show and that tries to cash in on crossing the line of general morals by including a pedophile (Dr Ikari). Apparently, according to some NGE fans, it's always been this way and is part of its appeal, but that doesn't change the fact that such fan service does nothing for me and seems like a waste of screen time, which could've been used to add substantial depth to the story.
Value/Enjoyment:
I found this to be very disappointing. You're not missing much if you skip this and if you do end up watching due to the inflated ratings, this movie may just leave you confused and disappointed if you were expecting a top quality film worthy of its hype for having an epic/deep setting and story. It makes me kind of wish the NGE universe would just end here, yet I still hope that they improve on it, since there's still great potential. The movie has nostalgia value, but that's it. This is more or less simply fan service for NGE fans in which they doll up the characters and present polished up "cool looking" action sequences (old tech weapon volleys and explosions) and try to milk more money out of the franchise without spending any effort on creating anything original that would actually be good. They worked on "beautifying" the things I found most questionable rather than making them fit in better, so the end result is something along the lines of a polished turd in my perspective.