Ranked #22

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance

Every once in a while an anime movie comes along the redefines the word 'masterpiece'... Ghost in the Shell, Spirited Away, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and so on. Evangelion 2.0 is no exception. It's sets the bar even higher and presents you with one of the best movie experiences you will witness in a long time. If any anime movie were to approach the realm of perfection, it would be this one.

While the first Rebuild of Evangelion movie followed the series quite cloesly, events are drastically changed in 2.0. The plot is vagely the same as in episodes 8 to 19 of the series, but it's played out very differently and a lot of scenes are taken out, and a lot of new ones are added in. Evangelion 2.0 is planned out so well that you can't even tell it's derived from a series, it is basically an original movie. The pacing is superb, nothing seems rushed and nothing seems too slow. The plot is as mysterious as ever and there are new elements in the movie that you wouldn't even begin to imagine would ever be present in the series. One should never underestimate Hideaki Anno. He has managed to recreate Evangelion, make it as good as ever and with absolutely no flaws.

The phrase 'too good for words' is often used so much that people have forgotten what it really means. It doesn't just describe something that's good, it describes something that words simply cannot do justice. It's the most appropriate phrase to use when attempting to explain the visuals in Evangelion 2.0. One quick glace at the staff list on Anime News Network is enough to know that this movie was in good hands. Compare the amount of animation staff in Evangelion 2.0 to the amount of animation staff in any other anime movie. So far, I haven't come across anything that even comes close to beating Evangelion 2.0. But its about quality, not quantity, right? Well, in that case prepare to open your mouth wide in amazement. Takeshi Honda, Atsushi Nishikiori, Sachiko Okumura and Kumiko Terada are just a fraction of people among the huge list of names who worked on the animation. Between them they've worked on such titles as The Sky Crawlers, Millennium Actress, Spirited Away, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Howl's Moving Castle, FLCL, Diebuster, Ghost in the Shell and the original Evangelion series. With staff this great it was inevitable that the visuals in Evangelion 2.0 would be nothing less than breathtaking.

The soundtrack was composed by Shiro Sagisu, who also provided the music for the original series and The End of Evangelion. While the music in Evangelion 2.0 sounded a little different from what I remember in the original series, the charm is still there and it definitely fits Evangelion. The music in Evangelion 2.0 actually took me by surprise. I never remembered it sounding so good in the first Rebuild of Evangelion movie, but from the opening song to the ending credits by Utada Hikaru, I loved every piece of music in Evangelion 2.0. There is a nice range of music, and it all flows flawlessly with the visuals - the two were meant to be together. Yep, I even liked the two dramatic scenes with happy-ish background music. This is Evangelion, afterall.

Evangelion 1.0 lacked a bit in the character department as the charismatic Asuka wasn't there to drive the movie along, and we were reacquainting ourselves with the other characters who, at that moment, weren't doing anything new. We were already famailar with them from the original series, so the character development wasn't notably the most exciting part. The characters drastically change in Evangelion 2.0, however. Asuka has a similar, but notably different personality to her series counterpart. Her family name has even been changed to Shikinami to accompany this change in personality, and you'll find yourself noticing that her and Rei were acting in ways (in Evangelion 2.0) that you would have never imagined them acting in the series. This brings a fresh new element to the movie, which should be viewed as a good aspect and looked forward to as the change in certain characters personalities actually benefits the movie greatly. Another change to the characters in particular is the introduction of the new character, Mari. Very little is revealed about her in the movie, but you'll find yourself liking her fairly quickly as her scenes are entertaining as hell and she is just such an intriguing character that you immediately want to know more about.

I tried not to blink while watching Evangelion 2.0 because I didn't want to miss even a millisecond, but unfortunately my body defeated my will and I was forced to give in. My mouth was also open for at least the majorty of the duration of the film. No, I wasn't yawning. It was wide open in awe. My eyes actually turned square from focusing too much on the screen as well. Okay, maybe I'm exagerating a bit, but that's what it's like watching Evangelion 2.0. That's how enjoyable it is. It's not that you don't want to look away, you can't look away. Your eyes are drawn to the screen because you know something epic is coming up. Your ears are always alert because you want to hear every bit of the wonderful soundtrack, and your brain blocks out everything surrounding you and the screen to enable the best possible viewing experience. I envy everyone who got to see this movie in the cinema. What one hell of an experience that must have been. The simple fact is; Evangelion 2.0 is one of the most enjoyable movies in existence.

You can sleep soundly knowing not to worry about watching Evangelion 2.0 with too high expectations, because it's sure to exceed them and considerably more in addition. In my opinion, this movie could not have been any better. It blew me away like a moth in a hurricane. Bring on Evangelion 3.0 and 4.0! Looking at how the first two movies have covered two thirds of the entire series, and how Evangelion 2.0 has drastically changed the plot and introduced new elements, I can't even begin to sepculate what is going to happen in the next movie, let alone how the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy will end. I eagerly await the last two movies with anticipation like no other, and am so happy Anno and the rest of Gainax decided to create this wonderful reimagining of Evangelion. It really does not get any better than this. read more

Copied from my review here: http://www.evageeks.org/2009/06/my-spoilerless-evangelion-2-0-review/

Firstly, as if it needs to be pointed out, things in this movie have irrevocably changed from the TV Series. So different are the events in this movie, that, even with the 30 second preview at the end of the film, I have no clue what’s going to happen in the next movie (which will be called Evangelion Q, Quickening). Another thing is that things that were considered mysteries of the original TV series and movies are either gone altogether, changed, or spelled out.

A lot of the visuals were eye popping stunning. However, there were times that it looked a bit grainy, kind of like an image that had been upscaled. The music was a bit hit or miss, with some corny music playing at seemingly inappropriate times. But when it was hit, it was really good, especially the music that played at the end of the Bardiel and Zeruel fight.

The movie starts with pure action, and as expected from seeing the trailers, there was a good bit of action throughout this movie. To balance it all out, there is also some character interaction and development, enough to flesh out the characters like Asuka and Mari. I especially liked the cuts of Tokyo-3 bustling and filled with people doing their thing and living their lives. Asuka seemed much more likeable, probably closer to the definition of tsundere. Rei smiles a lot more and her caring of Shinji is made obvious. Asuka’s animosity towards Rei is, in no small part, due to Shinji. Mari is crazy, and she has a nice rack. Kaji got an unexpectedly large amount of screen time and seems to play a bigger role than in the TV series (whether this is true is yet to be seen). There’s also a good bit of Penpen, who does a bit of “almost” talking.

Overall, great movie, I enjoyed it quite a bit. read more