After watching the final episodes of the original Evangelion series, I was really baffled. What happened? I understood that it all took place in Shinji's mind, but that's about it. Where was the ending? What really happened?
Those answers are provided by End of Evangelion. We get an alternate retelling of the two last episodes, outside Shinji's mind. From the awakening of Lilith to the result of the Instrumentality, we get to see it all. Of course, there's a lot of moments which are confusing (this is Evangelion, after all), but you kinda get a better understanding of everything that happened. Oh, and for the sake of your well-being, remember that the age rating *is* 17+. There are some really gross scenes in this movie (but that's all I can tell you without spoiling too much).
Also, kudos to the animation in this one. I've always enjoyed Evangelion's animation, everything's just really neat, and incredibly flawless, and it stands off as good even today. The same goes for End of Evangelion. Nice animation, and I really like the effects appearing when the Eva series are invoking the Third Impact. I was a bit surprised that they suddenly decided put in real-life clips. For what reason they did it, I don't know, but for me, it certainly had its positive effects.
One thing I've also always enjoyed about Evangelion (it's a lot), is the music. Music often portrays the mood very well, so much that you can often only by listening to the song get a picture of the current mood. However, the music they use in Evangelion often goes the opposite way and make a great contrast to the events unfolding. This, however, only strengthens the mood more than any song portraying the mood in a normal way would do. Not to mention that the songs they used in End of Evangelion are great as stand-alone music as well.
Evangelion is a psychological anime, and the characters are and behave thusly. They're all traumatized, or have some kind of emotional problems going on. The original series portrayed the characters and their problems very well, and the movie did that as well. I feel that they are real human beings, and I end up sympathizing with them. They have deep emotional struggles, and you're nearly dragged into them.
Shortly summarized, the movie was very much like the original series, at the same time also explaining many things the original series didn't. If you've watched the original series, you should definitely watch this, because it's *at least* equally good.
