Jan 4, 2012
I consider End of Evangelion a sort of microcosm of the whole EVA anime series. This movie is split into two halves, the first of which is full of action. As SEELE troops invade the Geo-Front, the NERV operatives hunker down to defend it and keep the Magi and the EVA units out of SEELE's hands. As you can imagine, this makes for some pretty intense firefights as well as some heartbreaking moments as characters we've come to know (and love?) start to perish in the carnage. The whole extravaganza ends with perhaps the most epic mech fight we've come to see in the series
...
thus far, as Asuka is tasked with destroying several "mass production" EVAs in under four minutes.
Really, the first part is very straightforward and not difficult to comprehend. Lots of intense fighting and some character drama on the side. It's when the fight the mass production EVAs takes a tragic turn and Shinji fianlly snaps that we make our way into the second part. Can you guess what that consists of? Well, how about a shit-ton of internal monologue, navel-gazing, psycho-babble and sporadic, disturbing imagery? Sound familiar yet?
Fortunately while the trademark surrealism of NGE's mind-frag moments is kept intact here, this part is devoid of the philosophical bullocks that helped shit-up the second half on the anime. Sure, it's got some philosophical junk but it's very very limited and, thank the good fucking lord for this, not shoved down our throats like it was in episodes 25 and 26 of the anime. Of course, the second half contains all kinds of metaphorical and symbolic stuff that will definitely confuse most viewers after their first watch, so don't expect to completely understand it right away (if at all).
As for the technical aspects, the animation and art are actually pretty damn good the whole way through. The only complaint I care to make about it really is that some of the backgrounds begin to get a little stale in the second half (think: the random blank backdrops from Captain N). It's clear that GAINAX had a much bigger budget this time around as we see no escalator-scenes-where-two-of-the main-characters-suddenly-have-no-faces kind of junk in this movie. The music isn't exactly outstanding, but it does it's job well and is usually in tune with what's going on on-screen, sometimes even in a really bizarre way. And of course, the actors in both dubs do outstanding jobs, but really, what else did you expect?
To sum this all up, End of Evangelion is definitely a must-see for any fan of the series, or at the very least anybody trying to understand it. Just don't expect it to clear up all of the confusion left at the end of the anime series, because in some ways it creates more questions than answers.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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