For those of you who don't know, i'll fill in what you may have missed before i go on to the actual review:
To cut a painfully long and complex story short, teenage pilots are called up to pilot giant mecha robots known as Evangelions to fight off the world's greatest threat known as Angels to prevent the Third Impact; a disaster which will inevitably cause the destruction of the human race.
In the series, our main protagonist, Shinji Ikari, who, due to many psychological defects such as a giant Guilt complex and something called Hedgehog's dilemma (the inability to become close to someone in the fear you may get hurt trying to get close to them) he is often seen running away from his fears rather than grabbing the bull by the horns and saying "screw this, i'll do what i want".
In the rebuild movies, however, the story is radically changed, adding in new characters, plot points and most importantly...personalities as Shinji, up to now, is a complete badass who ends up making selfish decisions that result in cataclysmic consequences because he simply doesn't give up.
Then 3.0 happened, and whatever 2.0 had built up in terms of character development and story had been completely re-written as not only is there a 14 YEAR time skip between movies, we never, at any point in the film, get to know what the hell happens and why things have panned out the way they have.
Is this a bad thing? No, the story itself is masterfully done which is honestly the least i expect from Hideaki Anno, but its done in a way which raises more questions than it answers, which many die-hard Eva fans such as myself will start to think "Its going to have another mindfuck ending" you see, this isnt so much of a film, its more of a transition piece between 2.0 and 4.0, it doesnt do much to move on the story, but focus on the relationship between Shinji and Kaworu, alot of things have yet to be explanied such as
-Who is WILLE?
-Why do they exist?
-What THE HELL happened in the 14 years?
-Why do Asuka and Misato treat Shinji like dirt?
-What is the point in Mari?
Sadly, none of this explained, and we just got what we got...
What we DID get was badass action scenes through and through, especially the whole Asuka-Neko Eva thing that i dont entirely understand, the hints of a more in-depth and overarching story that Eva fans are most likely shit scared of right now (I know i am) and most importantly, a fucking PIANO scene in which we see Shinji learn how to play the Piano via Osmosis as it takes him best part of 80 seconds to play an entire classical piece.
All joking aside, Evangelion 3.0 does not do much at all to move the story along, sure it gives you vital information in preparation for 4.0, but thats all it is...preparation.
The fight scenes are above-par i have to say, each sequence is heart pounding and for those who havent watched it yet, you will have no idea how these battles are going to end , especially the last one, where 5 friends are pitted against eachother for reasons we sadly do not know.
The dialogue is fantastic, using only relevant information and having its own blunt way of explaining things, sadly i have not seen the dub yet, but i've heard its very good and am looking forward to it!
People think that Anno has got his hands on the steering wheel again, and that this movie has substantially more religious undertones than the last two, but honestly i think people are just over-analysing it, i understand the story perfectly fine and my brain was barely switched on.
Another important point to mention is that if you're expecting character development for Mari or any other character that isnt Shinji or Kaworu, you're going to have a bad time i'm afraid
