Some say that comparing 4.0 with EoE is unfair since Anno portrays the two stories from a fundamentally different lens, but when the author himself paints Shin Eva as an improved version of the original product, it's just natural for comparisons to arise. EoE ends with Shinji deciding he wants to pursue his happiness, he wants to love himself and others, and how exactly will he proceed in the future is left open. When I finished watching that movie, I felt like Shinji, uncertain of how exactly I would do it, but sure that I wanted to keep on living and trying. In itself, it is quite a hopeful ending. In 4.0 Shini learns about all the timelines and decides to wipe away all of Eva. This isn't interesting in a show about the characters and their way to deal with problems. Of course, if all of us could see all possibilities we would know exactly what to do, this isn't helpful or relatable at all for someone who was helped by the original. And why is Shinji just transforming reality, why is this a thing in Eva? what I liked about this franchise was that, just like in real life, the reality couldn't be changed, and the characters had to adapt to it. This feels like an easy way to turn things around in the script, and an escapist choice from the main character. The meta elements don't make sense nor are they a novelty nowadays, how does this have anything to do with the themes of the movie? And why would Anno sacrifice a coherent story in favor of such simplistic resolution and an obvious message that is almost spelled out to the viewer?.
Another thing that I want to touch upon is the treatment of Gendo and Shinji's relationship, which hasn't been talked about enough. The movie makes a case for Shinji to try to understand his father, but why does he have to? A child who has been neglected, used, abandoned, and abused by his parent doesn't have any obligation to understand his motives. Gendo has done so many horrible things that at this point I don't care about whatever feelings or virtues he may have.
The characters are inconsistent, shallow and charicatures of their NGE selves. Kaworu has always been an interesting yet unexplored character, so I welcomed his screen time, but not much is done with him. His problem isn't his relationship with Shinji (this is just a symptom), it's his willingness to use, risk and sacrifice his own life over and over as a tool for his objectives since he doesn't see his existence as valuable, which I wish was acknowledged and explored by the narrative. Why does Shinji have to distance himself from Rei, Asuka and Kaworu? probably to give Mari as spot in Shinji's life she didn't earn. And why the Kawoshin relationship is deemed as irreparable, while Gendo-Yui is presented as extreme yet noble? Why is Gendo rewarded with seeing Yui again? Why is Kaworu a parallel to Gendo when they couldn't be more different about approaching a similar situation? NGE did it better with its Kaworu-Yui/Shinji-Gendo parallels, which made more sense.
Mari is just Anno's wife insert, there's no other explanation to her being in these movies at all. We don't learn anything that may fleash out her character, yet she's giving this important role near the end. The final message, that you can keep going forward with the help of others, is an overused concept, and while I understand it comes from Anno's own experience, I find it annoying when there's people out there that doesn't have a support system, and the film seems to approach this as something that the audience has to learn to do. I would like for Anno to acknowledge that he is privileged in this respect, and what is accessible and advisable in his case isn't to all the people in the audience. This is probably something he wanted to tell to his own past selve, so why are we, the audience, the ones being preached?
I'm honestly disappointed and mad with this movie, it is insensitive when approaching some complex issues, it's characters are souless, the plot is badly written and messy, there's info dumps in the form of exposition and terrible CG. While 3.0 was confusing and didn't go anywhere, at least I could have the hope that something would be resolved in this last film, but this is what we get.
