Postby user-02 » Wed Mar 09, 2016 10:33 pm
This is the Empire Strikes Back of Rebuild. It starts off, like ESB, kinda-sorta where we left off, but also, not at all where we left off. You get the sense that so much has happened since we last parted ways with this world. And it has. And so much continues to change as the movie unfolds.
Are those changes for the better? Let's take stock of them:
First, Eva 3.33 is by far the most visually stunning Evangelion footage ever created. Seriously. It blows everything that came before it out of the water, in terms of both the effects used and the ambitiously stylized use of the camera angles and editing.
Thematically, this is one of the most interesting Eva films in the entire canon. Essentially, we're given the full duration of a feature length film in which to immerse ourselves in the philosophy and morality of the Third Impact, the Fourth Impact, and the Human Instrumentality Project. We jump right into the deep end, and we stay there, treading water, every now and then dipping our heads below the waterline to catch a glimpse of whatever is slithering around underneath us.
In terms of plot, storytelling, and emotional resonance? I think it falls short of the best of the franchise, but it's not an abject failure. It has some particularly poignant scenes between Shinji and Kaworu that felt the most emotionally "real" of any of their previous interactions. At the same time, the plot itself felt so rushed and condensed that the emotional payoff was cut short in many cases.
Intellectually, there isn't that much to puzzle out in this one. Kaworu pretty much spells out the entire thing, soup to nuts, in his pivotal monologue to Shinji. It's Evangelion at perhaps its most WYSIWYG. Of course, so much is left ambiguous and mysterious around the margins of the plot. What actually happened prior to the events of 3.33? And how many times has it happened, over how many years? What happens after this? Is Kaworu a reliable narrator? If he's not, that changes things quite a bit. Lots to mull over between the lines in this one, so it's not a total wash.
And the way we sort of take in Shinji's perspective as we go along -- as confused as he is, learning as he learns, drawing similar or different conclusions as we react in tandem with him -- is quite clever as a storytelling device, even if it doesn't consistently work. This is very much Shinji's movie, and he's a character we really needed to spend some more time with in the Rebuild series. It's not a stretch to call 3.33 a character study of Shinji Ikari, and there's a vague possibility -- again, mystery at the margins! -- that the whole thing is taking place in his head. (And if it is, where is he? Right? It's interesting.)
I'm disappointed by the amount and depth of Asuka and Misato in this film. They're set up for interesting emotional journeys, but those journeys are only teased. Rei gets a fantastic bit of depth, as we see her grappling once again with what it means to be a replica. But again, this is just teased. Just hinted at, and then taken away.
And last, I think 3.33 deserves a great deal of credit for staking out virgin territory within the Rebuild series. This is definitely not a retread (unless it really is...).
In the final analysis, I think 3.33 will be held up to be a flawed masterpiece. It's far from perfect, but it's among the finest contributions to the franchise. Whatever the case, you may love it or you may hate it -- but you can't deny that it changes everything.
Last edited by
user-02 on Wed Mar 09, 2016 10:59 pm, edited 10 times in total.