Well you can get a good idea of how I felt by looking the start of my Shinji thread. But as it is, I got insomnia for the last two nights as I lay in bed, upset and trying to make sense of it. Overall, I think it's a case of the more things change the more they stay the same. Yeah we have new Eva's new Charecters and a time skip. But at the same it's still feels like the story of a damaged 14 year old boy bieng manipulated, and traumatized, and no matter what he does or tries, the world will keep hurting him. Yet somehow it's all he who is wrong and bad, and all the need to change is soley on him to change for the sake of a world that acts like god made it to be his enemy, and it's his fault even when it isn't. I'm not saying that's what it is, but that's how it feels to me a lot of the time. Now keep in mind that I am not one of those fans who likes the symbolism and the psychological stuff in Eva. I like the charecters, and I liked the plot and mystery. My friends in real life who watched Eva are like that. But the ending not only hurt to watch, but left you wondering, so wait WTF was going on? Did I miss the episode where they actually explianed anything? It was a painful experience. Not the sort where you feel better afterwards, and learn something. The sort where you feel god fucking damn that sucked. lets not do that shit again. It's like a relationship that ended badly. For years Eva was dead to me emotionally. I just didn't feel much reason to care. Once in a while I might watch an episode I liked, or look for fan art. But for the most part it was Meh. Then Rebuild comes along. I get a little intregued. Maybe it won't be as painful again. Then 2.0 comes along. For the first time in years I'm truly interested in Eva again. This time things will be different. I look forward to 3.0. It's gonna be good. Then... Well it's like you got back together with you ex. But this time you find her bed with two of your friends, and she kicks you in the balls for good measure. You wonder how you could have been such and idiot, and feel you just wasted your time and let yourself get used. I don't really feel any reason to come back for 4.0.

Now here's the reactions of my friends, who are more casual fans than I.

"What again? Nothing Changed. Didn't the staff learn anything? Eva is like a western where the ending is the main charecter eating eggs and saying he likes them. Nice for you but what does it have to do with anything?"

And

"What do they have against happy endings"

Why is it I set out to just do a short concise post and I keep making these huge rambeling monsters?

pwhodges wrote:Perhaps this film needs an age 50 certificate, so that only people sufficiently grounded in their lives can get to see it!

50? What if any of them is in their midlife crisis?


I can't even laugh about that.

How did a mere synopsis get so powerful?
Was is our attachment to the characters?
The lost possibilities that were previously hinted at (Rei's developement, Mari, Asuka's doll...) ?

pwhodges wrote:Perhaps this film needs an age 50 certificate!

Sounds good to me.

pwhodges wrote:Perhaps this film needs an age 50 certificate,

Now that would be cruel.

Edit: Get some rest CJD.

I'm gonna try to sleep this off. Maybe when I wake up I'll get back to the Shinji thread but I dunno, that topic's never getting settled anyway.

Kendrix wrote:50? What if any of them is in their midlife crisis?

Oh, I'd dealt with mine by then.

No, It's the forum or maybe the internet that needs an over fifty. I got so caught up in the talking and debating that I ended up far more wound up than I would have if I had just read a Synopsis. If I had done just that, probably I'd have gone "Meh, that sounds lame. Time for Lunch."

Yes a form of socializing made me have less of a life, and more of a geek.

In some ways disappointed.

But I'm equally positively surprised because I couldn't really see any of this coming. Asuka/Mari was as expected, so no change there.

Timeskip blew me away, and all the other crazy stuff put me in a zone where I think staying down to earth doesn't matter any more.

Rei Q was completely unexpected and was actually a great source of frustration, but the impact she had is undeniable in this film, and an appearance of Rei II leaves hope for the future.

You can almost say Rei Q and II will complete each other in some way.

Kendrix wrote:Was is our attachment to the characters?
The lost possibilities that were previously hinted at (Rei's developement, Mari, Asuka's doll...) ?

Yes.

It was the existing attachment to the characters.

Over all these years, they have direct access to our heart-strings. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, anything and everything can't please everyone.

I wrote in other threads, so I'll try to recap here.

I saw it on opening day, in a sold out theater full of hushed otaku. You could hear a pin drop in that theater!

I don't understand enough Japanese to make heads or tails of the rapid fire dialogue!! I just had the visuals and my prior Eva knowledge to go on.

In a way, it was a really cool way to experience it...I was JUST as disoriented and confused as Shinji!! I didn't know what the hell was going on...who these people were...WHY they were so mad at Shinji! I could tell that time had passed, but didn't know HOW MUCH cause I never caught them say "14 years".....I didn't know why everyone looked older and different except for Asuka and Mari....so it was clear that a significant time had passed but I wasn't sure why the pilots weren't affected.

I loved seeing everyone in the older designs...familiar characters yet BRAND NEW. Gendo especially, looking like the SEELE guy with those cyber-glasses.

When the crew of the ship went into launch formation it did look like a GIANT entry plug...and then one of the highlights of the film....the ship LAUNCHED!! And I realized then...."wait a minute....Anno is pulling a Yamato here!!"

It didn't take long to realize that they'd scrapped everything in the preview...I kept waiting for Kaji and the little girl Reis...but they never showed up!!

I was super bored in the middle.

The end things heated up and got crazy again....Eoe CRAZY!! Now that was FUN!!

I was just waiting for Unit 01 to show up....what the hell is an Eva movie without a Unit 01? When the screen faded to black and the "to be continued" came up.....I was satisfied.

For what it was, it was good. It wasn't the intense awesome roller coaster ride of HA, but it was in the same spirits of just saying "screw what's come before...screw what's expected....let's have some FUN with this!!"

And that's how I look at it. I don't understand you guys getting all mopey and upset just from reading a description of something you haven't even seen yet. In the end, it's just a movie...all that symbolism and stuff is just there to look cool...it probably doesn't MEAN what you think it means!

Stop overthinking everything and just ENJOY it...it's supposed to be fun right? Animation is a visual medium....the point is to SEE it....to see that gorgeous fluid animation bring the drawings to life.

Reading a translated synopsis simply doesn't even come close to seeing it.

I remember when EoE came out and I read the synopsis and when I finally saw it later, it was such a different experience. I remember being pissed off. I hated the ending. It was such an awesome movie, but a terrible way for the STORY to end. It didn't fit. But in the years since, I've kind of let go of that fanboy way of thinking and I've just enjoyed each film for what they are.

The first one was a waste of time, other than the updated Angel battles. So lifeless.

Then HA blew my ass away!

This one was all right....and I respect Anno for just doing what the hell he wants and finding the joy in cartooning again.

No idea what comes next in FINAL, but I'm sure it'll be awesome....anything is OK with me! The crazier and more out there the better!

I love Eva a lot, but I don't take it so seriously.....it really is one kick ass piece of animation though isn't it??

I cracked and read spoilers after Ornette's main page post. Need to actually watch a subtitled camrip (haven't looked for that audio yet) to gather my thoughts. IMO so far, Q's a combination of weird but cool.

Oh yeah, so can it be inferred that 2.0's preview events happened during the 14 year timeskip? 3.0 CRC should be interesting regarding how many script revisions they went through!

Welcome SSD Q is a weird dream or something like that.

Haven't seen, read spoilers.

I'm worried about whether Rebuild is going to be comprehensible on its own to people who haven't seen the rest of Eva. I get the impression that from now on, a lot of people who haven't experienced any of Eva are going to start with Rebuild because it's much prettier and less intimidating in terms of running time. (I've already had people respond to my recommendation by saying, "well, how about I watch the shiny new movies first, and then if I like those I can go back and watch the ugly old thing from 1995?")

The original series, as crazy as it was later on, had a pretty clear dramatic build: "monster of the week" fights get increasingly bizarre and increasingly focused on the characters' psychological issues. Rebuild doesn't have that clear trajectory, and I get the impression that much of it is written with people who are already fans in mind. People who've never seen the original are going to be reeling from all the crazy shit that happened in 2.0, and are going to want some sort of depiction of the immediate aftermath to help them get their bearings -- instead, they get a timeskip? To these viewers, I worry that Rebuild is just going to seem like a disorganized pile of increasingly lurid events that don't move in any clear dramatic or psychological direction, and I don't imagine that will make them eager to watch the rest of Eva. (Maybe Final will pull the story together, but I have a hard time imagining how it could do so without being unexpectedly long.)

Wrote some more for the other thread but it got locked....

Man, the whole last action sequence of the movie was so crazy and there was so much going on it was hard to process while watching it, much less recall.

There were millions of skulls on the ground. Human skulls. But Eva sized. And millions of Eva corpses.

And Fuyutski's flashback conversation with Shinji hasn't really been talked about much but it was very important. He shows him a photo of him as a young child with his mom and dad and there are other people (kids?) in the photo. And then the flashback shows Yui all strung up and corpse-like being inserted into the 01 or something? It was pretty grotesque!

And the animation on the Mark 6 being possessed by the Angel was awesome...I remember that. Eva 13 is NOT Mark 6 and 01 fused. It's all new but it really looks a lot like Eva 01.

Its second set of arms was a surprise cause there is no indication they are there at first. It's just a normal Eva chest and then later they kind of "morph" out of its chest as they unfold.

Don't know if it's been mentioned or not, but Asuka also releases Beast Mode on 02, and it's MORE beastial than it was in HA!! It even had a tail!! But she has to eject and set the destruct to take out one of the "bad" Evas....can't remember if it was Mark6 or mark 9. The Beast wrapped around it and Asuka says "sorry" to it and ejects, and there was a PAINFUL high pitched sound effect before the self destruct.

And like I said before...I was waiting the whole damn movie to see Eva 01 and other than the glimpse of the eye that you guys have already seen in the sneak peak, we never see it!!! Even when Unit 02 charges up the WILLE ship to launch, we never SEE Eva 01.

(I'm dumb...I didn't even realize the eye and the purple laser was Eva 01 as I was watching it!)

I gather there's no group of Evaesque giant beings wrecking city to pieces at any point?

Xard wrote:I gather there's no group of Evaesque giant beings wrecking city to pieces at any point?

No. No Eva shaped beings wrecking stuff outside of the numbered Evas.

Kotakueast review
http://kotaku.com/5961452/evangelion-30 ... pular=true

Basically the summary is that if the charachters used logic the whole movie could have been avoided

Misato: Shinji, you've been trapped in the Eva for 14 years. Your dad is insane and trying to end the world. We're trying to stop him.
Shinji: What about Rei? Where is she?
Misato: She's dead, Shinji. You were there.
Shinji: No, I saved her. She was in the plug with me!
Misato: You were the only one in there when we got you out. But if she's in there, Shinji, we'll do everything we can to get her out, too. ...But there's one thing you should know. Your father cloned Rei and is using her against us.
Shinji: That bastard! What can I do to help?
Misato: The problem is, Shinji, that the last time you were in the Eva, you started the Third Impact. We don't know what will happen if you get in it again. So we need you to sit this one out for a while until we know more.
BAM! MOVIE AVOIDED

Richard: Are we supposed to think it was the end of Evangelion 2.22 that did it? Because that doesn't make a lick of sense.

Toshi: Which was quite contradictory to how Misato was cheering him on at the end of the previous movie.

Evangelion 3.0 is (Not) the Film You Were Expecting

Richard: Exactly! The worst of the lot is Misato. She was egging him on in Evangelion 2.22. She knew what he was doing (saving Rei) and wanted him to go for it. Neither he nor she had any idea what he was trying to do could cause the Third Impact.

This, uhh, review is what happens when people get 2.0's climax all wrong.

Xard wrote:This, uhh, review is what happens when people get 2.0's climax all wrong.

Not everyone has your superior intellect.

willburstyle06 wrote:Kotakueast review
http://kotaku.com/5961452/evangelion-30 ... pular=true

Basically the summary is that if the charachters used logic the whole movie could have been avoided

This shit annoys me. It's almost like events in films to always happen out of pure chanc,e or have everything go smoothly. Yes. Guess what? If Isildur had used logic and destroyed the Ring, LOTR would never have happened. If Kirk has used "logic" in Space Seed and sent Khan to a mental institution or prison, Star Trek 2 could have been avoided. If Achills hadn't been high on himself the Illiad could have been avoided! Yes! If only characters acted perfectly and not effected by their experiences and emotions and flaws, then we wouldn't have to watch this movie we waited years to watch.

I get this is Kotaku, and I value the opinions of a nigerian Scammer more than them, but I have no idea what these people want form films. Is it out of character for Misato to be hard, even cruel to Shinji? Not especially, considering the last 2 films centered a lot around her partaking in institutional child abuse by making him pilot The Trauma Factory when it caused him nothing but pain. Then her dumb decision ended up causing the world to end for the second time before she even hit middle age. She's probably feeling a little burnt out over than that.

Why didn't Shinji just act logically? Well, he just spent 2 movies doing what he was told and getting hurt for it, and then he did something for himself, and apparently THAT turned out to be a bad idea, and now all his friends hate him and he's Worse-Than-Hitler now. He's not just going to nod his head and go "Well. Sorry, I'll try not to do that again." He gets promised a chance to undo his mistakes? Hooray!

Everyone is broken, the world is broken, and it's Shinji's fault, and Misato's fault, and Gendo's fault, Ritsulo's fault, Maya's fault, even Pen-Pen has a little blame to bear I'm sure. Broken people in a broken world making broken decisions? Tell me it isn't so!

How DARE someone change their view on a previous life experience over the course of 14 years!

That's a pretty terrible review all around. Reads like the worst kind of Aintitcoolnews reviews - "I liked the parts that had 'splosions but anything I wasn't expecting or was challenging me no likey"