3.0 Film Reaction Thread

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I'm about to watch through the whole movie for the first time... UN-SUBBED. I can't wait to see how I react to only the visuals and less than half of the sound. (My Blu-ray with the 2.0 sound mix isn't here yet, so I'm going off of the 6.1 mix everyone's complained about. But at least it's not cam-ripped quality!)

[Reichu]

Welcome back, ICTimer!

The beings in the Studio Ghibli short are god warriors (kyoshinhei) from Miyazaki's manga and film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Anno did the keyframe animation for the melting god warrior in the Nausicaa film, and there are some strong similarities between them and the Evas, making an influence likely. The GWs look even more Eva-like after the update/makeover they got for the short. There's a thread for it over here.

[ICTimer]

Thanks Reichu! I understand (at least a little bit now).

There just seemed to be this uncanny resemblance to the beings in Evangelion.

One thing I forgot to add: 3.0 felt uncomfortable in a way - the open disdain for Shinji, the cold reality of what the world and Nerv had become - and I like that. Dystopian drama shouldn't be comfortable. The fact that I was cringing at Shinji's words and actions really makes the movie work. I'm not sure that I'd go so far as to call it a horror film, but it's definitely a movie built with suspense. It almost felt like a Hitchcock version of Evangelion.

[evaunit13]

Having just watched it last night, my initial reaction is that of disappointment. It was definitely due to the hype and longer than anticipated gap since 2.22, but while watching I felt like this is, so far, the A Good Day to Die Hard of the franchise so far. It didn't feel as mentally pervasive as the others were, and I could sympathize with a lot of Shinji's actions, but it just felt too incomplete with a paucity of details and explanation, but assuming those questions that will be answered in the 4th film/supplemental materials, there aren't any overly major flaws with it. I'll probably enjoy it more after I marathon the 3.

Mari's (not) aged well though :1

[shinji_ryoji_89]

I just remembered something I didn't quite like or that didn't quite make sense to me: The horses during the Quatre Mains scene. Seriously, that was just...too much.

[Blue Monday]

The horses are glorious and you know it.

[Dual1ty]

First post! Uhh... Disappointed I guess actually. Long time Eva fan, and lurker on these boards from time to time (mostly the Wikis) but I'm having a hard time with 3.0/3.33/Q.

I watched it with a fairly rough sub, so I'm going to re-watch via UTW when that hits to see if that changes anything. I really want to like it but there's just so much about that irks me, and reading the odd post or review of it apparently I'm not the only one. A few things really stood out..

- I feel like I missed a movie in between 2 and 3. What happened to the world? They said it was near third impact but it seems to of actually been third impact. It also doesn't make much sense. We saw Unit 01 get 'shut down' by the Mk 6 before it did much damage, but we're supposed to believe it continued? Why did countless Eva bodies spawn? Why did people still do battle with Angels during this time? Why do they say it was all due to Unit 01 when Lillith is clearly involved (and DEAD?!), as is the Mk 6, and other Evas? What happened to Nerv HQ? How are Gendou and Fuyutsuki still even running the place?

SO many questions with absolutely no attempt at an answer. I genuinely waited the whole film for someone to say 'No, Shinji! Kaworu is lying to you! It was actually Him/Seele in the Mk 6 that sparked this change by initiating another impact and they want to trick you!' or something like that. It would've made more sense to me.

- Characters irrationally hate Shinji (apparently 14 years isn't enough time to get over it) even though he clearly didn't intend to do anything. They also don't even take the time to explain to him why they hate him. They're also extremely one-dimensional now, there's very little meaningful dialogue between any characters in the film, just Kaworu.

- Why did Kaworu take the bomb off Shinji and put it onto himself when he could've just chucked it?

- What on Earth is the Wunder. Does this thing even belong in the Evangelion universe? It looks like someone photoshopped a different anime series into this one. Antigravity?

- How did Shinji learn to play piano perfectly in like 2 days? Petty, I know, but seriously. And what was with the horses and such?

- Curse of Eva? 5 seconds of explanation would've been great.

- Nemesis system? What? Was that an Angel? The wiki suggests it wasn't but I didn't guess that until I read up on it later.

- Mari is still completely unexplained and seemingly fairly useless. Why is she a part of these movies? She was great in 2.0/2.22 for a part, and I was looking forward to them explaining who she was working for but they seem to of just forgotten about it.

- What on Earth was that huge loosely hourglass shaped object that came out of the ground during the start of fourth impact? Nobody even acknowledged it! Was it man-made? It's basically the size of a nation... I can't even search for it because I have no words to describe it. I thought it was Lillith's egg at first but, I guess not.

I could go on, and on, and on. I know Evangelion is traditionally mysterious, and I looooove that about it. I don't want everything to be answered in a concrete way. But with Q it feels like Anno is trolling, like he purposely omitted an entire movie's worth of content here.

I'm going to watch it again but so far I feel like I'm losing my mind. I'm not sure it even felt like Evangelion to me in a lot of ways.

**

Edit: Maybe I should add some positives... Nice animation, cool unit designs, very 'flashy' and a huge spectacle, I loved that they actually showed a contact experiment! That was great. Asuka is fantastic, Rei's plug suit looks cool (minor, but meh)... Um. Hm. It's got me thinking a lot? I guess that's good.

[Yaywalter]

Not my reaction, but...

I managed to get 4 different people who've never even heard of Evangelion before to watch Evangelion 3.0/Evangelion 3.33 raw. Am I sick or what?

Also, for anybody who's curious, their reactions were a resounding WTF.

[Jomei]

I feel better about the film after a second viewing. My central complaints still remain, but I think I just have the accept the project as deliberately alienating. We're supposed to experience the film through Shinji's perspective, which makes the whole thing feel like a strange nightmare of misfortune and injustice.

For now I still consider it "part one" of the ending, as per the original plan, and as a consequence it feels incomplete more so than the other installments did, leaving many things remains to be seen: Is Anno going to fill in some of the blanks of the time skip? And is he knocking Shinji down just so people can self-righteously condemn him, or is the purpose to test his character and see if he can rise again? Can he wrap this up in a satisfying way, or is it going to disappear down the rabbit hole of audience-abuse and obscurity? How I ultimately regard this film will depend on how Anno delivers on this set-up of a film.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I saw the whole film unsubbed. Only visuals and sound. (ALways wanted to try that one of these days, simply for the heck of it.) Sure, Q is not a good movie for something like that. But since when has something like that ever stopped me?

The character intentions are very clear in both the audio and the visuals. The "WILLE" logo helps establish what ship they're in and the different "NERV" logo establishes very well that NERV is now a different organization. (You have to pick up on the characters saying "Neo-NERV" amidst the Japanese dialogue, but I picked up on it.) The scene where Shinji hears Rei's voice and abandon's WILLE very well establishes visually that the two organizations are against each other and that Shinji is a major part in either plan.

Also, I didn't expect the detonator for Shinji's choke collar would be in English. That helped a lot in understanding what was happening.

There's quite a lot that is left up to dialogue, which could be considered "out of character" for NGE, but not for NME. The only visual hint to the 14-year time jump is Sakura Suzuhara's age (she looks much older than she did in the one shot of 2.22) and the grossly obvious aging in Gendo and Fuyutsuki. But the ages of Shinji, Rei, Kaworu, and Asuka all appeared the same, and Misato, Ritsuko, and Maya were in that part of their lives where you only look horribly old if you smoked a lot. (How Ritsuko avoided that is beyond me.) So beyond the ages of three characters, everything else seemed really confusing as to why everyone else hasn't seemed to age too much while cutie teenage Sakura is running around and old-men Neo-NERV seem to have one foot in the grave.

Speaking of Kaworu, his scenes almost didn't need any dialogue in order for his scenes to make any sense. Everything around him was so beautifully well shot, I found myself being a bit jealous of Anno's talent again. Everything about the Quatre Mains scene was breath-taking. I loved every moment of that. The only time where Kaowru's scenes become dependent on the Japanese dialogue again is when he's either discussing exposition or reevaluating exposition.

The visual of Yui was unexpected both times. I'm pretty sure I know what's going on with her above the Eva cross, but I'm all clueless about her giant head. Also, this is the first and only time I've ever seen Yui used in a state of fan-disservice. My definition of "fan-service" is a bit more broad than just "boobs and butt," but rather encompasses everything a fan of a character would want to see through that character. (In that sense, I don't think all fan-service is distracting either. It's like anything else in film, you've gotta use it well in order for it to work.) Yui has always been one of my favorite characters, so seeing Unit 01 fight in Episode 20 of NGE and at the end of 2.22 was always fan-service to me. Her showing up in normal human for in Episode 21 was glorious within terms of fan-service. I couldn't get enough of it.

Then there's Yui Evangelion Q. I felt all sick and confused over it, and it wasn't because I couldn't understand the Japanese dialogue explaining it. I honestly couldn't figure out why this character would be painted in such a light. I'm not used to seeing Yui in any form and leave feeling violated or tarnished, but that was certainly the case here.

Stepping beyond that bit of horrid, horrid visual tapestry, any scene involving SEELE was beyond incomprehensible. But since SEELE has been dialogue driven since the days of NGE, this is nothing new if you can't understand what they're saying. (Even half the time in NGE, understanding the dialogue didn't help much in understanding what they were doing. Most of that was dependent on Gendo and Fuyutsuki's dialogue and the visuals around Yui.)

But these elements at least provided a LOT of contrast in the differences between WILLE and Neo-NERV, Rei and Kaworu, and everything else. In fact, this fact that there seems to be a clear "good vs evil" between WILLE and Neo-NERV surprises me about Q, and I'm not used to this being the case with Eva. Usually people consider grey areas of morality to be more proper for adult audiences, but it's visually handled well enough here in Q that the inclusion of clear "good vs bad" doesn't make the movie feel juvenile. In fact, the emotional turmoil Misato has around whether or not to kill Shinji is far from juvenile, and brings to light the true complexity of such clear and concise moral standards.

The pacing did feel rushed, but I can't say that's because they didn't explain anything properly or anything. Q was an emotionally intense film, and that element to it felt very well developed and refined. It's pacing issue were not greater than that of 2.22, really. Sure, Q is the shortest movie of the NME series to date, but it's still longer than EoE, and the pacing to that film felt near impecable. So, right off the bat and in a foreign language with nothing to bridge that gap, I really can't say what I feel is off with the pacing.

Oh, and before I forget, yes I also noticed Mari's low-angle rack shot. No, I don't know what to feel about it, and I don't think I should need to think long about it in order to find out. It's just there and doesn't really do anything worthy of note. Mari always seemed to throw an opposing tone in whatever scene she's in anyway. (Singing during intense battles, changing casually color schemes while gearing up to stop Shinji from escaping WILLE, ect.) So to point out this one opposing tone rather than all the others simply because "BOOBS!" seems childish and futile. It's there, and, at least she's not ordering pizza delivery or anything like that during the last 15 minutes of the film. That truly would be distracting. (Though now that I think of it, I do want to see her eat a box full of NY-style buffalo wings. This needs to happen in FINAL, I'm convinced.)

[Reichu]

You were hearing things, Freaky. Something called "Neo-Nerv" is never mentioned.

Looking forward to your reaction as informed by an understanding of the dialogue.

[ElMariachi]

In fact, I think I'm the one who started this "neo-NERV" nickname, at the time I was playing Resident Evil 6, and for some reason this new NERV reminded me of neo-Umbrella, hence the nickname.

Ho and the giant head of Yui, in fact it's supposed to look like Rei, the script even calls it "Giant Rei head".

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

You were hearing things, Freaky. Something called "Neo-Nerv" is never mentioned.

Looking forward to your reaction as informed by an understanding of the dialogue.

LOL, maybe. Like I honestly think I can understand speech from the opposite end of the world. What's wrong with me?

But, yeah. UTW needs to upload the .ass files of their translation so I can sync it up with my Blu-ray rip and understand [s]everything[/s] what's being said.

[SSJ Spartan01]

As expected, watching the Blu-Rei rip of Evangelion Q made me love it even more. I never really did mind the time gap too much but now I'm starting to really appreciate the fact that they implemented it. 4.0 may have ended up being a little bit more like Q if we didn't have one which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but then it wouldn't have too much time to depict the actual Rebuilding part. That's what I'm hoping for in 4.0, to go beyond where End of Evangelion left us and to see if Shinji can actually fix things after learning his message. One of the things I loved most about 3.33 was that it evoked a wide range of really strong emotions. That just tells me that Anno is doing his job remarkably well in that respect. If only he could be a little more specific on underlying plot hints. This vaguely confused feeling I have about the near-impact time skip takes me back to watching the original show which I love, but I can't let this extent of plot vagueness justify that too much. I suppose I could come up with general ideas of what went down but the fact that i don't know some specifics irks me. Time will tell if my theories hold true.
As for specific questions I had, I need more clarity on Adam's Vessels and Failures of Infinity. Let me know if I'm wrong or missing something, but I figure Adam's Vessels could be a shell to one of the 4 original Adam's shown in the older flashback. As for Failures of Infinity, I suspect since we had a Near 3rd Impact the human population ascended into some heightened Eva state but was still short of that ultimate state of evolution. Something along those lines, Idk what I'm saying. That's why there where so many Eva bodies trying to get to Lilith for the Fruit of Life. Or they could've wanted to revert back to human. Hmm.
Anyways, 3.33 was amazing in my opinion. That directing technique in animation just put it over the top in awesomeness for. Sweet camera angles. This was a film to appreciate, marvel, and enjoy.

[LordEvan88]

I am kind of grateful I spoiled myself like crazy when this came out in November, it is way easier to take the film in when you aren't huffing and puffing and being afraid of change (Much like Shinji spends the entire film). It's painful to see how far our characters have fallen over the time lapse, particularly Fuyustki, who seems a broken man, and Misato, who seems to have snapped somewhere along the line.

Really, the film itself is pretty straightforward, and, while I would have preferred to have an idea what the hell happened over the past 14 years, it keeps us and Shinji in the dark. Makes sense as a dramatic decision so I have no real complaints.

I guess my biggest questions are visual ones. There is a hell of a lot going on in this film, visually. And it is difficult to take it all in and understand it. There are seemingly thousands of EVAs in this film and enough remains for a million more. What Mark 06 and Lilith were up to, the weird spire thing, anything to do with Seele, the big..giant...Rei/Yui fetus/disembodied head remain mysteries. But not intolerable ones, as the film retains a tight focus on Shinji and his feelings with regards to the new world (Also, it's fucking Eva. We should be used to not knowing what is going on.), which is pretty straightforward provided you can cope with it.

I guess my overall opinion of the film is hard to pin down until 4.0 comes out, it all depends on the film's capacity to resolve and explain (Or at least provide material for us to infer an explanation through years of dialogue scrutiny and freeze framing) all of these dangling plot threads. It particularly needs to justify Mari (Who seems to be in Yui's picture, and has been made out to be quite significant, although maybe we are all reading too much). If 4.0 works hard and fleshes out 3.0 really well, I can see this being a grand penultimate chapter to a great film series.

But that hasn't happened yet, so as it stands it is a visually stunning film with good action and strong emotion.

...Although I will say the homoerotic piano montage with horses may have been taking it a bit far...

[thefeelingofikarishinji]

I just got done watching the film for the first time. As with the earlier films my complaint remains that much of the deeper psychological drama is lost in favor of special effects and battle scenes. Having Futsuyuke tell Shinji all about the Rei clones in a shogi match will never match the buildup and enormous payoff of Katsuragi leading him down to them and revealing the links of dysfunction with her mother. Personally EOE was not my favorite part of the series, there was a lot of more interesting things so dragging that out over two films seems useless to me. Why not give them a good ending now and get it all over with?

Meanwhile it's sad that Asuka and Mari haven't matured intellectually at all in those 14 years. Still so damn shallow. The film looks pretty but in the end it's really unsatisfying. I emotionally connected with the original series due to the themes of parental abandonment, abuse, and it's effects being shown in such a fascinating, surreal way. We don't get much of that here, and I'm not drawn if by the speculation and ""questions,"" I think that sort of audience manipulation is only handy when you really have nothing deeper to say. So I guess in 4 years I might watch the last film, but maybe not, because life goes on.

[Xard]

Out of curiosity, do we have any indication as to what the overall response was from Japanese film critics?

>Japanese film critics
>actually watching anime
>not being worthless worms for The Man in general

SPOILER: Show

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To talk of something that actually matters, when are first week sales of Q coming out? This will speak of Q's reception in Japan far stronger than anything else possibly could, especially so given the insane profits the film reaped during its theatrical run.

[Dima]

I'll try to answer some of these.

- Characters irrationally hate Shinji (apparently 14 years isn't enough time to get over it) even though he clearly didn't intend to do anything. They also don't even take the time to explain to him why they hate him. They're also extremely one-dimensional now, there's very little meaningful dialogue between any characters in the film, just Kaworu.

Well he brought the 3rd impact or the near 3rd-impact even if he wasn't aware.The reason why they dont give him much info is because he is taken by Rei.Shnji and Kaworu got a the most screen time while the others appeared only in the beggining and the end.

- Why did Kaworu take the bomb off Shinji and put it onto himself when he could've just chucked it?

Kaworu said that ''Lilin made it because it was afraid of me in the first place'' but i am not sure if it means that the colar-bomb was made only for Kaworu.I think he took it from Shinji in order to take his fear from getting in EVA-13 and get killed.As to why he took it...maybe because it was part of the plan for Kaworu to die after the activation of EVA-13?


- What on Earth is the Wunder. Does this thing even belong in the Evangelion universe? It looks like someone photoshopped a different anime series into this one. Antigravity?

Seems like a huge EVA.EVA-01 is it's engine so there is definitely a connection with EVA units.



- Nemesis system? What? Was that an Angel? The wiki suggests it wasn't but I didn't guess that until I read up on it later.

It looked like an Angel but definitely not a numbered one.When i saw the movie i got the feeling like it was similar with the EVA-MP series.Maybe Angel-MP series?


- What on Earth was that huge loosely hourglass shaped object that came out of the ground during the start of fourth impact? Nobody even acknowledged it! Was it man-made? It's basically the size of a nation... I can't even search for it because I have no words to describe it. I thought it was Lillith's egg at first but, I guess not.

I doubt it was man-made.Maybe it was made form near-3rd impact or it was there in the first place along with Lilith.

For the rest i am clueless as you are

[qu4d]

The Nemesis Series are Evangelions. At least the one in the beginning of the movie is Evangelion Mark.04.

And the huge thing is the black moon.

But please use the correct threads for this stuff.

[namsterjuice]

i just watched it and now its 5:36 am. Kaworu died. it made me cry or teary eye literally. its all because of stupid Shinji!! but i guess thats how it goes. i just hope kaworu gets revived or something.
The death scene was bloody like usual. best animes i ever watched.