3.0 Film Reaction Thread

[The Eva Monkey]

What I learned is that really, Q is just another cog in a bigger machine.

That's my hope. I'm reserving judgment until I see Final. It's as if the capstone or another major twist is missing. I can remember really hating Diebuster as it was coming out, but the ending pulled it all together for me and now I love it as much as Gunbuster. I'm hoping it will be the same with Rebuild.

[Charsi]

The first 20 minutes of the film is a "complete mess". I can't understand a thing basing from the visuals (but I do understand what's happening due to what the characters are saying), and the events developed so damn long it makes me cringe and think that I'm watching a long drawn action scene from a typical shounen bullshit.

The reason it's a mess is that it's wholly unnecessary. The story could be told without it. It's essentially fan service, where the service is to fans of giant mecha action, and as a fan it's probably the most fun part of the whole movie. But the whole orbital sequence conveys one important plot point and that is Eva-01 can still "wake up and do stuff", hence, DSS choker time. But you'd think N3I would be more than enough justification to put the skids on Shinji...

They could have started the movie with Shinji waking up in the treatment coffin. In fact, if you dovetail from Ritsuko's end of the world statement straight over to Shinji waking up and cut out everything in between and the movies would probably flow better for having done so. Because when you do that it's no longer clear that anyone intervened or that N3I ever stopped.

The midpart is lovable. Feels very evangelion in my personal opinion. I liked the fact how it become serene after that cramped up visuals and annoying techno babble (which actually worked magnificently in 2.0). But the character development could have been better.

I'm not sure what you refer to by middle. I guess when Shinji arrives at NERV? I hated that part. Mainly because it's too rushed. It's too many gut punches at once, too many inexplicable changes. Why are they suddenly up to 13 in the Eva numbering scheme? What the heck? Who's this new kid playing the piano (made worse by the fact that he's apparently been doing nothing for 14 years)? What's that eva doing down in Terminal Dogma? What happened to Lilith? Why are there now two spears?

The disconnect is too massive. There's a bunch of massive plot holes that need explaining.

It feels raw.. unrefined. Add the fact that I personally didn't like the change in art and character designs.

Very much so... well I didn't mind the art/character design changes. I could do with less grinning Rei heads in my life, though.

[Warren Peace]

Wunder's lift off is amazing! It really sells the fact that getting a giant ship to fly is a big effin' deal, and not easily done. Sure, everyone's used to concept by now, but Anno wanted to show it as the technological miracle it is. He sells the weight of the thing, all this machinery hanging by a thread, barely working. Sure, he could have framed it as "engage anti-gravity doohickey!" and they're sailing in five seconds, but presenting the ship as something not be be taken lightly was more important.

[Jomei]

That's my hope. I'm reserving judgment until I see Final. It's as if the capstone or another major twist is missing. I can remember really hating Diebuster as it was coming out, but the ending pulled it all together for me and now I love it as much as Gunbuster. I'm hoping it will be the same with Rebuild.

This is where I am with the movie now. I've watched it a couple of times and actually enjoyed it a lot more on the second viewing, but I'm still left unsatisfied, so my thought is that it will probably only work completely when it's complemented by Final.

I keep repeating this, but when the credits rolled on 3.0, it felt like the intermission in EoE, like the second half of the story was just about to start. The difference is that we'll have to wait any number of months or years to get that second part now...

[Xard]

Just finished my 2nd/3rd viewing depending on whether or not you count watching camrip. I need to see the film at least once more before writing a review but my impression of it being best of NME and among the most gorgeous anime films hasn't changed in the least. I was expecting great things from animation but it still surprises me just how more expressive and, well, featurelike a lot of animation in Q is.

I think the people who like this film understand why other people do not like it, because they appreciate the difficulties that it introduces, and the changes in attitude necessary to accept what's happening. But I'd like to ask those who did not like it whether they can, in their turn, understand that some people might like it - and if they do understand that, why it is that their judgement of the same things that some like is against them.

Well yeah, Q is obviously going to divide people on it no matter what (as expected from the master.jpg) and I can understand people not liking the film.

What I'm not fine with are most arguments people give for this. For example all this nonsense talk about "plot holes". There's great deal of conceptual confusion a'brewin.

[InstrumentalityOne]

I don't see why people can dislike this film so much, but here's my view on it.

Shinji did something selfish and now he has to face the consequences.
Even if he didn't know the rammifications, no matter how good your intentions, you still have to deal with it.
There is no prize, you cannot run away, you cannot undo things and all that's left is to do is to try your best to learn from your mistakes.



He is not praised for saving Rei, selfish decisions inconvenience others. he cannot be himself if he just goes around pleasing everyone.
This film isn't pulling any punches and I love it because of that.



Art and character animation were top-notch, absolutely gorgeous.
No, I actually feel like the character designs and animation have gotten better in Q.
It made the characters feel natural, organic and almost alive.



Really liked the unfamiliar and otherwordly settings and scenery, I appreciate the venture out of NGE's usual comfort zone.
Familiar, estranged familiar, and unfamiliar faces and environments, the world turns without Shinji, too.
The main plot is still a coming of age story, don't be fooled by the cryptic babble



Voicework as good as ever and I felt that everything that Anno was trying to convey reached me without fail through flawless execution.
The soundtrack seemed a bit low-key compared to 2.0, but it works for Q.
CG is very unintrusive and meshes with the world of eva well.



All in all, Q did what it wanted to do and set the stage with the three children together and now I can't wait for the last Rebuild film.
I don't think you should judge it as a seperate film, it's more like a crescendo to the finale.
It's not very flashy or upbeat, but it feels very... human.



It already looks pretty promising



Everybody finds love
in the end

out of ten

[Stillborn]

Sooo... I noticed something. The one who divides people and brings discord is praised as master and genius? Huh? Must be good for all those who instigate wars and what not.

[Gendo'sPapa]

Let's not be juvenile & retarded here. Wars kill people & destroy lives. No matter how much you may dislike Q the film is not destroying any lives & no has fucking died.
In the end no matter how much you may dislike Anno's movie, it's just that. A MOVIE.

[Warren Peace]

It's like sport teams, with their two sides competing and whatnot. Don't they know that's how people in wars act? It's exactly the same!

I don't think you should judge it as a seperate film, it's more like a crescendo to the finale.

People over-use the comparison, but this really is the Empire Strikes Back of Rebuild. Darker tone, shocking twists that rewrite your perception of the franchise, an ending that leaves things mostly unresolved...

[Xard]

Nice post IO, I agree 100%

1.0 and 2.0 are very good looking films but they have nothing against Q

Sooo... I noticed something. The one who divides people and brings discord is praised as master and genius? Huh? Must be good for all those who instigate wars and what not.

as expected from the master is long going joke referring to this



It gets usually get used in the "Anno master troll" context.

Also, your comparisons are getting utterly absurd, even discounting that I find your impression on Eva's (or Anno's) messages rather bizarre and out from nowhere in the first place. What next, Hitler card?

[Reichu]

Reminder: Rebuild is not your daily two-minute hate.

[Fantomas]

Watched it for the first time last night. Felt very disappointed and not surprised to find I'm not alone in that regard.

Personally I feel like not a lot happened. I definitely will be watching again to get a better grip of it, but currently I feel like I watched an hour and a half of filler.

One of my favourite plot points of 2.22 (Shinji risking it all for Rei) was swept under the rug with both the seemingly pointless time jump and the introduction of Rei III. With that, Shinji's character development from 2.22 is now made slightly null and void which is proven when Shinji... makes the same exact mistake at the end of this movie... -_-

Which brings me to my second point. 2.22 ends with Shinji risking everything for Rei and accidentally initiating Third Impact only to be interrupted by Kaworu. 3.33 ends with.... Shinji trying to help and accidentally initiating Fourth Impact only to be interrupted by Mari. Because both films end in such a similar fashion it makes the events of this film seem... well, meaningless.

This will require several more viewings, I suppose. I'll marathon all three at one point and see how I feel after that. All I can hope is that 4.0 will tie it all together.

[Abicion]

This is very silly on three very different fronts.

One: Original Evangelion is far more guilty of and vulnerable to this criticism if it was good one (I don't think it is). Rebuild has been far more consistent in tony and style from start.

NGE started as a normal-ish '90s mecha series that became a progressively darker psychological thriller. Yes, there were plenty of things the writers made up when they went along, but they were (generally) better at keeping it (relatively) restrained in the context of the NGE universe. NGE is not a masterpiece, but it's not a completely incomprehensible heap of feces either.

Rebuild starts off in style and tone as a straight retelling of NGE in 1.0, suddenly swerves into goofy Diebuster Super Robot comedy territory while sloppily clinging to NGE's basic plot structure in 2.0, and then goes on an insane Space Opera tangent with space pirates and epic space battles that revolve around technology that came straight out of thin air for 3.0. They've taken it to a point where it's completely divorced from the style of the other Rebuild movies, much less the TV show's style.

I have no clue what basis you're using when you say Rebuild is MORE consistently developed than NGE. Again, sure, NGE threw improvised shit at you all the time, but when did it ever go THIS far? When did the show ever have an inexplicable 14 year time skip mid-plot that expects you to suddenly accept a completely new cast of human supporting characters after the old cast is killed off-camera? Hmm?

I'll give you that Rebuild is better at being a pretty visual spectacle / popcorn movie compared to the TV series, but that doesn't make it good in any other sense. Popcorn movies, by definition, are just giant brainless action fests.

Each of the movies COULD work on their own, but it's a disjointed mess if you try to look at them as a whole series. There's no point in investing yourself in what might happen in next movie when they constantly throw the previous movie's list of ideas out the window and create a completely different universe from scratch.

[Stillborn]

Let's not be juvenile & retarded here. Wars kill people & destroy lives. No matter how much you may dislike Q the film is not destroying any lives & no has fucking died.

I'm not joking. And by no mean I'm exaggerating.

Books killed people before. "The Sorrows of Young Werther" drived masses of young adults to sucide soon after it showed up.

Media have power to sway people. Intentionally or not. Eva is a powerfull medium. And it's darker then ever before. The question is, how much is too much.

Intentionally causing fights among people even over something "as petty as movie" is not a good sign. It's just a quick launcher to popularity.

But once again. I must be a damn Eva ignorant.

Or maybe I'm standing at different angle and see things you don't while you believe, i'm blind.

[Jomei]

Shinji did something selfish and now he has to face the consequences.
Even if he didn't know the rammifications, no matter how good your intentions, you still have to deal with it.
There is no prize, you cannot run away, you cannot undo things and all that's left is to do is to try your best to learn from your mistakes.

Yeah, I think people need to get away from the idea of blame. On the one hand, we can't blame Shinji, as he didn't know what he was doing, but on the other hand, you're right that Shinji still needs to accept the consequences and learn to move on and seek improvements in life.

He is not praised for saving Rei, selfish decisions inconvenience others and he cannot be himself if he just goes around pleasing everyone.
This film isn't pulling any punches and I love it because of that.

It puts him in a bind, for sure. Be an obedient little puppy who does whatever he's told? Do what his heart tells him even when he's hated for it and it all goes wrong? It seems like, in either case, Shinji has to learn to do what he will do and accept his choices--for better or worse--and continue to try to reach out to others and improve.

AllI don't think you should judge it as a seperate film, it's more like a crescendo to the finale.

Although I don't think we should totally let Anno off the hook for some of the shortcomings of this film, I think this view is essentially correct. This film will make more sense once the grand scheme is clear.

[Abicion]

you're right that Shinji still needs to accept the consequences and learn to move on and seek improvements in life.

The consequences of what? Trying to rescue Rei from being digested?

He tried to seek improvements at the end of 2.0. For ONE time in his life, he tried to do something on his own two feet to help a fellow human being. And he deserves to be punished for that? How does that work?

You're saying he needs to improve his life, but then twist it around and go "hahaha he done fucked up" the moment he TRIES to improve his life. This is what I'm talking about when I say Rebuild has one of the worst messages I've ever seen. The way it comes out in the story's context is "Apathy is the mentally healthy option and you should never form any kind of independent will because it will make the entire world hate you."

[esselfortium]

The consequences of what? Trying to rescue Rei from being digested?

He tried seek improvements at the end of 2.0. For ONE time in his life, he tried to do something on his own two feet to help a fellow human being. And he deserves to be punished for that? How does that work?

You're saying he needs to improve his life, but then twist it around and go "hahaha he done fucked up" the moment he TRIES to improve his life. This is what I'm talking about when I say Rebuild has one of the worst messages I've ever seen. The way it comes out in the story's context is "Apathy means you're mentally healthy and you should never form any kind of independent will because it will make the entire world hate you."

There is a difference between trying to help, and being a reckless idiot.

[Abicion]

Okay, the burden of proof is on you.

How was he being reckless?

For that matter, what other choice did he even have? Just stand there, never get into Eva-01's cockpit at all, and let Zeruel make its way down to Central Dogma? Smart thinking.

[qu4d]

I'm not joking. And by no mean I'm exaggerating.

Books killed people before. "The Sorrows of Young Werther" drived masses of young adults to sucide soon after it showed up.

Media have power to sway people. Intentionally or not. Eva is a powerfull medium. And it's darker then ever before. The question is, how much is too much.

Intentionally causing fights among people even over something "as petty as movie" is not a good sign. It's just a quick launcher to popularity.

But once again. I must be a damn Eva ignorant.

Or maybe I'm standing at different angle and see things you don't while you believe, i'm blind.

Ever seen The Human Centipede? Especially part 2?

[Stillborn]

Didn't watched it. Checked the plot. Guy in first movie was insane. Culprit of the second was apparently inspired by First movie.

Your point being? If anything it just proves that media can have an impact. And that the author of both movies took a fast rout to popularity - Upsetting audience.