Huh, somehow @The Killer of Heroes' Jerid avatar makes me think about what if Rebuild was something like the
New Translation trilogy of
Zeta Gundam.
I mean, the original plan for Rebuild wasn't that far off from New Translation, with the films being a trilogy of fairly straightforward condensed retelling/compilation of the TV show with an entirely new ending in the last one (remember, Q and FINAL were supposed to be two 45 minutes "films" merged into one). I think it'd be much harder for Rebuild to escape from NGE's shadows should that happens, like how New Translation is constantly denied of its existence by fans even thought Tomino himself insisted that it's not meant to replace the TV show but more of a what-if take, since the ending basically retconned ZZ, Char's Counterattack, and any UC entry that came after.
Instead what we get here is something that evolves from a slightly-altered retelling of NGE into a full-blown AU reimagining of Evangelion myth altogether, kind of something like the
Escaflowne Movie or
Eureka Seven: good night, sleep tight, young lovers, but Rebuild has the luxury of having multiple installments to tell its story and (re)build its world than cramming all the ideas into a 90-120 minutes film like what happened to those two titles above.
At least Rebuild is much more than just a trilogy of altered recap/compilation films but something with greater efforts being put into it, both in creativity and budgetary aspects. A recent curious example of "recap gone wrong" is probably
Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution, that thing takes "disjointed" storytelling to an almost entirely new level. Trust me, it has to be seen to be believed.