Reel Asian 2013: Evangelion 3.0 (Dork Shelf)

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON DORK SHELF

Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo is the third of four films released in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy. Fourteen years after the third impact, Shinji awakens to a world he does not recognize. His body has not aged a single day. Earth lies in ruins, and those he once fought valiantly to protect have cruelly turned against him. Trapped in a harrowing cycle of death and rebirth, Shinji continues to courageously battle the angels—even as the world spirals down towards what could be a tragic end.

Over the almost 20 years since its inception, the Evangelion story has become incredibly dense in its own mythology and Evangelion 3.0 is no different. The film takes no time for anyone new to the series to indoctrinate themselves in the story (making this almost unreviewable to anyone without a doctorate in Evangelion), and while this will no doubt please fans of the expansive universe, it’s made for absolutely no one other than die hards. The story is very much a bridge to the final sequence, jumping  around through scenarios and characters that add little clarifying context to the present story, or simply add subtext that will lead to the final film due later this year.   It’s visually stunning, though, as the mixture of classic animation style and computer generated environments works very well.

It easy to see the influence that Evangelion had on Guillermo Del Toroès Pacific Rim, and fans of that film may want to see where some of those ideas came from, but it’s an impossible universe to crack for those uninitiated.

Till Next Time

Movie Junkie TO

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