Review: The End of Evangelion
Director: Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki
I've seen a few really good animes - but "The End of Evangelion" is unreal. This is a full length movie that takes place after a couple dozen episodes of the series “Neon Genesis Evangelion”. It's absolutely necessary that you watch the series from beginning to end before seeing the movie. Theres a whole lot of plot, subplot, and character development in order to really understand and appreciate the movie. These shows start off kind of so-so, but gradually build and build. About half way through the series it begins to get pretty exciting. What's interesting is the plot is completely dropped at the end of the series, it's left almost completely unresolved. It's pretty funny actually, imagining how pissed off people must have been. But the movie picks up basically where the plot left off (the last two episodes of the series could actually be thought of as happening in the main characters head during the time period of the movie). I'm used to seeing movies that have a great idea behind them, but just don't explore it or take it far enough. I end up thinking, "this is good, but it'd be cooler if they did this". Not this time. I was completely at the edge of my seat and blown away at about every scene. This movie held absolutely nothing back. I'm normally not very big on the whole mecha (giant fighting robot) genre. But like FLCL (another incredible Gainax creation) this didn't at all bother me. Part of it I think is from the imaginative creation of robots – the way they look, behave, and fight is pretty unique. The main conflict comes from a quasi-religious apocalyptic theme, but the external conflict ends up playing second fiddle to the internal conflict. This brings things like the philosophy of perception and the psychology of human interaction onto center stage. Its the kind of movie that makes you think and reflect on your own life after watching it. Who'd have thought such an emotional and intellectually stimulating movie would come in the form of an action cartoon.
Reviewed by: Ravenous, added December 16 2004
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