The village scenes were wonderful. Great character development for all the characters, and it was lovely to see the Toji, Hikari, and Kensuke again. It really gave the opening half some breathing room that the first three movies desperately needed.
I'm not as much of a sucker for the mecha fight scenes, and I do think that they can be a bit overcrowded and over-the-top in these movies, but the Mari and Asuka vs the Nerv Eva's was fucking awesome. Some of the most beautiful visuals I have ever seen. Not as good as Asuka vs MP Evas in EoE, but that's mainly because the characters hadn't been as developed as much.
I'll admit that some of the lingo thrown around the middle towards the end of the movie was a bit much. I had already long accepted that the religious references were mostly just for show, and parallelism that did seem to work was mostly coincidence. However, once Black Lilith showed up I stopped trying to understand and just go for the ride, which is not unlike what I did when I first saw EoE all those years ago. Yes, the rise of Lilith does not quite have the same impact as it did in EoE despite being even more over-the-top. There definitely was a sense of apocalypse fatigue throughout some of the scenes. There's really not a whole lot you can do to make Evangelion even more crazy than it already is. I will say, though, I do defend the CGI face and the Failures of Infinity. They added a kind of surreal horror to it all that really did work for me, even if it still doesn't compare to EoE.
(All things considered, it is pretty strange that EoE comes off as
mundane compared to what happens in this film).
This film really expanded on Gendo in ways that the original didn't. In the original, Gendo's vulnerability really only came during the beginnings of the Third Impact and right before his "death". Seeing his weaker side was really effective in my eyes. Again, even though Rebuild is (maybe) supposed to be self-contained, it really did feel like a complement to the Gendo and Shinji we knew from those years ago. There was something supremely satisfying watching Shinji and Gendo talk it out. Also, the Unit 1 and Unit 13 was fucking beautiful. I'm really surprised it got that much hate in the thread.
Then, the Instrumentality scenes. I
LOVED them. First of all, I was greatly pleased with all the references to 25-26 from the tv series, which I will still defend to the death. The lack of budget/scheduling on those episodes were saved by the brilliant editing and pacing, which made them feel alive even when the animation wasn't. I wasn't surprised to see Tsurumaki was involved with this movie, as he directed 25-26. Everything that made those episodes great were made even better by this movie. The editing was immaculate, the dialogue pitch perfect, the different techniques involved gave it a stylish flair as the originals did. I was over the moon for these scenes.
The OST was also killer. I think that goes without saying.
This was literally me seeing the references to the original in the last film:
I hate to admit, but I did too. The thing is though, I felt like it wasn't just fanservice (although it certainly is that). I felt like it was complementing the original by these throwbacks and genuinely added something to it. Like the part where they literally just show clips from EoE being projected on the back felt like it was more than just "hey, remember this". It was showing that Anno himself had overcome the despair that characterized his earlier works. This was perhaps best demonstrated by the scene at the beach, which was of course a reference to the last scene in EoE, but it was remixed in a way I thought was brilliant.
And I won't lie, I did get teary eyed at the end. While I never thought that NGE ever lacked closure (EoE provided it in spades), there was a profound sense of happiness I felt knowing that Anno finally got to tell the story he wanted to tell. Yes, it was a bit of a mess, just as the original series was, but there was a cathartic sense seeing these characters finally be happy. Not as good as EoE of course (nothing ever could be in my eyes), but immensely satisfying all the same. I'm still processing it, but this definitely does add something to the legacy of the original series. Fuck it, I love Evangelion.
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