This review will primarily focus on the movie 3.0+1.0 Thrice upon a Time but at the same time, I'd like to cover the entire rebuild saga since --as many people who have seen all four movies will agree, the story of the Rebuilds is not one that can be fairly judged if not by the sum of its parts.
So, for starters, I want to show my gratitude to all the people involved in the development of this series of films; I can gladly say that the wait for all these years (even though yours truly is a very recent fan of the franchise by comparison) was worth every second. Even for those, who didn't like these rebooted franchise as much as I did; truth must be told that at least new people were made aware, or even newfound fans, of all the things that made this franchise great in the first place. Be it it's characters, be it's incredible animation, plot developing, storytelling methods or it's recurring themes. I used to be of the belief that the Rebuilds were going to be tonally different from what old fans of the franchise had come to expect. After many rewatches, and particularly, watching this movie (kind of) proved me otherwise.
When 1.0 premieres in 2007 we are introduced to a very familiar setting and characters; some might even go as far to call it a recap movie of the first 6 episodes of NGE, which is a fair statement, but also it has to be mentioned that some minor but crucial plot elements are changed this time around. When 2.0 came out, we are met with our first major plot twists that drastically sets apart the Rebuilds from the NGE timeline: Shinji is introduced to Asuka Shikinami Langley, Rei is given quite the character twist, with her trying (and failing ;( ) to bring Shinji's and his fathers cold relationship back together; and finally, Shinji's emotional breakdown and consequent attempt to save Rei Ayanami from her tragic fate. 3.0, considered by some the black sheep from the series, does quite the time skip and deals with the consequences of Shinji's actions on the world and how he alone left it on the brink of ruin. He soon finds himself completely isolated in world filled with people who now despise him and/or are dissapointed in him. And then, there's Kaworu Nagisa, who seems to be the only friendly face that roots for him and is actively interested in helping Shinji atone for his mistakes. This of course just leads to Shinji hanging on to him in order to unconsiously feed upon his goodwill and desperately trying to make things "right", only for the end result of to be almost the same as the last time.
ENTER EVANGELION 3.0+1.0 THRICE UPON A TIME
It's in this situation that we are finally dropped into the final movie, 3.0+1.0 (referred to as "Thrice" from now on). Being the longest entry of the whole series (2 and a half hours long), I found it to be totally a service in order for the audience to better grasp what Shinji's erroneous actions had come to, and, at the same time, look at him cope with the harsh reality; convincing himself that there's no chance in hell that he can be forgiven; that he is no longer worthy of people's praise. Basically resigning himself to be a walking corpse, devoid of any emotions but, the fear of dying. This may be a little bit of a spoiler but, Shinji doesn't even utter a word in the first 25-30 mins of the film. This only goes to show how mentally broken Shinji actually is before he finally tries to take his first steps towards rehabilitation.
The second half of the movie can only be described as mixture of many familiar elements, namely End of Evangelion and the NGE Manga. This is what I mean when earlier, I said that The Rebuild of Evangelion was something tonally different from the original show --and, that after watching this film, I can safely say that if you saw NGE and End of Evangelion, and more importantly: read the manga. You will find a lot of the themes touched upon very familiar but to me the execution is what makes all of this franchise worth it in the first place. The themes of self-acceptance, the chaotic, contradictory and heartless nature of the world around us are shoved in our faces time and time again; The people who have seen the original show should be more than aware of this at this point. However, I find the delivery of these themes to be made in quite the different context. If in NGE, Shinji is totally seduced by the idea of getting rid of a world full of uncertainty, pain and the fear of betrayal no matter how hard he tries to avoid it (and ultimately his realization that a world without human interaction is one full of emptiness); Thrice does this in the context of Shinji himself being almost apathetic to the whole thing and ultimately facing the scheming master, and final executor of the Human Instrumentalization Project, Gendo Ikari. I think it's important to shed a light on the masterful dichotomy that is presented to us the moment Shinji and his father have probably the first sincere conversation in years at this point surrounding Gendo's past, his anxieties, the many reasons behind his absence during Shinjis childhood and ultimately Shinji's response to his fathers decision to destroy everything for the sake of his own selfish wishes. SPOILER:
ANIMATION AND ART DIRECTION
This movie is absolutely gorgeous to look at and if the amount of big studios involved in it's production apart from Khara that are credited (MADHOUSE, Ufotable, Graphinica, White Fox, etc...) doesn't prove my point, I don't know what will. The character designs are so clean looking and are able to convey so much emotion on the viewer. The cinematography, as I said is full of homages and call backs to the Evangelion media that manage to stay on the fine line between being pandering and unique, while also being quite the technical feat in itself. The fight scenes are beautifully chaotic, although I might not be the biggest fan of the Evangelions (yk, the actual mechas) appearance on the rebuilds (give me those dummy thick evangelions everyday over the virgin slender design everyday >:), they are very slick looking while trying to break the paradigms of how and Eva should look like (unit 05 and Neo Nerv units on Thrice come to mind). SPOILER:
SOUND DESIGN AND MUSIC
The music on is quite different from what we had been listening during the past 3 movies. What I mean by this is that, in addition to Shiro Sagisu's superb soundtracks, there are also a lot of english-composed songs that make the whole movie feel like it was made by a whole other studio altogether (this is a good thing). To make things short, I'm really looking forward to the OST to come out in the near future.
FINAL REFLECTIONS
Neon Genesis Evangelion is and always will be a testament to Hideaki Anno's love for his craft, his own personal struggles with life, and his perspective in order for individuals to reach happiness in world full of chaos. It almost feels unreal to sit here before you and write a review about the last movie of Evangelion we will probably get, at least one involving Anno himself. I know I didn't really have much negative criticism to say about the film but my biggest problems with it boil down to the series being films and not a full-on anime show, which in my opinion would've greatly benefited to give more breathing ground to the plot elements to develop, but well, this is just my own personal nitpick. I also regret not being able to watch this in a theater. In conclusion, Thrice was a movie that finally has given closure to the long running Rebuilds saga and a very satisfactory one at that; It is also safe to say that this movie in particular will live on to be a farewell letter to one of the greatest anime franchises of all time --One to reminds us about the strange beauty behind the struggles and suffering that human life, and, most importantly, human interactions can entail. No matter how hard it is for us to take responsibility for our mistakes, there's always a chance to revive, reconcile with ourselves and grow into stronger individuals in the end, all it takes is making the first step and keep on walking, the possibilities are indeed endless.
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