That this film is at it's most interesting only when it's paraleling the original Neon Genesis Evangelion and The End of Evangelion tells all you need to know about the rebuilds.

For what's worth, Hideaki Anno's seemingly well intentioned attempt at telling Evangelion's story one more time is, unfortunately, unneeded. both the 1995 TV series and The End of Evangelion needed not a continuation: they already carried, in their own flawed ways, a larger than life feeling within their own conclusions. It doesn't matter that the story was inconclusive since it ended up being about much more than just Evangelion, the anime.

The rebuilds are the exact opposite: they are about Evangelion, the anime. They're about the giant robots and some very bad CGI action. They're about the (very convoluted) plot and all that vague terminology made ten times worse. They're about the character's as empty vessels (because that's unfortunately what they're reduced to, Asuka being the worst offender — but at least they changed her name). They're about some really out of place and intrusive fanservice that somehow is even worse than in the series early episodes. They're a throwback from everything that Anno went for back then. Gone is that raw creative power that could create incredibly impactful moments using only still frames, and those beautifully flawed characters that represented very well the state of mind of a man that struggled with his own existence. Now we have a brave Shinji with glowing eyes screaming "Give me back Ayanami!!!" while Asuka thinks about doing a special lunch for him.

The driving force of Evangelion, a sort of creeping loneliness powered by the turn of the century – which conversely becomes a post apocalyptical setting that gets increasingly desolated as the series progresses, culminating on The End of Evangelion, an ending that evokes life from humanity's annihilation – , is completely lost here. On "At Least, Be Human", the series 22th episode, there's a famous scene near the beginning where Asuka declares her hatred for everyone right after repeting a sort of mantra "who would do the same thing as Misato and baka-Shinji", only with little changes. This statement is followed by a shot of a laundry basket with the bathroom's door where Asuka is right behind it, and then we have a silent but severe Misato observing what's going on. This sort of subtleness is nowhere to be found on the rebuilds. Everything is obvious and sterile, a vulgar project using of the same clothing as Anno's most heartfelt work.

This last film is about giving the series, and Shinji, and the main cast, and probably Hideaki Anno's past "proper" closure – and this time he chose Gendo instead of Shinji to be his persona, in an incredible weak last minute attempt at expanding his character. It's Anno's last good bye and final liberation from this big struggle called Evangelion. It's One Last Kiss. And really, we get it, Shinji and everyone is happy now! But does that really mean anything when these characters have become nothing but hollow shells?

I feel like the last part of this film could save the rebuilds as a whole. By that I mean it tried to. It abandons the terribly boring and horrid looking action sequences (and I still can't believe we went from Asuka's fight on EoE to the abysmal shit we have right now) and does a reimagination of EoE's famous third impact. It's the "Evangelion" part of the film, a sequence of dementia that the original is so well known for. I can imagine Anno having the most fun with this part, and being the talented director he is there're a bunch of interesting takes on the original scenes he's drawing from, but it's just never quite there. It's just a sort of transvestism. I can understand his intentions and I would be lying If I said It didn't move me at some parts, as I've been following Evangelion for many years now, but borrowing the power of what came before simply isn't enough to redeem itself. The film only had me emotionally when referencing the original, which only tells how good the OG is and how the rebuilds, which suppossedly started as an attempt at telling a new version of the story, couldn't stand on it's own two feet — everything that isn't self-referencing falls short and it's impossible to make any sense of these "original" films without seeing what came before. They are mostly such a hollow experience and the fact that there's good will behind it (though it's fair to question if that's even the case) doesn't change the fact that I spent the second, third and most of the fourth film wondering if I even liked Evangelion that much to begin with. And believe me: I do.

And what to say about everything that comes before the finale? One hour of a boring-looking experience that has NONE of the instropective brilliance of the original — whatever creative forces pushed Anno to create things like the final scene of "Rain, After Running Away" are completely dead and instead we have something that is technically acceptable, but fails to evoke much of anything. After that we're forced to witness one of the most atrocious action sequences ever made. So much EVAs and so much explosions and so much one liners from Mari and everything is so fucking ugly and nothing really seems to matter anymore because who fucking cares about Touji's sister and all of that who-are-they characters and about whatever the fuck was happening. If everything happens then nothing happens.

Evangelion ended back in 1997 with The End of Evangelion. The rebuilds are a sort of weird fanfiction created by Hideaki Anno with god knows what intention. If Evangelion pushed the envelope, then the rebuilds did the opposite. What we have here is something diametrically opposed to the original series and it's no wonder it's far worse. No matter how good Anno's ideas were, and even if he tried to prove otherwise with that ending, I guess It couldn't save the rebuilds from feeling like much more than a masturbatory experience for fanatics. Or, like I like to say, Evangelion for people who hate Evangelion.