

My last review, which didn't praise the artistry of Evangelion says it all, I'm not a fan of the show. It was just too uneventful for me, because the way the plot of this show was structured is quite different and unconventional, and it just didn't make me feel excited enough to watch the next episode of the show. Now before I review, the end of Evangelion, I'd like to say few things about NGE. First, the characters except for rei Ayanami are characterized pretty well, and the realistically bleak nature of Evangelion's cast serves as an inspiration for me to write more realistic and believable characters. Shinji, Asuka (I hate that bitch as a person, but as a character, she is done pretty well), Misato; etc are all done pretty well and are essentially deconstructed character troupes which are meant to be despised, which is pretty neat. However for me, the problems with this show started coming up when there was nothing going on this show, and the plot was sidelined, so the creators could give the characters just far too much attention. Sure I know there mental state is deteriorating And the first 4 episodes were able to convey that. But if the rest remaining episodes are just doing that, without any negative or positive character growth and a sidelined plot, the show would just become uninteresting and that's the problem with Evangelion. I get it, the show is not focused on plot, but In my opinion, its something that doesn't work in the favor of the show, but I may be wrong, because if millions of fans dig it, then I guess this narrative structure did work really well, it just wasn't for me, I guess. But all of these problems I had were addressed at The End of Evangelion. The movie was meant to replace the happy yet anti-climatic ending of NGE, and the film was pretty darn good.
Now I won't analyze or deconstruct the symbolism or metaphors of this film, but in a general sense, I'd say the film was balanced and just done well enough. It incorporated all the elements of NGE in moderation and added a climactic ending to the show (it was ambiguous, but I kind of like it), which was both plot and characters heavy. The visual cinematography was lovely as well, the action scenes were animated really well, there was some much-needed character growth in this film (Shinji was whining at the start, but at the very end, the decision he made is some minor positive growth), the Music was fucking awesome. All the plot points were resolved and addressed and the ending was much better and more symbolic in its nature. All in all, after getting frustrated with NGE, I had low hopes for the film, but it's quite good and rewatchable, and it just manages to hit the right notes.
Now is it the best of best? No, in fact, this film received a mixed reception, but objectively this film is better than NGE. The religious symbolism and ambiguously vague scenes at the end were again just 'too deep for me' (believable, since the whole series encourages its viewers to interpret stuff on their own and doesn't try to be conclusive which is both good and bad in a way), but my final verdict is that even if this film is as flawed as the show, its watchable, and hence I mildly enjoyed it and thus I give it a score of 73.
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