Rebuild of Evangelion

The man loves himself a Death Match.

It even carries over during his one fight in the Clone Wars animated series.

It's like he's always happiest when he's trying to kill something.

edited 30th Aug '13 6:17:23 AM by HandsomeRob

That Se7en scene was really powerful. It leaves the viewer with the feeling that "I would shoot the bastard too." But I can't see Shinji clenching and unclenching those spears, that's just stupid. The logical answer is to go "What do you mean 'these aren't the spears we are looking for'?" in an indignated and raging fashion, let Kaworu and Asuka explain themselves and, if their explanations are too bullsitty and stupid, go back to get the spears out "Screw this, I'm trying anyway!". If, instead, their explanations are in any way satisfactory, simply turn tail and leave, and raise a titanic middle finger to Psycho Daddy.

I think that's why he was so awesome. Everyone's busy looking grim and stuff while you see ol' Palps have the time of his life chewing the scenery like it was an art form.

edited 30th Aug '13 9:30:20 AM by MadSkillz

That's like saying having diarrhea is better than testicular cancer.

The first half of III probably the best part of the entire prequel trilogy. Then he had to go and ruin it by revealing everying for some reason. Oh well. Got some decent fights out of it at least.

I probably could have tolerated all of III's other flaws if it hadn't been for the outrageous dialogue.

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes."

edited 30th Aug '13 3:33:48 PM by Lennik

That's not so bad if you put the emphasis on deal rather than absolutes.

First half was Palpy being all cool and manipulative....second half was maximum ham like that. If they had picked one and stuck with it, it would have been better.

The dialogue in II was even worse. "I don't like sand... it's coarse... and rough... and irritating... and it gets everywhere!"

edited 30th Aug '13 5:27:06 PM by kay4today

"As opposed to here, which is soft and smooth 'strokes Padme's back'."

That may be the dumbest line ever in the history of the series.

Thank goodness Rebuild hasn't devolved to that yet.

"Anakin, Chancellor Palpatine is evil!"

"From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!"

A+ debating skills.

Oh come on. Worse or better? The dialogue was the best part of Episode II or else it would've been a boring movie as opposed to Episode I which was a terrible movie.

I still think Episode II should've been Episode I. There wasn't much of a good reason to see Anakin's childhood and spend so much time on it.

"Annie? My goodness you've grown." "And you've grown. More beautiful."

-groan- Lol.

He won the argument, didn't he?

edited 30th Aug '13 5:50:13 PM by MadSkillz

Nah. Palpy did. With UNLIMITED... PAWA!

"You are in my very soul, tormenting me..."

"Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo."

Star Wars won't be the same without Lucas.

edited 30th Aug '13 6:12:04 PM by MadSkillz

"Anakin, Chancellor Palpatine is evil!"

"From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!"

I hadn't realized how much this is like 90% of Internet debates.

Needs more "faggot".

How that convo should've gone if Anakin had sense:

"Anakin, Chancellor Palpatine is evil!"

"From my point of view, faggots are evil!"

"Now see how ridiculous that sounded, Obi Wan. Go home and try a different argument. And no more "only a Sith deals in absolutes" bullshit, you hypocrite. I'll kill you later. "

Then Anakin might have become likeable again.

edited 30th Aug '13 8:25:01 PM by MadSkillz

Is it just me who preferred 3.0 to 2.0?

3.0 told its own story, whereas 2.0 just seemed to be confused as to what it was trying to achieve. Anyway, roll on :||!

If there's one good thing about the prequel trilogy, it's that it goes for its own style instead of capturing the style of the old trilogy.

Though we're getting off topic.

edited 30th Aug '13 7:38:03 PM by Psyga315

Your right.

It'll be better. Much better.

That's not how it actually works.

Depends on your sense of good and bad.

Someone should write a book: Beyond Good and Bad; Prelude to the Storytelling of the Future

The new Star Wars films might not suffer from Directorial vision gone haywire like the prequel trilogy, but in turn might suffer from COMMITEED TO DEATH instead.

But on the flip side, it is good to have some outside influence. Anyway, back to Rebuild.

You know, looking back at 2.0, especially after it recently showed on Toonami, I think I have a better understanding as to why that film's finale worked so well. Yes, it was visually awesome, and yes, it may not have been completely cool, considering that Near Third Impact happened. However, the reason it all worked so well, and why many viewers were able to overlook the whole world ending situation, is because at the center of it all is the relationship between Shinji and Rei. Their interactions and scenes with each other were what made the film so easy to relate to and understand. Hence why many cheered at the end of the movie. Yeah the world nearly ended, but because those two were able to be reunited, and because Shinji's actions were quite understandable and relatable, many didn't care. After all, risking everything, including your own life, to save the one you care about is a very relatable goal.

Where 3.0 failed was ironically in its attempt to be bigger and more thought-provoking. By instead making it so that nothing good came out of the finale of 2.0, and indeed giving Shinji tons upon tons of ramifications for an act that many were willing to side with, it comes across as forgetting what was being focused on at the end of 2.0. Rather than continuing and expanding the journey of the two that have gotten to most focus and development, it now wants the viewers to instead sympathize with what everyone else had to go through as a result of what happened. This would work fine, had the secondary characters gotten the same amount of character focus that Shinji and Rei got in the previous film. Because we hardly know about these characters, save for maybe Misato and Asuka, whose characters aren't nearly as fleshed out as in the original, it makes it very hard to buy into their situation, much less justify them treating Shinji with the amount of anger and scorn that they do.

Furthermore, 3.0 I feel lacks the same relatable and solid base that 2.0 had. The ending for 3.0 involves someone trying to undo a mistake that he created. Now this would be fine on its own. However, considering that I haven't ended the world, I can't relate to Shinji's plight at all. Not to mention that because it basically involves the heroes fighting each other, and the fact that I am supposed to root for the ones who have basically acted like stupid and spiteful teenagers with very little in terms of redeeming qualities, on both sides of the equation, I have no one to really root for or sympathize with in this battle. In the end, I'm just simply watching pretty visuals and images, which while gorgeous, feel hollow.

Kaworu and Shinji's relationship also lacks the same sort of emotion that Rei and Shinji's did. In the case of the latter, their interactions felt much more down-to-earth and believable, in that they both brought out the best in each other and wanted to make each other happy, without resorting to directly telling the audience that they cared for, and maybe even loved each other. Here, Kaworu completely feels at the whim of Shinji, and it doesn't feel nearly as subtle. Rather than two characters bonding with each other over the course of the movie, complete with very short yet direct scenes, it resorts to long scenes of the two that pretty much spell out to the audience that the former cares for the latter. It also does little to develop either Shinji or Kaworu as characters. Instead of making it so that their relationship causes them to grow as characters, it just exists to try to give the audience someone to root for. So when Kaworu gets himself killed at the end, it comes across as a desperate attempt to pull heartstrings. The problem is that because this relationship between the two ultimately went nowhere, it, like the battle itself, feels completely hollow.

In fact, hollow is exactly the word I would use to describe 3.0 compared to 2.0, and especially the original series. With this one, Anno seems to have gotten completely distracted by the pretty visuals and the message that he wants the viewer to walk away with. While it is great to have something to say in your movie, if their isn't a solid base to support it, that being the story and characters, it matters little. And watching abstract symbolism and being told that "one needs to think before they act" simply fails when it isn't supported by the story. As a result, 3.0 just feels like sitting through an hour and half of listening to boring lectures, albeit supported by beautiful effects and fight sequences.

Now, Anno may have had this in mind. He may have indeed wanted to subvert our expectations and to slap the viewers who cheered at 2.0's ending in the face with consequences and the like. If that is the case, I'm gonna say it, he failed. In trying to hit the viewers as hard as he can with what he believes we should have felt at the end of 2.0, he forgot to make the story and characters interesting. Indeed, for all the merchandise that they have created, and for all the talk that these are some of the most iconic characters in all of anime, they simply come across as feeling more like tools for whatever Anno wanted to say in this movie. The scope of the film also ironically undermines the message. Anno apparently wants to say that "acting for yourself can result in bad results for others". Indeed, that is something that can happen in real life. However, because those results in this film are the near end of the world, it is hard to really buy that, as no-one, at least as far as I'm concerned, as ever had something on such a massive scale happen to them simply because they wanted to save someone. Because of this, it comes across as less about what Anno wants to say, and instead feels like the hopeless tale of someone desperately trying to gain something in his life, and not being allowed that.

So to sum it all up, 3.0 missed what made 2.0 work, and is so caught up in its themes and visuals to bother with such things like story and characters. Maybe all of this will be remedied in FINAL. However, that brings up the point that if that is true, than why bother with this one if it can't stand up on its own? If it was meant to be watched in congruence with FINAL, then why bother releasing it so early before the latter if you're going to delay it till who knows when? Because on its own, 3.0 is a deeply flawed and pretentious mess, too caught up in its message and symbolism for its own good. While FINAL may indeed give the characters redemption, it won't fix the sloppy handling that 3.0 did.

TL:DR: 3.0 failed to understand what made 2.0 work, focused too much on the message, and ultimately feels hollow as a result.

edited 1st Sep '13 12:24:52 AM by LDragon2