Neon Genesis Evangelion - The End of Evangelion

Rating:
Summary: Great movie but...
Review: This is a complete mind screw, (...) "I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away..." pansy...any who, if you watch this your mind will explode, implode, create new dimensions to explode and implode in and realize that it wastes its energy and what just happened in the movie is in fact just a movie. The blood that escapes from your nose and ears is just temporary.

Rating:
Summary: My review
Review: What do you get when you put a number of clinically depressed animators into a studio and provide them with a non-ending supply of acid? You get the Eva series and movie.

I was looking forward to seeing the wimp Singi choose life and kick some eva/angle ass at the end with his yellow-winged demon Eva01. But instead he becomes Jesus. People who watch this movie and see beauty, thought-provoking artistry and the answers to life need therapy. Seriously, get Prozac and stop sniffing glue!

By the way, the movie in summary is that everyone keeps getting bigger and bigger wings.


Rating:
Summary: The truth is...(Gendo Ikari's response muted)
Review: This really is an incredible work. It is very important that you have watched ALL 26 EPISODES of the series if you wish to understand this anime. The anime picks up at the end of episode 24 in the series and offers an alternative ending to the TV series that very closely parallels the original ending.
EoE is not simply another anime movie. There are many comments and events throughout the series and movie that the casual watcher would simply discard as badly written or nonsensical. This is not the case. Anno has done his homework. He has managed to incorporate very heavy and well researched material from the bible and several other very obscure gnostic texts referring to the true nature of angels and the origin of mankind. Anno has used the information to visually convey his idea of what the apocalypse will be. The most frequent response I hear about this film is that it is "just another apocalypse anime" which is only true in the sense that it IS an apocalypse anime. Beyond that, the symbolism is all founded in the Christian and Hebrew faith. Lillith, for example, is the end result of God's initial attempt to give Adam a wife. The giant symbol that appears in the sky immediately prior to third impact is the "Path of sephirot" or, the map of how to get to god. I have found relevant purpose to everything that occurs in this film. Even the flashframe ending that seems to bother the casual viewer has an undeniable beauty when you begin to understand what it is and it's relevance to Shinji and his companions. I can't go too much into the purpose itself or I will ruin it for the viewer who really takes the time to understand it.
My advice pertaining to this anime is to only buy it if you are very familiar with the original work. Disregarding the incredible but difficult plot, the film has undeniably fun action sequences, very good artwork and an amazing soundtrack. If you have watched the TV series, you may very well find yourself crying as Asuka hits the floor and instrumentality begins and, like me, hating the main character for his weakness when he finally makes his choice.

Rating:
Summary: This ending is a little better, but still disappoints.
Review: My girlfriend and I are big fans of anime and really enjoyed the TV series up until the last 2 episodes. As many people have already written, you're hoping that many questions will be answered in the final 2 episodes, but most aren't. Or maybe they are and you just have to suffer through those 2 episodes 10 times to figure out what the 'acid trip on film' is really trying to say. It's unfortunate that such a great series could fail so miserably at the end.

So we watched this alternate ending hoping it would deliver a better performance than the last 2 episodes of the series, and for 45 minutes it certainly did. It does answer some questions that the original ending doesn't, but the the last 45 minutues of this movie turned out to be the same crap found in the last 2 episodes of series. We sat there, again, watching and saying, "Oh god, here we go again with the acid trip." Some pseudo-intellectuals will call both endings 'artistic' and 'thought-provoking', but the endings are really just a bunch of nonsense that really close an awesome series miserably. If you watched the TV Series, you should definitely check out this alternate ending, just don't get your hopes up too much.

Rating:
Summary: Zankoku Na Tenshi No Teeze
Review: Alright. The End of Evangelion is an alternate ending in place of the less-satisfying, original one. This one leaves the veiwer a bit more content. I must say, though, it is very thought-provoking and sensual. Maybe the sort of tear-inducing techinques used in EoE are not going to work on everyone. I gotta admit, though, that when Asuka is piloting eva unti 002 for the last time, and she's curled in a ball whispering 'I don't want to die', well, that was a bit odd. I think that that scene hung on to my captivation only when Asuka screamed her words. Even still, it was pretty cliche. (Kind of) But in the second and last episode, when Shinji is going through his pain and suffering and ouch, everything changes. It's not really an anime anymore. THat's all I'll say, becuase this part, especially when all of the balck scribbles cover the screen, is awfully terrible (I mean that in a sad, beautifull sort of way. I cried. I watched this with two friends at a sleep over. We were all on the couch. They were making jokes about it, while I was in a ball, biting my fingernail and crying. And really, I don't cry to often, unless soemthing means a lot to me. AND I KNOW that it's only anime, and there are much bigger problems in life that would make one cry, but maybe I was relating to how everyone felt in EoE at the time of the third impact. WOW.
TO CONCLUDE:
SOOOO worth you money! There's running commentary availiable to have goign on throughout both episodes.(hehe it's quite funny, really,compared to the somberness of the EoE alone)
Please, I REALLY, REALLY reccommend this EoE to

^__^*Shinji is felt for*


Rating:
Summary: This Movie Scared Me Near to Death
Review: After watching the End of Evangelion, I was under the full blown delusion for a short time that I was Shinji Ikari. Did this happen to anyone else?! When Shinji descends into schizophrenia, it was exactly like thoughts I used to have, and then at the end Shinji has become God, and it felt like myself the person watching the anime was in fact a reality Shinji created for himself to avoid the pain of the whole huge mutant Rei sucking him in thing. Therefore, this movie was the scariest thing I have ever seen. I was even thinking in Shinji's voice for a few hours afterwards going, "I don't want to pilot the EVAS anymore!" and "What is this? Where am I? Was my whole life a cartoon? It's not possible! Asuka?! Misato?! Where are you?! No they're all gone! Were they ever even real?! Was I ever real?!" Yes, that's what I was thinking, only in Shinji's voice, but they seemed like my thoughts.

Of course, since no one can say for sure what reality is, I can't be proved right or wrong. The point of this review is, this movie is good, but be careful it doesn't get you committed to the psych ward. Man, I really need to go to a psychologist.

Rating:
Summary: DEATH & REBIRTH IS THE BEST AND EOE STINKS
Review: I HAD BOUGHT THIS STUPID, BORING, AND GROTESQUE MOVIE FOR ME AND MY BROTHER TO WATCH. I HAD WATCHED MOST OF IT, THEN MY BROTHER CAME IN AND WATCHED THE LAST PARTS WITH ME. AFTER IT WAS OVER WE WERE TOTALLY DISGUSTED. THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT THIS MOVIE WAS A TOTAL RIP-OFF. ANYONE THAT BUYS THIS UGLY THING MIGHT AS WELL BE SETTING FLAME TO ALMOST THIRTY DOLLARS. THIS MOVIE IS A TOTAL MENACE TO EVERYTHING THAT
NEON GENISIS EVANGELION FANS LIKE US HAVE WORKED FOR. DEATH AND REBIRTH WAS A WAY BETTER MOVIE THAN THIS 100% PIECE OF JUNK. WE BET THAT DULL ANIME SHOWS LIKE RAVE MASTER COULD DO A BETTER JOB THAN THIS. HOW COULD A GREAT ANIME GENIOUS LIKE HIDEAKI ANNO CREATE SUCH A MONSTROSITY LIKE THIS. TRUST ME ALL EVA FANS WE ARE ALL BETTER OF WITH DEATH & REBIRTH AND THE ORIGINAL ENDING (THE ORIGINAL FINAL TWO EPISODES) TO THE SERIES.


Rating:
Summary: The End of Evangelion-finaly you get to see the end!
Review: End of Evangelion starts where Rebirth started, but continues on where Rebirth leaves off.

Finally Asuka struts her stuff. This final movie/episode is really good because it tells you the things for certain that where only hinted at in the series. You understand Rei's purpose, or at least, why Shinji's father made her, you get to see the new Evas purpose, and why they were really produced. You get to see unit 01's true purpose too. EVERYTHING becomes clear in this movie, all the things you thought were true are for the most part confirmed.

The only confusing thing is the VERY VERY end, if you don't catch what Shinji's parents are saying while you are looking into space, you won't quit catch why Shinji is doing what he is doing or why it's so quiet. But because of his still continuing struggle he can't bare loneliness...but he can't stand to have someone else be miserable because of his choice...but he can't bring himself to do what he thinks he should.



SPOILER BELOW DON'T READ..Well sort of spoiler







In the end it can be assumed the human race is repopulated by the two remaining humans, I only guess Asuka is around because Shinji still feels he needs her, "It will be a lonely existence" "But as long as one human remains, it will be a testament for eternity that humans existed" (not exact quote!) So I assume that Shinji was meant to be the only human left, but again, because of his weakness Asuka is there, cause he thinks he needs her. But he realizes he should be the only human so maybe that's why he's trying to...well do what he's doing...I'm not sure, but then he can't do it. And her reaction is kind of odd...at first she seemed to sooth him but then she hates him...I can't blame her though. ANY way it seemed a better ending in my opinion than the series.


Rating:
Summary: Instantly beautiful, Eventually understandable
Review: This film is a rarity in the world of film making and in TV production. The first important thing to note is that you will never be able to fully appreciate this film until you've seen the TV series - this has been touched on by others, but it truly is important. The film compliments the final two episodes of the series, and was a labor of love for the creator of the series as well as many dedicated production companies who helped it get made (look at the list of credits! I think it's the entire population of Japan!).

While the last 2 episodes of the series eschew the Eva action scenes of earlier eps (a necessary evil...the production team completely ran out of money), they unravel the workings of the mind in an absolutely brilliant way. It was basically a self-help guide for viewers, showing them the way towards happiness and fulfillment. Plus, it was nice to see Shinji stand up for himself for once. However, as an end to a series, it fell short. What IS the Human Instrumentality Project? How was the plan initialized? What the hell happened to all of the characters we got to know? They wanted to show us, but they knew they couldn't in such a small time span and with so little money. Luckily, we've got this movie.

And what a movie it is. On visuals alone, it stands above practically every animated or live action film I've ever seen. The imagery and the symbolism (especially in the last half of the movie) is amazing and would cause a theologian's brain to explode. The film combines animation and live action, as well as interesting filming techniques like producing animation to look like it was filmed with an 8mm camera. There are important reasons for all of this. It is to create mood, moods that range from fear, hopelessness, loneliness, to utter ecstacy. It's a movie with religious symbols and religious names that, when you watch it, feels like a religious experience. But in a strange way, it has nothing to do with religion at all.

The main focus of both the series and the film is on the self; filling in the holes in each one of our souls with parts of each other, and identity and how it requires human interaction (in spite of how painful it may be for some) to be formed. In short, this film comes closer to explaining the meaning of life than anything I think I've ever seen. Wow, what a statement!

All of this would mean nothing, however, if we didn't care about the characters, or if the movie was boring. Neither of these are true. All of the characters, whether it be Shinji, Asuka, Misato, whoever, are people you can relate to in a very true way. They are all flawed. No one is a "hero" in this film, no one is completely virtuous. This is another brilliant aspect of this story: these humans attempt to become God while blind to their inherent problems.

The action scenes in the first half of the film more than make up for the lack of it in the latter episodes of the series. To see one of the main characters we've cheered on for so long finally kick some ass is a beautiful thing (until we're brought back down to earth in the most painful of ways). It's in part 2 of the movie that the visuals become overwhelming, however. I never thought the end of the world could be so beautiful.

The music? Perfect. That's all I'll say, because I've rambled on too much.

You know, for a guy who is not much of an anime fan and who is in no strong way a religious person, it's pretty amazing that a movie like this can affect me so much. All I can say is, watch the entire series first. Buy it, borrow it, I don't care. Get through the slow beginning episodes, stare dumbfounded at the confusing ending, and then watch the movie. Then do it all again the second time. You'll either hate it, love it so much your life will change, or you'll get so confused your head will explode. But you won't forget it and you won't have a neutral reaction to it, and that's the sign of a truly wonderful work of art.

Rating:
Summary: Good, startling, and slightly confusing
Review: I really enjoyed the anime series Neon Genesis Evangellion. It's exciting mix of action, drama, philosophy (via the Dead Sea Scrolls), psychology and mystery really fascinated me. Though I was satisfied with the ending of the original series, a big dose of what was essentially interal dialogue, I did wonder what actually had happened to the world and to the characters and concepts I had watched for 26 episodes. End of Evangellion is a film that shows us just what happened.

Though it features Shinji's internal psychological struggles, like the ones TV episodes 25 and 26, End of Evangellion is based firmly in the outside world. Though the angels have been defeated, all is not well in Tokyo-3. The Japanese government wants to shut down NERV by force, while secret society SEELE are determined to take it over and set off the Third Impact. Aska is in hospital, Shinji is depressed and Rei is deep within NERV with Commander Ikari, ready to fulfil her destiny. As these things come to a head, all hell breaks loose, almost literally.

This film is a little more adult than the series, in that there is a fair bit of bloody violence (between people), more blantant sexuality and the odd bit of language. There are moments that are a little gratuitous, but in context, considering the way the plot turns, I don't see how it could have gone any other way. Toward the end, some of the imagery seen is incredible. It was beautiful and horrific at the same time. Even if you can't follow everything that's going on, it's certainly a spectacle.

Did the film answer my questions? Sort of. Some were answered, while other, more unexpected questions took their place, mostly regarding the individual characters. By the end, I was left with something to think about, which isn't neccessarily a bad thing.

If you've seen the Neon Genesis Evangellion series and are even the least bit curious about this movie, I recommend you. Just like the series it is a thoughtful, fascinating spectacle. If you want to get into Neon Genesis Evangellion, "The End" probably isn't the place to start. I know I'd get real confused if I started here. Begin with the first episode of the TV series, work your way along and pay lots of attention to detail.