Information:
Other Names: Evangelion Shin Gekijouban: Jo, Evangelion: 1.01 You Are (Not) Alone, Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone, ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版:序
Studio: Khara
Writer: N/A
Director: Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki & Masayuki
Music: Shiro Sagisu
Type: Movie, Re-boot
Length: 1hr. 40min
Genres: Action, Mecha, Sci-Fi
Rating: R-17+
Air Dates: 1st September 2007
Alternate Recommendations: M3: Sono Kuroki Hagane & Neon Genesis Evangelion
Source: MAL & Wikipedia.
Synopsis:
After the second impact, all that remains of Japan is Tokyo-3, a city that's being attacked by giant creatures that seek to eradicate the human kind, called Angels. After not seeing his father for more than eight years, Shinji Ikari receives a phone call in which he is told to urgently come to the NERV Headquarters, an organization that deals with the destruction of the Angels through the use of giant mechs called Evas. Shinji's objective is to pilot the Eva Unit 01 while teaming up with the Eva Unit 00 pilot, Ayanami Rei. (Source: MAL)
Short Review:
To start of this review, let me make a quick statement, the layout of this review will be different than others as this is reboot series I won't go into heavy plot talk and will only brush over and mainly talk about the differences in story, same goes for the characters.
So to start I'll first discuss the movie's strongest point this being the art and animation. Firstly with art which has remained the same style wise which feels nostalgic and catches the feel of Evangelion. The art also changed in many ways with the environment (Scenery), mechs and characters have become drastically more detailed then in the 1995 version as well as having great alterations to the look and feel of the show with better lighting that feel more dynamic and some light fan service which isn't bad and is barely noticeable.
The animation in a similar way has improved so much from before which saying a lot as the 1995 version had damn good animation, but this version just takes the cake with faster and smoother fight scenes that are exhilarating to watch while character animation is just amazing thanks to a higher budget and better technology.
The story has changed both quite a lot and not very much the from the original, as the core events of the show of the show still exist both with fighting the angels as well as the character development. The changes take form more as smaller think such how the evas will engage the angels or plot devises that appear later on in the anime are brought in early than in the TV version.
But unlike the original the plot moves quite quickly due to having less time to fill the gaps as character conversation is brought down considerably which effects both character development and the pacing of the show which jumps all over the place from angel to angel one after another making the film feel rushed.
However this is not present with characters of the film as despite the smaller run time the development goes on without a hitch and is near perfect with the main character Shinji going through his development in only an 1hr and 40 minutes which I got to say is pretty impressive. Speaking of Shiji did I mention the character designs, they've barely changed with only one or two characters having changed only in small ways, with their original personalities intact for better or worse.
And finally to top of story area of this review lets talk about the ending which is obviously a cliff-hanger but the way that it was presented was very well, making me want to watch the next one, which I believe is what a cliff-hanger ending should do.
The last thing that I will discuss is soundtrack used; firstly starting with ending song which while is a great song and fits the shows atmosphere very well but lacks the compulsive urge to make me stay and listen to it. The soundtrack on the other hand is just perfect, a real treat for the ears, using a mix of the old soundtrack most noticeably 'Decisive Battle' the fight music from the original while playing with the new animation is just superb while also adding either some new tracks or tracks I just didn't notice before (which is a good thing) that sound amazing fitting the anime so well.
Overall great movie if you feel like re-watching the show if you don't want to sit through hours of content again as well as a great start for newcomers into both the mecha genre as well as Evangelion franchise.
Story/Setting: 8.3Art/Animation: 9.4
Sound: 8.7
Characters: 8.5
Overall Score: 8.8/10
