Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time

Disclaimer: I am a long-time fan that has been following this series for 25 years. For that reason, and due to how I first experienced this anime during my formative years, I believe that my opinion regarding these movies may differ greatly from, say, someone who had NOT watched the original TV series (and EoE) BEFORE watching these movies. For more info about how I experienced this series please refer to the "Context" section included below my review.

Review:

The Evangelion rebuild movies amount to an alternative / NEW telling of the Evangelion saga. That said, it is one that is visually striking in its updated and modern presentation although I, like many others, found many of the CG-heavy fight scenes in these movies to be severely underwhelming (as they looked choppy/unfinished/not great/etc.)...

I am an old-school NGE fan that found the "religious techno babble" strewn throughout the original series to be one of the most, if not THE most, annoying aspects of the series; something that could be forgiven however, IMHO, given the experiential heights that the anime takes the viewer to over the course of its 26-episode TV run and on through 'End of Evangelion'. I absolutely LOVED the characters, the animation, the fights, the music, the hardcore psychological introspection, and the plot of the original series and of EoE... even amid all the irritating "religious techno babble" nonsense. However, even though I felt the plot elements of the show tied to this "nonsense" made the show harder to enjoy... after reviewing plot synopses, summaries, and interpretations online, as random and illogical as these elements seemed, I convinced myself that they ultimately kind of fit together and made sense relative to the over-arching plot of the show.

Unfortunately, the Rebuild movies take the "religious techno babble" nonsense aspects of the series -and subsequently the illogical plot development/twists associated therein - to great new heights (which becomes painfully evident in the third movie). So much so that I feel that if the movies were to be viewed independently of the show, that the overarching plot may be more or less incoherent (as it is also missing SO MUCH of the context that was provided in the TV show).

Ultimately, since the Rebuild movies decide to more or less double - dare I say TRIPLE - down on what I found to be one of the worst aspects of the original series, I could not find them truly enjoyable. I have to admit that, out of all the rebuilds, I found the second movie to be the most compelling, and at the time of first viewing it, I was even excited to see where this new retelling of this saga was going... but that hype was extinguished after watching the third movie.

Although I've only watched the fourth movie once (approximately one week ago), I felt that the conclusion was a little too rushed and left me feeling empty (... similarly to how the original TV show ending left me feeling when I watched it about 20 years ago - which was completely remedied for me upon watching 'End of Evangelion'). I am going to leave out the details regarding how the movie ends and my critique there-in to allow this review to be 'spoiler-free'.

These Rebuild movies almost feel to me like a cash grab to an extent - one last cash-in on the incredible hype and excitement that was once garnered by just the namesake of this anime - likely created and targeted mostly at old-school fans of the series such as myself (as I can't imagine that someone new to this franchise could really deduce what the hell is going on in these new movies just by watching them by themselves). As an "OG fan" of this series, I cannot recommend these Rebuild films to old fans of the series OR to new viewers, as I feel as the creators greatly magnified one of the worst aspects of the series (the "religious techno babble" stuff) and because I feel that holistically these movies are somewhat incoherent from a plot perspective. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy these movies whatsoever. It was interesting and fun to see where this new retelling of this saga took our beloved main characters and it was also nice to get some definitive closure on their respective stories... however, I felt that the execution of these movies was lacking in several ways on several levels.

Context:

I started watching this series as a kid when I purchased the first (and ONLY the first) volume of the show on VHS tape around 1996. For whatever reason, it wouldn't be until high school that I continued watching the series after I visited a comics shop and traded in my entire VHS anime collection in order to rent and watch the rest of the episodes of NGE. After finishing the show, I subsequently downloaded and watched (what I recollect to be a fan-subbed version of) 'End of Evangelion'. Although, I believe I did that only AFTER I watched 'EVA: Death and Rebirth'. After graduating from college, I began purchasing the Rebuild Blu-Rays as they were released.