Enter Gorgeous, Outlandish Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone

A A A Comments (1) By Aaron Hillis Tuesday, Sep 15 2009

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Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone
Directed by Masayuki, Kazuya Tsurumaki, and Hideaki Anno
Eleven Arts, Inc.
Opens September 18, Village East

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Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno co-directs the first in a planned tetralogy that reboots (and spiffs up with gorgeously soft-lit 3-D CGI) his beloved mid-'90s anime series, which was seminal enough to earn over $1.4 billion in revenue and, perhaps more tellingly, has been referenced by Homer Simpson. Set in Japan's last surviving city, Tokyo-3, this apocalyptic action-drama focuses on the key players within NERV, a paramilitary force armed with piloted war machines ("mecha" to you anime novices) that protect their retractable metropolis by battling giant monsters called Angels. In the first 10 minutes, naïve high-schooler Shinji is summoned by his long-estranged father, wanders into a firefight, gets rescued by a flirty field commander, survives a bomb from inside a flipping car, and faces an ultimatum from NERV's grand poobah (yep, dad): suit up in a prototype mecha, or civilization will be lost. This is mighty perplexing nerd kibble, its highfalutin' philosophical and psychological banter way too outlandish to seriously engage. Yet as a visceral experience, it's entrancing, especially during Shinji's fight sequences, when his anxieties are cruelly exacerbated by having his body and mind symbiotically bonded to his father's combat toy.

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Virtus 06/26/2010 11:30:00 AM

I'm going to be very straight with you on this. There's really no reason to watch this movie unless you are going to watch the sequels, otherwise you pretty much wasted your time. Also, I wanted to correct you here, since you aren't yet aware, there are no mecha, the EVA units are not in any way mechanical. If I told you what it is they were, well, that'd just be a spoiler, you would have to continue the series of movies and make the analysis for yourself. After all, that's the purpose of the show's existence, to be analyzed. It's just a little advice...