NOTE:
Please keep in mind that this review is old, so while some editting
has been done to make it read a little more timelessly, a lot of it
is obviously dated. As such, where some things may be noted as
'spoilers', they probably no longer are.
In
reviewing this one, I am at both an advantage and a disadvantage
compared to many others who watch this movie - I have never seen the
original series. That's right, not a single episode. So while I can't
compare it to how the original series went at all, I'm able to judge
the movie completely on it's own merits. I think everyone should know
that, going in to this review.
The
story is thus - Sometime in the future, an alien (I presume anyway)
race called 'Angels' have attacked the Earth twice, known as the
First and Second Impacts. As such, the once proud city of Tokyo is
now known as Tokyo-3. However, the Angels aren't gone, they still
attack, and only one force (besides the seemingly in-capable
military) stand between the remaining civilians and death - NERV and
it's mecha force, known as the Evas. Enter Shinji Ikari, the son of
one of the higher-ups at NERV. His father, never having a use for him
before, calls for him to Tokyo-3. Shinji agrees thinking his father
finally has a caring use for him, but comes to find he was only
called to pilot Eva Unit 01, under the supervision of Misato. Between
a life of rejection, and the new task of protecting Earth, Shinji
could easily lose his mind at any given moment, but he's not alone.
There is also Rei Ayanami, the pilot of Eva Unit 00, but is she a
friend or merely a co-pilot?
It
pretty much follows along those lines too, going back and forth
between one reason or another for Shinji's infamous 'emo-ness', and a
battle with an Angel. Having heard a lot of distaste for Shinji
during my years as an anime fan, I can sort-of see why in this film,
if he doesn't get any better. That said though, it's hard to fault
him for being how he is, when you consider the kind of person his
father is.
As
for the character of Rei, it's hard for one to feel one way or the
other just from this film. She's hardly in it, and is a very
soft-spoken character, so right off the bat she's not left much of an
impression on me. The film does have a lot of other likeable and
unlikeable characters, like Shinji's father, Misato, and two of
Shinji's schoolmates whose names escape me at the moment. For me, the
clear winner was Misato - her personality alone held enough appeal to
keep me watching.
About
the only thing I can comment on as far as the original series goes is
the returning voice cast. Sadly, it doesn't appear that FUNimation
was able to gather everyone back, but they did get Spike Spencer
(better known to me as Hanataro Yamada in Bleach and Papillion in
Buso Renkin) and Alison Keith (known previously to me as Meryl from
Rune Soldier only) back to reprise their roles as Shinji and Misato.
The original voice of Rei did not return, and was filled by Brina
Palencia. I can't say how she compares to the original, but she did
an admirable job in my opinion at least. Greg Ayres also plays the
spectacled friend of Shinji's, though I'm unsure if he played him in
the original series as well.
The
animation and action are superb, as is the soundtrack as well. Again,
I can't say how it compares to the original, but if what I've always
been told about the series being made due to tax reasons and had been
expected to flop are true, then I can't see any of those three being
better than what's presented here.
Overall,
Evangelion 1.01 kept me quite enthralled, especially for a mecha
title which is far from my forte. Honestly, I wasn't expecting a
whole lot when I found this for $19.95 or so at my local Wal-Mart,
but given that price and all the hubbub around this one, I had to
give it a look. In the end, I can sort-of see why this is regarded as
a must-see title (again, assuming this film is a good representative
of the series it's a remake of) by much of the fandom. I still would
call it a tad over-rated at this point, but I can say the same of
much of my own personal favorites, so I can't hold that against it.
Things can't get over-rated without first having SOME good to them to
make people like it in the first place after all, at least, that's
what I believe.
This
movie is filled with lots of mecha fighting of the most bizarre sort,
characters that you'll either love or hate enough to keep watching,
and the cliffhanger alone will make you eager to see 2.0, which I
believe is already out in Japan. I've had the original series on my
list of things to eventually see for a long time, and after this,
it's gotten bumped ahead of most other mecha at least. Evas, move
out!
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