Well, they can say what they like about being
(not) able to redo, with this the third of the four Rebuild films, a
whole lot has been redone. We’re a long way from the first in the series’ repetition
of crucial scenes from the original here, and in a whole new and
interesting continuity.
You Can (Not) Advance finished with
a big deviation from the plot of the original – it seemed instrumentality was
imminent, until Kaworu showed up with the Lance of Longinus and put a stop to
that. ‘I anticipate a good half of 3.0’s length to be given to trauma and
suffering and weirdness’, I wrote at the time, and I wasn’t exactly wrong –
though what I got was nothing like what I expected.
Fourteen years have passed since then. Shinji,
who was about to trigger the Third Impact from inside Eva Unit 1, was
extracted, but remained asleep for that long. Asuka and Mari are still piloting
Eva, but the three of them seem not to have aged at all as a side-effect of piloting. It is hinted that in the interim Touji joined the other ‘children’,
but it is only a hint – though his little sister is now involved in the running
of the Evangelion. She does not work for NERV, however. There the most dramatic
changes have happened.
Misato and Ritsuko are no longer juniors at
Nerv. Instead, they are part of WILLE, set up to oppose NERV and the
machinations of Gendou. When Shinji began Human Instrumentality in his attempts
to save Rei, many of the horrors seen in the original End of Evangelion’s
version of the cataclysm seemingly came to pass, including immense crosses
sprouting in a red wasteland and, implicitly, a giant Rei rearing up and having
its head fall off. The simple act of trying to save a girl he cared about
brought about the deaths of millions and only Kaworu’s intervention with the
Lance of Longinus stopped it. Of course, Shinji is ignorant to this at first,
to why Misato and the rest treat him like a criminal and fit him with an
explosive collar, why they have taken his Unit 01 and converted it into the
power source for a huge airship called the Wunder. He is still confused
when Rei – some version of Rei – attacks in a new Eva and wanting answers,
Shinji goes with her.
He
is taken to NERV, now with the sky visible above it. Distant as ever, Gendou
tells him he can pilot a new Eva alongside mysterious white-haired boy Kaworu. Kaworu
is once again mysterious, gentle, deeply insightful and preternaturally
knowledgeable, and takes Shinji under his wing to treat him respectfully in a
masterful display of manipulation. They begin to play piano duets in some of
the film’s stillest and most beautiful scenes, but part of their bond involves
Kaworu revealing the truth – that what has happened to the world is Shinji’s
fault. Shinji begins his descent into despair again, and if anybody wants to
complain about his whining and angst, I think being responsible for the deaths
of almost all mankind justifies it.
Kaworu
convinces Shinji that recovering the Lance of Longinus – and also the Lance of
Cassius, added for whatever reason and the iffiest bit of Christian
mythological esoteria added here – the near-Third Impact will be undone and everything
will be happy again. Now, for the plot to work, it must be that Kaworu truly
believes this, and is not simply being manipulative, because otherwise his
actions stopping the Third Impact in the first place, as well as his heroic,
horrific actions once he realises that this ‘Lance of Cassius’ is not there,
only another part of the Lance of Longinus, make no sense. He is still
everything he was in the original and perhaps more, still oddly homoerotic with
his affections, and still acts based on a piece of information that turns out
to be critically wrong, but it seems that to make sense of the plot of 3.33 we
must accept that he was misled and did not want the ‘doors of Guf’ (slightly
iffy but acceptable Judeo-Christian mythology reference) to open or the Fourth Impact
to take place. He has essentially become another of Gendou’s pawns.
As
ever, the plot is complex and full of bizarre lofty ideas, but everything is
presented in an exciting and fast-paced manner, and leads to an interesting
cliffhanger with Asuka, Shinji and Rei together again, this time with no Eva
units left. The fight scenes, explosions and huge flying battleships are a
marvel, and the CG-heavy imagery is stunningly good throughout, even if it’s
the human parts that are most interesting. The scale is a little overblown now,
post-apocalyptic with advanced technology, and the human heart of this film is
kept at a distance knowing Kaworu is not all he says he is. I hope that the
next film has a little more humanity, but at the same time I will not be
surprised if it is still more harsh and clinical – yet beautiful.
I thought 3.33 was pretty good. I personally liked 2.22 better because it had more character interaction, but this one was still the same good old Eva stuff. I thought the beginning dragged on a bit when it was just showing the Winder battling Angels - it felt like a full half hour of just watching the machines move, stuff flying around and blowing up, and the characters shouting techno-babble. Like you said, it was cool to look at but I was eager to get to the better stuff =P
ReplyDeleteI like all the dialogue exchanges between Shinji and Kawou and this film had a good amount of that. I agree that the piano scenes were very nice. Despite this, I'm apparently one of the few who prefers shipping Shinji with Asuka rather than Kaworu XD I've loved ShinjixAsuka since I first watched the series back in 2002 and it kinda stuck after all the times I've rewatched and analyzed the show, LOL.
As usual with Eva, this one left me scratching my head over some things (like what exactly is the Lance of Longinus and why can it do what it does?) Well, like I did with End of Eva many years ago, I'm sure I can find a full analysis of this movie if I look around ;)
The Lance of Longinus in mythology is the spear used to pierce Christ's side on the Cross to check he was truly dead. It later, as with most things about the crucifixion, became a revered relic. It's been in Eva since the original series, but never really explained - basically, it's a huge, extremely powerful lance that can do all sorts of things (like stop the Third Impact).
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