My personal opinion of 3.0 (and 3.33) is pretty much an echo of everything you lay out except for...
"Misato is unrecognizable now, which might be fine if we get a decent explanation in the fourth film. But her behaviour doesn't make sense. In previous incarnations, including the rebuild, she stresses to Shinji the importance of understanding what is going on around him. Now she completely ignores him despite being aware of the risks removing the spears might create. She should know that taking the time to explain her position and why she is so angry will produce better results than ignoring him and slapping a death collar around his neck, especially given Shinji's history of being ignored. "
My take on Misato was somewhat more positive, and it was actually the saving grace of the film for me. I loved how they handled 14-years-future Misato, it took perhaps Shinji's closest ally (arguably-- he was always antagonized by Asuka and always bewildered by Rei, yet Misato was faithfully loyal to Shinji despite him not always wanting to be an EVA pilot) and turned her against Shinji in the most hurtful way.
Look at new-Misato's wardrobe. She is a double for Gendo Ikari, quite blatantly. She mirror's Gendo's behavior to Shinji, saying simply "You will never do anything for the rest of your life," refusing to explain anything to him, and giving him cryptic-yet-concrete commands like do not pilot an EVA lest I blow your head clean off your body-- it's the ultimate betrayal in several ways especially since Misato more than anyone understands what it's like to have a harsh and demanding father.
So for her to turn around in her personality so much in the 14-years since Shinji's locked away from reality gives a clue as to how to read this 3rd film. Added to the radically-altered setting from the main series/first two theatrical Rebuilds we see that it's possible for anyone to become as twisted as Gendo, even someone who started out as warmhearted as Capt. Kusaragi did. Yes, the series always dealt with humanity on the brink of annhiliation by the Angels, but in 3.33 the humans have lost, and the Earth is in shambles, Shinji's 'good intentions' (partly manifested due to Misato's kind encouragement) directly lead to a "Bad Ending" for humanity. So Misato learns a hard lesson-- her father was right to be a hardass. As was Gendo Ikari-- if you want the best results throwing away the kid gloves and becoming a dictator may lose you a lot of friends, but it is the only way to ensure that things don't get messed up.
The final scene of the first act when Shinji calls her bluff and dares her to use the killswitch on his death collar was similarly a great character moment, perhaps the only one of the film if I recall correctly (well Kawaru had some good scenes as well but he is so all over the place in terms of loyalties and sexual preference that I'm not even gonna attempt to analyze him yet!) Misato reveals that underneath the "Gendo mask" she wears, she's still got a soft spot in her heart for the World Destroyer Shinji-- but it's more than that. As his last act, Misato's harsh father saved her life during the Second Impact-- so if she is really trying to follow in his footsteps she can't forsake the one part of her father's legacy that the old-Misato truly believed in-- compassion for a loved one in the face of self-destruction.
Powerful stuff there, makes me want to rewatch the film a few more times in case I missed other similar motivation juxtapositions. I'm sure the new-Asuka's conflicted behavior will be another juicy subject for deeper analysis. But on the whole-- yeah I was not too impressed with the third entry after the spectacular first 2 films... here's hoping the final film ties everything together decently.
HEY BABY LOOK AT MY EYES. I LOVE YA BUT I HATE YOUR LIES.
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forgiven12
11 years ago
Here's a list of my reactions to the movie. Might be slightly fanboyish, yet I'm honest to myself.
-It's over already?
-I wanted to know more about the new characters, female Suzuhara etc., are they even significant to the plot?
-Yes, fanservice was there as promised. It's in the eye of the beholder. I have a somewhat more neutral feelings about "male gaze" perspective. It was not that distracting.
-Slight character development of Rei. Is she becoming self-conscious?
-Shinji is very very lost. He wants someone to just spend time with him, who he can trust and enjoy himself. He has a pure heart and is passionate, but lacks critical assesment of the situation. Can't bear the responsibility, when things turn out bad. Naive. NO character development, except that he can finally trust one specific character.
-Well done CGI and soundtrack.
-Not much of the Third/fourth impact is explained very clearly. Except that Gendo is the new "big bad" now. Maybe they save it all for the grandeur finale, where we achieve transcendence. Hideki Anno doesn't and shouldn't care about initial negative reactions.
-The piano duet scene was the definite highlight of the movie. I liked it.
- Mari=wtf is her purpose here.
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tuomas_gimli
11 years ago
That's a pretty hefty amount of analysis about a character who's only on screen for like 15 minutes and actually does absolutely nothing in the movie. And her behavior didn't make sense at all. Why wouldn't she tell Shinji anything? If you're going to threaten to kill someone, you might as well tell why. We don't get any background for why she became the way she was, so her character might as well be a completely different person.
Also she serves to bring the three biggest, most massive and gaping holes to the plot.
1: When Rei captures/ saves Shinji and Misato fails to kill him, why doesn't she immediately go after them? It's not like she doesn't know exactly where they're going and, even worse, what Gendo wants to use Shinji for.
2: She's the head of a massively equipped military organization meant to destroy NERV. Why in the name of all that's holy and sacred hasn't she done it 10 times already in the 14 years she's had? It's not like she doesn't have the tools to do it: she has a helicarrier the size of Manhattan carrying enough ordnance to level countries, an entire nautical fleet and two fully functioning evas at her command, she knows where NERV is and worst of all, that they don't have any defenses beyond Rei's Evangelion-00.
3: I just came up with this. If Shinji was sleeping inside eva-01 IN ORBIT, why why why why why why why why did she get him and wake him up at all? Seriously, there wasn't a single logical reason for her to not leave Shinji just floating in space.
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OneFilmLover
11 years ago
1. Why doesn't she go after him? She needs to think about what she's going to say to Shinji? She knows a direct assault on NERV is very well a suicide mission.
2. You clearly didn't pay attention when you watched the film. It's made absolutely clear that what makes the Wunder fly IS EVANGELION UNIT 01. The Wunder works both in sea & air but the only way it can fly is with one of the special Evangelion Units - which 01 clearly is - serving as the main engine. They did not have Unit 01 & were attempting their first launch in the film itself. And so what if Misato's team has enough ordinance to level countries? That's NEVER worked against Evangelions in the past (Asuka's assault in EOE comes to mind). As for her team having two working Evas? Once again, so what? It's made clear in the film that Mark 09 can wipe the floor with both of them easily & in the film we see NERV is still fully capable of bringing NEW Evangelions into creation. Not to mention who is to say they didn't launch assaults against NERV in the past & fail? They couldn't launch an aerial assault UNTIL they had Unit 01, so yeah, that's why she doesn't go on the attack yet. She's still outgunned. (Also, if 4.0 at all follows the preview - not to say it will - NERV has got it's own supply of MP Evas ready to go, either Dummy Piloted or to be driven by more Rei clones if needed)
3. Once again, Shinji is in Unit 01 & they need Unit 01 to pilot the Wunder. It's one of the few things they directly TELL THE AUDIENCE. Clearly you weren't paying attention. Retaining Shinji was just a side effect of them attaining Unit 01 to be used as (as said in the film) THE MAIN ENGINE FOR THE WUNDER. I don't see how anyone could miss that?
Seeing people hate on this movie is just ridiculous. Attacks of "things don't make sense" make me wonder if they even watched Neon Genesis Evangelion which never made resolutely clear what the Angels & a million other things exactly were. 3.0 is the first film in the new franchise that doesn't take your hand & walk you through the story like a mongoloid. There's a lot going on in the film & a great deal of set up for the final film. If only people weren't so quick to throw things under a bus.
ALSO: Misato & Co were VERY forthcoming with Shinji when all is said & done. They first had to deal with the Nemesis Series attacks but after that they literally sit the kid down & tell him a great deal of things. Why he's got the collar on, why he isn't needed to pilot an Evangelion, that UNIT 01 IS THE WUNDER'S ENGINE (once again, you have to be taking a piss in another room not to get that one), & a whole lot more. It's clear Misato cares about the kid (she doesn't pull the trigger even though it would make everything so much easier for them) because why else would she need to be in the room? They're giving Shinji information piece by piece in hopes he will cope with the new world he's in & adapt with more ease. Had he stayed on the Wunder no doubt they would have informed him of what Rei is, why the world is in the shape it is (a large part HIS fault) & more. Instead the kid runs off as quick as he can to be with what he presumes is his Rei. When he gets to NERV, guess what, eventually they just dump all the information on Shinji that people are calling Misato "a b!t(h" for temporarily withholding. And what happens when all this terrible news is savagely piled on top of a broken child? He cracks, gives up on life & then puts all his hopes into a ridiculous notion about reversing the world that can only be done by piloting an Eva.
Either way, I've had my say. 3.0 is the best of the Rebuild films to date because it's the first in this new franchise that embraces the best aspects of Evangelion. The aspects that separate the series from the rest of Anime which is predominantly "Big tits & Nerdy Guys who save the day with ease & get the girl". Things like Ambiguity. Misinformation. Character motivations going on beneath the surface.
Eva 2.0 promised more "Cute Girls trying to win over the Hero" to come in later installments & I'm glad to see the series has done the opposite. It's back to the characters. Finally, after all the explosions, revelations & madness that is probably the best Action Sequence in all of Eva to date - the last scene takes it all back to the original three pilots. Shinji a broken shell, Rei a quiet enigma & Asuka loud & forceful.
Can't wait to see what happens in the next film. Not that I want to engage in any more discussions on IMDB where intelligent discourse usually starts & ends with "That sucks" & "I didn't like that" but practically anything "unanswered" in 3.0 could easily make sense if you actually TURN ON YOUR BRAINS for once.
There. It's on the Internet. Thus it's official
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tuomas_gimli
11 years ago
1. Why doesn't she go after him? She needs to think about what she's going to say to Shinji? She knows a direct assault on NERV is very well a suicide mission.
But at the end of the movie Asuka and Mari just turn up at terminal dogma fairly quickly after having gotten the information about Eva-09's launch, seemingly unscathed, not once even implying there might have been some resistance against them. What prevented Wille from doing that before?
As for her team having two working Evas? Once again, so what? It's made clear in the film that Mark 09 can wipe the floor with both of them easily & in the film we see NERV is still fully capable of bringing NEW Evangelions into creation.
Mark 09, which needed two pilots to fully function, and wasn't even finished until Shinji came to Nerv.
Not to mention who is to say they didn't launch assaults against NERV in the past & fail?
Pure speculation, that is never implied to have happened. Like so many things in this movie, this too could have been fixed with one line like "This isn't like our previous attempts" or something like that.
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OneFilmLover
11 years ago
Once again, you've made it clear you DID NOT PAY ATTENTION during the film, hence your arguments & bitching about the movie is inherently flawed.
They make it damn clear - the things even labeled - that Shinji & Kaworu are piloting EVA 13. Thirteen. It's on the giant birthing womb & the number is featured in multiple close ups & even referenced again & again in dialogue.
Mark 09 is the one Rei pilots. The Eva that is capable to launch itself directly into Wille's forces, bust open the Wunder & not at all suffer any issues when it's head is shot off. It's the Eva that Mari is only able to keep at bay (not hurt) when it was temporarily distracted by Asuka. It's also the Eva that kicked tons of ass & Asuka had to blow up Unit 02 to get rid of. This is not a secret in the film. It's name checked by Kaworu & at least half the Wille crew during the final battle.
So yeah, it seems even if the film went out of it's way to feed you information, like the numbers designated on certain Evas, you missed that. So how is a film that places a lot of visual information & clues going to reach you? Not to mention, speculation has been part of Eva since it's very beginning. Specific things aren't told to us because we're living the story through Shinji's eyes & if he isn't made aware of it then we aren't told about it. That's not a fault of the story when the story is intentionally meant to be disorientating & from the point of view of a lost & adrift protagonist.
I get you're disappointed with the film because it's not what 2.0 promised, BUT it's hardly a bad film. IMO it's the best of the bunch so far & if any film in the Rebuild franchise could be labeled "disappointing" it would have to be the first film which was essentially retraced animation for most of the running time.
There. It's on the Internet. Thus it's official
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syildirim89
11 years ago
Loved this post. Agree with your opinions on this movie.
'And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high saying, O Lord bless this thy hand grenade'
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GhostWriterX
11 years ago
I must admit that's quite an impressive take on the new Misato, but here's the thing:
You say she's the new Gendo Ikari, and now that I think of it you may be right. This probably would be fine IF we got some more hints as to why she changed so drastically, AND if Gendo himself wasn't already in the movie. Instead she's been reduced to a Gendo clone, making her act completely out of character then what was established in the previous two films and the series. Not to mention her role was greatly reduced in this film, which doesn't give us long enough to like this new Misato. It was also stupid of her to put the choker on Shinji when they clearly stated he couldn't pilot an Eva anyway, since his synch rate was 0, which means an Eva wouldn't even respond to him.
"I am an apprentice wizard, not a pack mule! Oh very well but make it quick."
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