alindsayjr I'm not familiar with the original series, but this remake of Evangelion reminded me of the genre the Pacific Rim movie creators got their influences from. The pros of the movie are its art style, the CG effects, the action, and the psychological conflict the main character must overcome. The cons are the main character whines a bit too much, and if you are new to the story like me, there is a lack of back story about the angels and other characters in the film.I recommend this film if you are a fan of anime about mechs. I saw the English dubbed version and the voice overs were pretty good.

wandereramor Evangelion has been a never-ending cash cow for Gainax and all associated parties since it was released, so it's not surprising that they've decided to go back to the well with a four-movie revision of the original series. The new movies offer a chance to see Evangelion animated with the budget that such a famous title deserves. The fight scenes are slick and everything is well put-together. It's not absolute top of the line animation, and it hews very closely to the default anime art style, but it's certainly better than the infamously low-budget original animation.My memory of the original series is a little hazy, but what's shocking about this movie is how close it sticks to the TV show. Several scenes are line-for-line, shot-for-shot reprises of scenes from the original, and as far as I could tell there weren't any major changes in the plot, although I think the order of the Angels might have been shuffled around a bit. The main change is tightening everything up and making it an efficient, fast-moving giant robot action movie.And that's fine if your main problem with Evangelion was the lack of action, but it also removes a lot of the show's style, and completely eliminates its almost meditative pace. With an actual animation budget, the show doesn't need animation shortcuts like the long almost-still scenes that crop up periodically, but losing those makes Evangelion lose some of its definitive flavour. A lot of the moments in the movie just don't have the emotional impact that their equivalents in the TV series do -- it's just one plot point after another.Evangelion 1.0 is an effective movie, and retains some of the original's charm. But all the same I feel I can't really recommend it to anyone. If you've seen the TV show, this will all be a retread for you. If you haven't, then I would still recommend the original over this remake. The original series was far from perfect, and there was a bunch of room for a new interpretation of the general story, but Evangelion 1.0 chooses to play it safe and winds up being kind of forgettable.

Matt Taylor I was a large fan of both the original series, the half-release 'Death and Rebirth' and the replacement ending 'The End of Evangelion', so I'm not giving this praise as some guy who's just walked in on this.I am extremely pleased with this new iteration of Evangelion. I don't even know where to begin ... Gainax threw out everything they had, completely redrawing all the animation and backgrounds in painstakingly high detail. It is the most apparent revision to the series at first glance ... all the visuals are top-notch, even the computer-generated graphics which I would typically find unforgivable in a film - but everything is drawn and animated so smooth, and the rare use of CG is so well-integrated into the film that it feels like you haven't been taken out of the organic animation at all.The storyline is quite similar to the original, though first on the side I want to say they've taken much thought deciding how to develop the characters better; and the result is that the cast is much more believable and their chemistry is quite fantastic. The characters just feel deeper, their emotions are more genuine; it's hard to describe in a review but if you're a fan of the original series you'll find their personalities and interactions much more developed and satisfying.The plot, as I've said; has not changed too much at this point.. there are exceptions here and there, with the introductions of pivotal locations and characters earlier on; no doubt to lay down continuity for the later installments. (The original Evangelion had a slight problem with eclectic character and plot point introductions.) They have taken care to set the stage more carefully for the first scene this time around; and as shown with the early introduction of an important character Gainax intends to make full use of some fantastic characters that didn't get enough time in the spotlight to really add anything especially deep.I recommend this film to anybody who is a fan of serious animation; and I would say that it's an absolute must-see for fans of the original series.It's comforting to know that in a world of poor remakes and extensions of popular titles, that Gainax has their wits about them and shows true dedication in their efforts to make Evangelion into everything that it could possibly be.

8thSin I knew it was supposed to be a summarized version of first quarter of the original Evangelion TV series, but I expected more new scenes or at least major difference in every scene like the Doraemon remake "Nobita no kyôryû 2006" (Nobita's Dinosaur 2006). The animation retains the original 1995 style and definitely more detailed compared to anything made in the '90s, but nothing remarkable compared to most other 2007 anime films. Practically all scenes are produced using the original storyboard and layouts devoid of any new camera angles or cuts. In fact, it's better to prepare yourself for a "digitally remastered recap" release than anything new. TV-anime/OVA and theatrical features work on completely different level of budgets and deadlines. Animation quality in this film is so-so at best in movie standards. The new 3D Angels, especially Ramiel, were protrusive against the 2D cel animation in the background.I have only watched the TV series twice, when it was aired in 1995 (missed 3 or 4 episodes), and once more in 2003. For me, it was a carbon copy of the TV series, except a few new scenes of mechanical aspects of "New Tokyo 3" and the teaser in last 30 seconds of the film. Other than slight improvement in graphics, which I can barely notice because my eyes are used to much better animation in recent years, I have detected no difference in 98% of the screen time. What I'm trying to say, is that I wasted 100 minutes of my life watching a long rerun.To be honest, I didn't like the TV series at all. I enjoyed the first few episodes as I did for many Japanese mecha series, but they focused too much on Ikari Shinji's hesitation and despair in piloting Eva after that point. I watched this film in hope that maybe I was too young to fully appreciate this series back then, and enjoy more this time, but even after 26 episodes and a rerun movie, Ikari Shinji only seems nothing more than a really dumb and weak kid who likes to exaggerate his emotions all the time. It was frustrating to watch, and in the end, the only thing I gained from watching this 'movie' was a 30 second teaser for the upcoming sequel.Maybe anime otakus who watched the TV series over and over can spot subtle differences and get a kick out of it, but for a casual anime viewer like me, it was a 100 minute long rerun. It wasn't even a movie. I don't understand why the producers felt the need to make this so-called cinematic release other than reviving a dead franchise for the sole purpose of making more money.Frankly, I am very shocked and disappointed to see this so-called movie's comments on IMDb were all rave reviews. I hope I Am (Not) Alone in this sentiment.