Evangelion Is The New Star Wars

Just yesterday I merely mentioned the downtown independent and a cute girl I never met before and  I was walking with shouted, "Yeah, there playing Eva 2.0!"

Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance delights with the most visceral instincts of man and woman with enough sci-fi background to make Spock cry.  Emotions range high as children get into adult situations with both terrible role models and giant living killer robots that are mere extensions of their will.

For those who are already fans of Eva, the story has been heavily redone. It's not like 1.0 the story takes some scenes from the original, but it's a completely new animal. The long awaited introduction of the wunderkind Auska. The new character Mari shines through as a pilot whose got a deep sense of pride and belief in herself that you'd find strange to see in Eva in comparison to the other emotionally messed up pilots. She's messed up, but kind of in a American way. Watching eva unfold is like watching Star Wars unfold for a new generation.

My God,  it was glorious. Seeing the pain in these children or just how sick they are is bizarrely engaging.
Gore became illustrious paintings of beauty. Guts and blood flow and you'll look on, but not in disgust , in utter awe. Every action in a fight looked like a end move in a boss fight. Almost like every part of the fight was planned like a dance. It was like getting the perfect combo in the game and seeing it unfold, except it lasted for 5 minutes.

Looking back you wouldn't think it gorey, but more like a new type of action movie. Calling it a action movie doesn't give it justice. It will be repeated, but there are many different levels of Eva. Sometimes it's action, drama, mystery, light-hearted comedy, or just fan service. That's still light on meaning as controversies over religion with strong Judeo-christian undertones, what it means to be human, family, death, cloning, governmental bureaucracy, environmental issues and even more are all inter-mixed. I didn't even get into ther very f-uped love triangles. Ever briefly sometimes it allows for you to think and discuss a number of topics.

The hero/main protagonist Shinji is just a boy piloting a giant robot and just reading it here and thinking about it, you know a mere child with emotional problems shouldn't be allowed to control something that powerful and you feel that every painful step of the way. It's not some happy ending waiting for you American movie where you know everything's going to be okay. You don't feel happy, you feel like things aren't going to be okay. Everything will not be okay.

You feel the scale of living in that world. Especially, when Shinji steps into a fight without his mech and runs to pilot it. With the earth falling apart around him.
 Or see people cringing in horror.

The design of the angels(monsters trying to wipe out mankind), and mechs( huge robots) transcends what you think of a monster/or what a robot should look like. They look totally alien. Forget anything clunky you've seen in the past. It's like watching alien gods fight each other on earth. If you could actually see it unfold in front of you, and wouldn't die from the fallout, you'd go what the Hell is going on? Then be covered in a sea of blood.

(Spoilers)
Two of my favorite parts

-Pain is a key word in this movie, pain as when Shinji must pull Rei out of a Angel after her Eva unit (robot mech) has been eaten absorbed by a Angel and to cross through both physical and mental planes to get to her he literally rips his skin off.
-Gendo Ikari's presence, Shinji's father's cold emotionless demanor towars his own son. Towards everyone really. It's another comparison to Star Wars. A awful father, a son trying to get through to him. Shinji's Dad is in charge of the Eva Project and he is a brutally cold-blooded to his son. Shinji just wants to impress his father by piloting his Eva Unit and be a hero, but his father isn't a good person and the wrong person to try and get respect from.

(End of Spoilers)
I could go on about this movie and write a college thesis on it and some people have, but instead go see the movie if it's playing in theaters near you. Hopefully, Laemmle's  in LA will have it if you missed the run at the downtwon independent.

Also look for the Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance to be heading to DVD and Blu-Ray March 29.