"A man's got to do something between battles."

Overall, it was decent. I stick to my statement that 3.33 is the best rebuild.

A lot of my issues with it as a finale would have been solved with a transition movie between 2.22 and 3.33 (getting more of Mari and her backstory, Kaworu and Kaji's bond, Misato and her feelings towards her son, more Asuka development because she did get shafted in these movies.)

Okay, lets start with the positives. Rei has absolutely been my favourite character to watch in the rebuilds. I adore her learning to let herself go and live in the village, and it broke my heart when she died once more to be used again by Gendo. I was happy she was reborn in the end (alongside Kaworu and Asuka - they all deserve happiness.)

I really liked Misato in this movie too. Whilst I wish we got to see more of her feelings towards Ryoji, I did love seeing her protective instincts - both to the world and to Shinji. Her sacrificing herself was heartbreaking. Again, I just wish we got to SEE how Kaji died in an earlier film (as well as his project that Misato vowed to continue.)

I loved Shinji's resolutions with Asuka, Rei and Kaworu in the end. Seeing him at last confidently pilot the Eva only to then destroy them to move forward was great (I like how it isn't an instant fix too - it's taken time to rebuild the world into the scene we see at the end). Seeing him grown up and happy in the end was satisfying.

Okay, the negatives... Mainly Gendou.

Outside of a few lines early in the movie, the sudden introspection on Gendou felt like it came out of nowhere. I didn't care for him finally getting his reunion with Yui (framed as a kinda bittersweet death) since, you know... this is the man who's been abusing/neglecting his son, not to mention his abuse and manipulation of Rei (to be honest, I was also annoyed at him showing up at the end of ep. 26 with little exploration too). I'm glad he recognised his mistakes, but atonement takes time, and he died before he could work towards being a better man and father. I felt like Shinji had no obligation to forgive nor understand him, but at least it shows a much more well adjusted Shinji to the one in EoE. Again, Shinji's moving on, so that's great for him, regardless of his feelings towards his father.

(Another thing, we didn't even HEAR Shinji's feelings towards Gendou in his introspective scene. The son you neglected isn't just a rock to dump your issues on before dying. With the other characters, they get to converse, but Gendou loves a one-man show it seems.)

Mari and Shinji were cute whenever they got the chance to actually interact (you know... the ONE scene at the end), but their relationship feels hollow. Her telling him to not die on her seemed to completely come out of nowhere. For two movies, Mari's been focused entirely on protecting Asuka, so it's odd for her to suddenly be so protective of this boy she's met once. I understand she had feelings for Yui in side materials, but that wasn't conveyed in the movies themselves. I do like how she represents the theme of moving onwards - I just wish we got to spend more time with her as a character to understand why she and Shinji pursuing a relationship would be a good idea.

I don't think this was intentional, but I don't like Kaji framing Kaworu's love as ONLY for the sake of his own search for happiness. Kaworu's love for Shinji has always been based in empathy, and though I do really like the idea of a more introspective look into Kaworu's own search for purpose, I feel like Kaji was reducing his wider feelings a little.

I would have liked to SEE Asuka’s life in the village and relationship with Kensuke too. She sees herself as solely a protector and not an inhabitant, so it would have been nice for her to finally be free like Rei (which she is in the end - we just don’t get to see it). I don’t mind her being a clone in this universe (Shikinami is intentionally labelled as different to Soryu), and I do really like how this impacts how different she is from NGE Asuka, but I just wish we got to see more of her. Her admitting to having a crush on Shinji in youth kinda feels unearned since they have hardly any interactions compared to the original.

This sounds like I’m hating, the film isn’t bad at all. I just think there’s more stuff that could have been fleshed out for a more satisfactory ending. (Like I said, I think seeing the characters during the timeskip could have been a big help for this)

Also the giant Rei… I don’t know what they were thinking. Hyper realism COULD have maybe worked, but I just don’t think it looked good here - especially with the anime hair layered on top. In EoE, Lilith Rei was terrifying without trying too hard.