SYNOPSIS:
A catastrophe of unparalled scale and magnitude
overwhelmed the entire globe, causing half the population
of the Earth to perish, leaving behind vivid remnants of devastation
at numerous locations around the world. 14 year old Shinji
Ikari was called out to Tokyo 3 by his father whom he has
not met for a long time.
At Tokyo 3, he is driven to the headquarters of the special
government agency NERV to meet his father, who immediately
orders Shinji to pilot Evangelion Unit One and fight against
the Angel which is destroying the city.
While Shinji resisted at first, the sight of an injured female
pilot - Rei Ayanami is enough to make him decide he would
not run away from this challenge and agrees to engage the
enemy at hand. With the fate of the world resting on his shoulders,
how will the 14 year old boy Shinji fight?
MOVIE REVIEW:
It’s hard to judge “Evangelion: 1.0 You (Are)
Not Alone” as a stand-alone movie because it’s
not. In actual fact, it’s a compressed version of the
original Evangelion series and this is just the beginning
of four films slated to be released over the years.
If
you are not a follower of Evangelion (like this reviewer),
you might find yourself wondering why those strange, bizzare
looking creatures called Angels are attacking Tokyo-3 and
why of all people, the protagonist, a 14 year old boy, Shinji
Ikari is chosen to pilot Evangelion Unit 01 to fight against
the enemies. You have no time to search for the answers it
seem, as the anime moves at such break neck speed that before
long, you are totally immersed in the world of fighting machines
versus Angels.
Despite
all the actions and loud explosions, the anime does have its
quiet and comical moments involving naked bodies. Shinji Ikari
turns out to be the son of Gendo Ikari, the creator of “Project
Evangelion”. Abandoned since young, Shinji is a shy,
elusive young man who yearned for some attention from his
estranged father. His inner struggle to pilot the Evangelion
Unit 01 to save humanity doesn’t contribute to increasing
his self-esteem either. In addition, Shinji also struggles
with his relationships with the people surrounding him, liked
his guardian and commander of the Evangelion team, Captain
Misato Katsuragi and his mysterious colleague, Rei for example.
Since
this is the first of a four-parters, we expect a clearer picture
of the various characters as it progresses. No one can beat
the Japanese in terms of character and mechanical designs
so for the time being, just sit back and be amazed by the
detailed hand drawn animation and CG enhancements.
If
“Evangelion: 1.0 You (Are) Not Alone” is a reboot
and compressed version of the original long-running series,
then I guess it has successfully proven its point and I can’t
wait for the second to arrive.
SPECIAL
FEATURES:
"Rebuild of Evangelion: 1.01" is
a 15 minutes montage showcasing the conceptual designs, pencil
sketches to the final animations seen on screen. “Angel
of Doom” PV runs at 2 minutes and feature the
score by Shiro Sagisu. Famous Japanese pop star Utada Hikaru
provides the theme songs, “Fly Me to the Moon”
and “Beautiful World”, snippets
of it can be heard here. A teaser and photo
gallery round up the rest of the DVD.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
This
code 3 DVD comes with the original Japanese language and Dolby
Digital 5.1. The picture is pretty sharp but do expect some
grains as compared to the more recent crop of 3D productions.
Audio is sharp and relatively strong with the DD5.1, just
crank up those volumes to truly immerse yourself in the battlefield
sequences.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
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