Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009)

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This new Evangelion series is certainly great but for me, it could be even better. This movie features more of the angels being destroyed and it actually ends by saying Third Impact has occurred! That was quite a shock to me! I had no idea there would be such a divergence from the original anime. This movie was probably the best film for Giant Monster Month seeing as how it introduced the character Asuka. We even get a brand new original character for the franchise, Mari. Mari is a very fun character in that she is very strong and a lot more pleasant than Asuka.There's a lot of this film that does seem like padding. These scenes are still great because we get to see the characters interact. Here, we have pretty much all the original characters together and talking. It's great to see how they play off of each other. This is what any movie with a large cast should be doing. Well, it's not that large but it has many recognizable characters. I like the previews they do at the end of these movies. It helps that the animation is absolutely gorgeous. I guess Japan didn't need to switch to exclusive CGI theatrically released cartoons. ***1/2

Anno attempts to make the series better and reboot it for the teenagers who were not born around the time the old series came out. But this was a failed attempt to modify an already flawed series and making it worse by changing some of the characters and the animation while deciding to make a 2-hour long franchise of movies to try to squeeze in all the depth of the series.Asuka has changed from a depressed kid with mommy issues to a wise- talking gossiper with an aloof personality. There is little depth to her and she is now more interested in puppets. All we get is that she is captain and her name has also changed. Misato is more tactful when it comes to arguments. Kaji is more boring as he seems to serve no purpose. And that Spider Girl that is, Mari is not needed. There is some fanservice here which is probably going to please the boys. And Asuka has replaced Toji in being Eva 3.0's pilot. Which caused me to drop it and I had enough of seeing my favorite character tortured.Shinji's face is too goofy-looking for me but other than that, the updated animation is kind of special to watch but the series is a little too old to be remaking so that we can use this style of animation. Unless they can try to find a way to use animation that's closer to the original series.Now, I watched this before I watched Kare Kano but when I watched it, I noticed that its music has been copied onto here, making it unoriginal. The characters' voices are different from what they used to sound like.Anno needs to stop giving this overrated series a new makeover just to please the fans of it.Verdict: 3.5/10

Indeed, as the title suggests, this movie surprised all its viewers with huge changes in the original plot, setting it apart from the original, and making it arguably, even better. Since I don't know of many things I could possibly say that haven't already been said about this fantastic Movie, I'll give the basics: The animation is, as expected, amazing. Very polished, vibrant and beautiful. The characters are believable. People can argue about the Main Characters "Whining" and 'Emo-ness" all they want, but I think that the ones who dislike him for that might as well say that they are disliking him because, instead of being the generic Anime Macho Bada**, Shinji is realistic. The other characters are fantastic too, and likable. Even Asuka, despite her attitude. Its a shame that she... well you'll see if you watch. The dubbing, though there are quite a few dub haters out there, as very... VERY good. A huge improvement over the original (But in all honestly I prefer the originals. Its just because of the Nostalgia factor though...) And of course, the endings gigantic Cliff Hanger is killer, and made me squeal for 3.33 to come out already. And I'm sure that 3.33 will be no less if not more amazing than this.

The first Rebuild Of Evangelion gave audiences and fans just about the first 6 episodes of the original series with some small differences but showed promise and pointed to the fact that Anno might be heading to a different direction with the Rebuild series than his original Anime show.You Can (Not) Advance does take the series into a completely new direction and actually changes situations that fans of the original series are familiar with for the better and actually drops the angsty over-philosophical dribble that hurt his original engaging creation. Characters develop new relationships and interact differently from the show. The three EVA pilots from the original series get some great development here and differ a lot from NGE in a very good way. New characters are introduced, stakes are raised and the film has a lot of build up which boils down to one hell of a climax.The film has a more intense tone this time around and is very fast paced. The action is incredibly engaging and the film is the first in a while that has gotten my heart beating like crazy during the intense action on-screen. The film does give you breathing space with lighthearted interactions between characters and humor and thus makes it less heavy overall than NGE and EOE even though it certainly is more gruesome and still has it's moments of pure nightmare fuel.The Score of Evangelion is at it's best in this film and truly delivers. It varies from beautifully orchestrated racing score to sweet and engaging J-pop and Anno sure makes the out-of-place songs fit as well as he did in the show and EOE. The entire experience watching this addition to the series is unforgettable and gives me much hope for even more improvement in the next two installments.Overall the film is a vast improvement for the series and hints at better things to come with it's significant changes and has raised the stakes for the Evangelion universe. Anno seems to have gotten over his depression completely and bloomed into a true crafter of worlds and emotionally charged storytelling.