( Evangelion shin gekijôban: Ha / Hideaki Anno et al / 2009 )
The strange afterlife of NEON GENESIS EVANGELION, an epic combining teen existential angst, religious iconography and gigantic robot battles, continues with the second film in the new big(ger) budget four-part remake. Unlike the first film, YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE, ADVANCE deviates more from the source series. The characters are warmer, the Judeo-Christian mythology is even more pronounced, entire plot points are changed or new events introduced, and in general ADVANCE is much brighter and much louder. ADVANCE looks fantastic, especially the beautiful CGI Angels, without losing sight of the still aesthetic that characterised the series, part out of budgetary necessity, but part as providing a contemplative counterpoint to the climactic mecha fights. The potential problems of adapting a TV series into films raises its head in ADVANCE with, just like ALONE, the film's staccato rhythm. Where the series always neatly built to an Angel attack, playing perfectly to the confines of a TV episode, in ADVANCE Angels appear without any build up of tension as the film strains to fit in character development and behind the scenes conspiracies. The uneven pacing, in addition to an increased focus on the admittedly impressive battles and changes in characterisation, downplays the series' pessimistic melancholy, a very large part of what made it so unique.
ADVANCE is a decent film but whether this reboot will offer any real improvement on the original is still to be seen. The highly dramatic and visually specatcular climax - where almost all of the main characters are left for dead before pulling everything back for a bizarre, metaphysical 'happy' outcome only to then announce that "The world is ending" - is a vivid reminder of just how original EVANGELION can be and hopefully indicitive that the following films will not fall completely under the imposing shadow of the TV series.
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