Evangelion 1.11 - You Are (Not) Alone [DVD] [UK Import]

I watched Evangelion 1.01 : You Are (Not) Alone both because of Interest In the series as well as the chief director of these 3 films Hideaki Anno Is also directing Shin Gojira and I wanted to get a feel of his style and It's safe to say I beyond Impressed. All my friends who watch Anime on the regular have always told me to check out the Evangelion series with high recommends since I'm big on giant beings beating the crap out of each-other. Holy crap this movie Is just.. PERFECT.. where do I begin?Well for one thing, the animation Is absolutely PERFECT. I loved the mixture of traditional animation and 3D animation! The blending of the two really brought out the best In Anno's directing style and shows he's down to do something different and to do It right! Sound Design wise, the soundtrack Is just awesome & the Inclusion of the Utada Hikaru track Beautiful World at the end was a lovely choice and It honestly made me re-wind the movie a few times. The sounds of the mechanics and the Eva Units were realistic and even while animated, the sound design really brought out the believability In both weight and maintenance, the angels though.. holy crap.. Angel 6 Is without a doubt one of the most beautiful yet scary as hell designs ever! The way this thing would shift to attack was breathtaking and how It's charging sounds were basically a screaming woman In a higher pitch not only stunned me but also made me question the angels and their true nature, that coming from an animated movie just shows the ferocity behind the film's team. I watched the dubbed version of the film and I personally loved everyone's performances, everyone came off well fit to their characters and played them perfectly. No one felt out of place or out of character and they all gave a believable show.The movie's story Is what I wasn't expecting to like as much as I did. Normally with giant anything In the story, main character backstories are kinda here nor there.. but Attack On Titan proved me wrong and.. so did Evangelion. I cared about Shinji, Rei, Misato & everyone In-between the mix, no one felt just THERE, the backstories & character personal galore made me connect with the main characters and they all felt real! One of the things I really loved with the film was the well balanced out drama and action, the film didn't pull a "John Carter" and each bit was just as engaging as the last!Speaking of which, the drama In the film Is superb as Is the action. Watching Shinji go through the film doubting himself and not being able to accept that he's a good pilot with that emotional struggle was INTERESTING and left me cheering for him until the very end of the movie. Rei was left with some mystery towards her, but she still gave off a strong & cold performance until the end where she begins to break down a few walls. Misato from the beginning I saw as the big sister type, she was funny, unpredictable & In some ways the perfect teacher for Shinji! In the end It's her words that finally end the inner turmoil Inside Shinji's mind, she makes him realize this Is a one size fits all deal, everyone Is at risk. Couldn't give enough praises for the drama! Now, the action. When action hits the screen you feel every bit of It right In the center of your chest, the stakes are high the energy Is catastrophically addicting to watch and no matter your setting, you're cheering, gasping & crying al the way through each fight Is an emotional rollercoaster. I found It rather refreshing how well the drama and action were balanced out & how the team mixed at times was astounding! While the classic trope of "talking while fighting" was there, but It didn't feel like a burden and It helped that what was being talked about was Interesting!Evangelion 1.01 : You Are (Not) Alone was one hell of a ride, I loved every minute! I became Invested In almost every character, I cared about their turmoil and well being, the action sucked me In and delivered an awesome experience In and of Itself. Can't get enough of It!I was surprised to see this movie was made In 2007 no less, so It's almost on It's way to 10 years old, but you'd never guess that watching the movie. The movie has aged beautifully and I cannot wait to see the next two!I give Evangelion 1.01 : You Are (Not) Alone a 5/5and a HIGH recommend!

Well after all this time, Evangelion 1.11 came out last Tuesday. I have been waiting for this movie ever since October when I first discovered it and then I found out that the November Evangelion 1.01 release was a bad dvd release with problems, so I had to wait until Evangelion 1.11 came out so I waited about 5 months for this movie. During that time however I watched the whole original Neon Genesis Evangelion series, all the way till the end of End of Evangelion. I will not give anything away at the end but the ending to the Original Series was not what I hoped for but I was glad that Anno made End of Evangelion instead of leaving it to the even worse ending that the original TV series left off at.Ok, now moving back to Evangelion 1.11 release. Well I was so excited about this release that I pre-ordered my blu-ray copy in January and I received it this Wednesday and just watched it today which is Saturday. After watching it I was glad. This movie met with my expectations and was a faithful remake and it was just as I expected. It did not exceed my expectations because I knew what was coming from the movie and I did not see how they would be able to make the first 6 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion any more interesting because this movie was meant to introduce the characters so I knew they would not change anything major from the start. So the story is about the same as the original TV series except that they cut out what was unnecessary to the main plot like all of Shinji's classmates knowing that he was an Eva pilot or when Shinji camped out with Kensuke when he was returning home after he was trying to run away. So the story is very faithful to the first 6 episodesThe animation is wonderful and looks really clean and the CG is the best that I have ever seen in an animated movie, especially the Evas and Angels look a lot better than they did in the original anime series. I played this movie off my Playstation 3 and I was watching it through my 13 year old TV that only projects movies and games in 480i but it still looked really good and in the future when I get an HDTV, it will probably look way better. The dub is really great too but I cannot comment on the audio yet because I do not have a stereo system and that one of the speakers on my TV is dead so I had to put my TV volume high while listening to the movie in mono.The only thing that I have to complain about this blu-ray is the packaging. I am not saying the packaging looks bad however, I actually really liked how the packaging looks, it is just physical how the case was. The case is pure cardboard and I though it would have a blu-ray case like all of my other blu-rays but everything about the case is made out of cardboard so that is my only complaint.So it is a good movie for Neon Genesis Evangelion fans like myself, but for people who did not watch the original anime may think there was not enough action in it and that it was too short. Well just wait until the other 3 movies to come out because this movie is not like Final Fantasy 7 Advent of Children, because it is rebuilding a story that actually makes sense instead of pointless action sequences. So this is a must have for Neon Genesis Evangelion fans and people new to the series, just watch this movie and wait for the rest because this is just an introduction to an epic story, just like the first Lord of the Rings movie.