Short review of Rebuild of Evangelion #01 "You are (not) alone"

This movie was really really great! I was kind of bothered that there was very little original footage in the first half of the movie, but the last half more than made up for it. For instance, the battle with the 3rd Angel was almost entirely reused, and aside from new visual effects and recoloring, the first shot of new footage I noticed was when the Unit-01 regenerated it's left arm. The battle with the 4th Angel had a lot of new footage, since the Angel was redesigned and the Unit-01's loadout was changed.

There was significantly less of Shinji's day to day life, due to the shortened nature of the film, but not to the point where we don't feel what kind of character he is. Some parts of the story were changed and rearranged, since this is a reimagining of Evangelion after all. For example, Shinji ran away after the battle with the 4th Angel, and in that sequence he was wandering the streets of Tokyo-3, sleeping in a cardboard box, and basically trying to get away. He did not end up with his nerdy buddy from school, though NERV secret service did still pick him up.

The biggest change comes during the battle with the 5th Angel. It is completely different. Bigger, badder, and more action. When the Unit-01 first comes out to attack the Angel, the Angel physically reconfigures to fire at it, and they jettison an entire city block to retrieve Evangelion Unit-01. As we have seen from the merchandise, the key hardware in that battle have been completely redesigned, and it looks great.

My favorite scenes in this new movie are where Shinji (Unit-01) crawls back to the positron rifle after taking a hit, and the aftermath of that battle, where he cuts the Unit-00's entry plug out with a Progressive Dagger. The end has previews for the next movie, just as the show does, with the obligatory mention of fan service. Of note in that department: The appearance of Kaoru in the end of the movie, the mention of Unit-05 and a single shot of Unit-06, not a white EVA Series!!

Bottom line: I loved this movie, if you love Evangelion, you will too!