Let's start at a couple of hours ago. After demolishing a solid 7 chapters of CT3 (and lightly tapping another 3), I decided to watch LOVEFiLM's latest offering, Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance. I don't think I've documented this on the blog so far, but growing up the Neon Genesis Evangelion Saga was of huge importance to me. Let me paint the scene, I was in Lower Sixth (so 16-17 years of age). Hmm, how to put this kindly, I was an odd child. So during primary school, I was a proper geek, hand up at every question, very eager and very much trying to be a teacher's pet. Far from popular. This changed when I got to high school. I was still put in the "unpopular, smart kid" box in the first year, but then after that I started hanging round with some of the cooler, misfit kids. Don't worry, my grades didn't dip, but I became more anonymous. I disliked partaking in class, but I could fit in after-school study and some new found social status (including band practice!). Fast forward a few years, I didn't need to worry about band practice and social life much any more, because my social circle pushed me out. The band I was in kicked me and my brother out (without telling us). The rest of our friends decided that hanging out with the rest of the band and me at the same time was not possible and thus I became persona non grata. Also, my first girlfriend decided that this would be a good time to break up with me. Context over, this was when I discovered Neon Genesis Evangelion. This is the perfect time to discover Neon Genesis Evangelion, especially if you're studying English Literature and trying to force Freudian interpretations on every Tennyson poem you read, in a rather ham-fisted manner.
Assuming you know nothing about this TV show and its epic motion picture conclusion, let's get you up to speed. Neon Genesis Evangelion was a Japanese anime TV show during the mid-nineties. The plot breaks down as follows; it is the future! Shinji Ikari is 14. He arrives in Tokyo-3 having been called for by his estranged father Gendo Ikari (who rocks the Abe Lincoln beard). Gendo is in charge of a Government organisation called Nerv who, get ready for it now, develop, prep and utilise giant mecha (called Evas) robots as Earth's last defence against a force of 'are they, aren't they aliens?' called Angels. As well as having to deal with this threat, Shinji has to deal with this heavy burden that he has had reluctantly force upon him, which includes finding his place among the other 14 year old pilots and learning how to accept or reject the world around him. As far as I can tell, it had an instant audience due to its throwback, retro nature (giant robots fighting monsters was big in Japan in the eighties I'm told). , but much akin to Watchmen in the comic book world, although there was a strongly featured central plot (monsters trying to destroy the world!), it really stood out by showing the internal struggles of the central characters and more over, how utterly fucked up they are. Believe me, I mean it when I say fucked up.
You'd be fucked up too if you had to see this sort of stuff as part of your 9-5 job.
Anyway, it wasn't all blood and guts and phallic symbols, the show also did a great job of depicting the "teenage experience". Unlike many shows set in high school, Neon Genesis accurate showed what it was like to be at that age and being unable to relate to the people around you, hell, being completely uninterested in relating to the people around you,. Don't worry, there were still laughs and frolics on the way. It was a good tale of growing up. In many ways, what I feel toward this show is what I imagine a lot of people feel towards the Harry Potter series of films. Beyond this, due to all the psychology/philosophical techno-babble was also a gateway for me in a great deal of other art (Nietzsche, Camus, etc), so it was quite the big deal for me at that age.
A couple of years ago, Hideaki Anno decided to revisit his magnum opus and, something that George Lucas would appreciate, touch up his beloved series with the intention of making a few tweaks along the way. The first film in this proposed teratology, Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, was fairly tame. Beyond a few visual tweaks, the plot stayed close to the original 6 episodes. I enjoyed revisiting these characters that were integral to my teenage years, but despite the joy of seeing some of my favourite moments relived on a gloriously crisp Blu-Ray image, I had great reservations about this moving forward. As you would imagine, a lot was cut out from the series, and what remained was still jam packed into the 98 minute running time. What had been a show that interspersed brutal action with, sometimes, whole episodes of atmosphere and wandering around the wonderfully realised Tokyo-3 backdrop, had changed into a frantically edited, action fest. In addition, some of the changes made resulted in very subtle changes that (in a similar manner to Zac Synder's Watchmen) betrayed the motivation of the characters. Just to present an example of this; in the show, there is a scene between Shinji and a school bully. The bully hits him because, during one of Shinji's battles with an Angel, his sister is injured. However, his sister tells him off as, despite her injuries, without Shinji's intervention, she would have been killed. The bully demands that Shinji punches him to even the score, but Shinji can't, highlighting both how passive and impotent he is a central protagonist, especially compared to the usual leads in mecha shows. In the film, he has no such qualms. He doesn't even pause to consider it. I have no problems with a reimagining, but I was concerned that such subtle changes would falsify the ending if the remaining plot stayed true to the series. Oh well, no worries of that.
Evangelion 2.0 takes a very sharp turn into left field from the opening shot. New character, new Eva, new battle. In fact, there's very little recognisable from the series in this film beyond the characters and part of the soundtrack. Unfortunately, much like the first film, there is an awful lot stuffed into the running time that hinders the quality of the movie. There a very nice segments, but currently the plot isn't tying up. It's not just that character's motivations have changed from the series, but more that their motivations don't make sense. I was disappointed, especially with the amount of techno babble during the climax and generally with the dialogue. There are so many lines that are just too obvious with their intentions. Also, there are a couple of filmic tricks aped from the original concluding film, but it seemed to rely on emotional attachment stemming from familiarity with this and therefore had not earned the emotional payoff it was seeking. There is also the matter of "fan-service". The original series featured plenty of nudity, however, none of it was erotic in the slightest, due to intense psychological trauma each of the characters were face. In contrast, this film features an absolute tonne of almost glamour model poses from its female leads. In the years since the original series, the merchandise of Evangelion has definitely focused on the stereotypical pervy Japanese figurine sector, however, these sorts of shots have no place in this film and to me highlight how far the people involved have grown away from the source material. I'm still eagerly anticipating the next instalment, especially considering how brave the film-makers were in their deviation from the series, but I'd probably give it a 2/5.
Other Musings:
Interesting side note, my trip to Japan was rather Evangelion orientated. It is still insanely popular over there. I managed to pick up a mug and chopstick as souvenirs, plus I won an exclusive "not for sale" pocket watch in a Sega arcade machine.
The BFI London Film Festival has annouced its line up! So many films! So little time! While I would love to see Shame and 50/50, I have to come to terms with the fact that they will probably sell out before I can buy tickets. No loss, they'll both have theatrical releases sooner rather than later. I'm definitely going to try and check out a couple of the smaller films. I saw a couple of gems (Heartbeats, Elisa K) and a couple of stinkers (Love Like Poison, Special Treatment), so I have high and low hopes for this year.
I was feeling a bit meh earlier, thus while I was studying I defaulted to my iPod playlist of my favourite depressing songs. I got bored of studying, so I decided to work out instead. I didn't change the soundtrack. Pull ups to Nick Cave's 'Where Do We Go Now (But Nowhere)?' is quite surreal.
I am not that familiar with Steven Soderbergh, however, LOVEFiLM has recently sent me the Girlfriend Experience and the Informant! in a row. My interest is piqued. Both have been much better than Traffic.
Here's a link to my old band's myspace page. I'm pretty sure the recordings were made post my leaving, but I definitely played a couple of these songs live countless times. http://www.myspace.com/zephoria
I miss the days when Green Day sounded like Elvis Costello instead of Elton John.
Training camps for the NHL have started today! My first chance to read tweets and see photos of Adam Larsson playing hockey with the big kids! Whatever happens, I'm hoping it can't be as bad as the start of last season for my beloved Devils. In other league news, I am loving seeing Jagr in orange.
Laura found a flat! She should be moving to London in mid-October, which is around when my exams finish! Perfect timing!
