Neon Genesis Evangelion is the wildly successful psychological drama. It begins almost as a another part of the already tired Giant Robot Formula, but that facade is quickly shattered as everything goes straight into hell!!! If you're not already familiar with the story, A creature called ADAM was discovered in the Antarctic and when man tried to meddle with it, ADAM unleashed the 2nd impact on the earth which melted the polar Ice Caps which raised the waters of the planet and knocked Earth out of its orbit. Following this devastation, Gendo Ikari and a mysterious Seele organization began several experiments and in time created our only defense against the Angels when their attacks began again. They created giant bio-humanoids called "Evangelions", once the 3 children (Shinji, Asuka & Rei) were at the helm of their respective Evas, they proved to be more than worthy opponents for the Angels. Particularly Unit-01, Shinji's Eva, which we later learned was a Clone of the the 2nd Angel, Lilith and was infused with the Soul of Shinji's dead mother, Yui Ikari. This probably explained why the Eva constantly performed incredible feats, such as operating without power on several occasions, defending Shinji when inactive, acting by itself and even devouring one of the Angels which in turn made it a man-made god. Oops.
Well, in the end Shinji himself killed the final Angel, Kaworu(SP?), who as it turn out is the only living being to ever say that he loved him. On that horrifically tragic note, the series ended with a poof. Due to time and serious financial constraints, the series was given an enema and two final episodes came out. The problem with this was that were to understand that all of a sudden, we were facing armageddon and in the midst of this place where angels fear to tread(?), Shinji has to move on from his earthly concerns and let go of his pain so that he might be part of the Human Intrumentality project's success. Through what almost seems like a two episode interrogation, we see Shinji review the the entire series up to that point and analyze all of the main characters. In the end, you see the main cast including Shinji's Mom standing on top of the world, reunited. To sum it up in a few words, EVERYONE FRICKIN' DIED AND NOTHING MAKES SENSE!!!!
That's where the movies came in! After Eva was finished the Studio was about on its last legs, so in a desperate gamble they gathered up sponsors (like SEGA) and decided to make a decent ending for Evangelion. And ending in Two Parts. Part one, Death and Rebirth is basically 2 movies for the price of one. Death, the first half is this ridiculously long analysis of the entire series up to the death of the last Angel. With new dialogue and some added scenes. Following that, there's an intermission. I'm serious! Following the intermission is Rebirth which is everything AFTER the last Angel showing the battle against Seele when they try to take back NERV and the Evas for their project. We are also introduced to the Eva series, the completed army Seele built in secret. The 9 Units (as I recall) are all the same Eva 5 model. Because I really don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it before I won't really reveal a lot, but I will cover a few points as well as make comparisons to the Original Japanese version I imported awhile back to the American Dub which MANGA Video recently released and the extras and features contained on this DVD.
Why it sucks: To be frank, if you didn't like the Eva TV series, you'll hate the movie. Well... maybe not, there's tons of violence all over the place in NERV and people I know some people who hated the Eva series, yet absolutely adored Rebirth. Mostly because of the violence. Also, my biggest peeve was the way Rebirth ends!!! When I saw this a couple of years ago after I imported it, I was totally stoked with my jaw on the floor thinking I was going to finally see what I had read about... and no. Cut off. Ouch. Then there's Death... *Yawn* Hardly the most exciting thing in the world. There were enough review episodes and episodes which recycled footage the make me gag in the damned TV series and the first half of this movie is one hellishly long review?!? Couldn't they put up a disclaimer before the movie that said "We are Sorry the other ending sucked so bad, here's an alternative and please enjoy the free acohol and gift certificates being passed around in the theater."
Why it rules: It's here dammit!!! I'm just so frickin' excited that I don't have to read poorly translated subtitles! And better yet, I even liked it DUBBED! THAT'S RIGHT!
Overall: Goodness, Manga certainly went through a LOT of trouble for this movie. First they got as much of the ADV Films cast from the TV series as possible for D & R's english dub which turned out beautifully! Then they put just a stupid amount of extras, defintions, explanations and just... everything Eva packed onto one double sided DVD disc. It's awesome to say the very least. If you're an eva freak then this is a definate must buy, even a casual anime fan can pick this up and by the next day understand EVERYTHING there is to understand about evangelion. And with the extremely helpful commentary, it makes everything make sense! Woo! I highly recommend this to even someone with merely a passing interest in Evangelion, it's quite good.