Evangelion: 1.11 You Can {Not} Advance

     Over the holiday break, I finally found the time to watch a movie that was highly recommended to me by a lot of my friends. Evangelion: 1.11 You Can {Not} Advance is a Japanese animated movie that is based off of Neon Genesis Evangelion, a TV show that ran for 26 episodes. Although the series originally ran from 1995 to 1996, this movie came out in 2007 and introduces breathtaking animation to a classic story with fantastic writing, plot, and characters. The story takes place in a desolate future where the world has been vastly damaged during the second impact, a mysterious disaster that killed half of the world's population. In Tokyo, Japan, the military has been developing technology to prevent such a disaster from ever happening again. In the middle of these developments, strange and nearly invincible monster's known as "angels" attack the earth and try to bring disaster to the planet once again. The military must use the only means they have to defeat these creatures which are humongous humanoid robots that are piloted by humans. The story follows a young boy named Shinji who has to pilot one of these robots and deals with the stress of the future of the entire human race resting on his shoulders.

     Overall, this movie is not supposed to be a complete retelling of the original series and handles it more like a reboot. There are new characters, new scenarios, and at some points, complete deviation from the original story that will keep fans of the old series , as well as people who have not, thoroughly entertained throughout the whole production. That being said, there is no way for any movie to capture the same feeling and emotion that a 26 episode series can and because of that, this movie is no substitution for the original series and should be viewed before watching the series only if audience members want the highlights of the series as a whole. Aside from the stunning visuals, characters are developed very fluidly and they feel like actual people trying to live their lives in a world with an uncertain future. The movie has no problems dealing with death and people that are squeamish of blood and violence should avoid this picture completely.
 

   
     This is the first of three movies that were made for the series and I haven't gotten the chance to see them just yet. Based off of the cliffhanger at the end of the first movie and the beautiful animation and direction that it has however, I will be sure to watch the next one and I am very excited to see if they can top themselves in the second installment. I will report back here once I have gotten around to finally watching it.