(Evangelion Shin-Geki Jo Ban) Co-director Hideaki Anno extends his influential, $1.4-billion grossing 1990s “Neon Genesis Evangelion” anime series with “Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone,” the first of a proposed four films from the same man-vs.-Mecha mythology. The setting is post-apocalypse Tokyo, after “The Second Impact,” which kills half the world’s population. “Tokyo-3,” as it’s called, is what remains of Japan, now under siege by a variety of mankind-killing creatures called Angels. Where’s that 14-year-old boy who might save the world? Shinji Ikari, you come here right now! There’s a universe of Japanese anime films I haven’t seen, but it’s always satisfying to see lovingly rendered, densely imagined, nearly incomprehensible universes up on screen, using computer-generated imagery to create a rich visual language suited to the individual project rather than to daub explosions and crumbling towers onto the horizon line behind rock’em-sock’em robots bantering in the desert. “Evangelion” portrays a dying world with mankind doomed but it’s an alluring eyeful. 98m. HD. (Ray Pride)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
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