Rebuilding what ain’t broke: Evangelion

I just watched the first installment of the new Rebuild of Evangelion series. This 4-movie remake of the Evangelion franchise began with the release of Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone in Japanese theatres in 2007 (North Americans won’t get it until sometime this summer/fall).

1.0 combines and reworks episodes 1 to 6 of the original anime series from the ’90s. There’s some new content, and the plot has been tweaked to make it more understandable, but much of it is largely the same. Visually, it’s stunning; the producers have really taken advantage of new animation techniques/technology. There’s some spiffy new music (Utada!) and a lot of new growly noises coming out of the EVA 01 when it goes berserk.

Apparently this is the way that Hideaki Anno truly wanted the story to unravel. And the plot is certainly clearer in this version. Well, so far. I haven’t seen the second movie (Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance) yet, which just came out in theatres in Japan this past June. But the original anime series will always be the version that sticks in my mind. It’s hard to dismiss the original 26 episode story arc because that’s all there was for over ten years (I also didn’t read the manga).

And of course, the rumoured live-action movie is one the way, too. Evangelion is a franchise that has been successfully translated from manga to anime to video game formats, but throwing the story and characters into a live-action movie seems implausible. Although ADV and Gainax are working together on this project, my guess is that it will turn out to be another mangled rendering of an animated favourite.

With the ongoing reimagining of Eva by the series’ original director, a live-action, North Americanized version feels unnecessary. This seems to be another instance of an unfortunate trend: take one animated series or video game, leach the bare essentials of the story into a flawed screenplay, find an unsuitable cast, throw in some CG to pad the thing, and release a poorly executed film into the wild. Although it might be a labour of love for the film’s producers, Hollywood doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to live-action remakes. It’s a shame if this groundbreaking series is turned into something that falls far short of its usual standard.

But I could be wrong. It could be spectacular. Weta is supposedly eager to do the special effects, and there are rumours that some big names have approached ADV (and not the other way around) to inquire about directing it. And of course Gainax/Hideaki Anno is supposed to be involved in the production as well.

Hey, if I can accept a super deformed, cutsified version of the Evangelion characters in school together, the live-action film that is being proposed can’t be that bad: