Summer Wars - Reviews

Summer Wars is a great anime, but as it ended I was left feeling hollow. Was it because, like so many anime movies and series, the ending made absolutely no sense and called into question how I've wasted yet more precious moments of an all to precious life? Was it perhaps because I was sad it was over, like a good book you have to put away because you've finished?

Hell no. It was because Summer Wars was so good that any grumbling I have to say about it is going to be nitpicking or manufactured dislike.

Seriously; this was a great movie. Not just a great anime, but a great movie. I would recommend even to my wife, who's last exposure was a badly edited bootleg of Princess Mononoke, and who now thinks all anime is about giant slime monsters and lepers. I'm really not sure why you're even reading this--just go watch the damn movie. It's what, an hour and half? Put the computer down, call up a friend, and watch the movie. I'll still be here when you're done.

STORY

The story of Summer Wars was excellent, and quite enjoyable. Mind you, this was a movie involving an AI running a muck in some MMOG version of the internet, so about every fifteen minutes I had to grit my teeth to keep from complaining. This however is the curse of a programmer watching any sort of movie or television show, so I can hardly hold it against Summer Wars. I mean, I liked Lain back in the day, and that broke about a million rules plus left me wandering what I had done with 13 hours of my life.

ANIMATION
The animation is gorgeous. Scenes in OZ were rendered fantastically, as clearly being a digitally mediated experiencing, but not looking like some sort of cybershit from Code Lyoko. The colors were good, and the overall animation was pushing towards a more realistic vibe that I appreciated.

SOUND
Ah, sound. I have this category because it seems to be an important one, but I really never seem to notice. It was good, I guess? It didn't intrude, let's go with that.

CHARACTERS
Characters were largely believable, and their interactions led to easily half of the movie. The matriarch of the clan was a favorite, which is a bit of copout on my part, since she was clearly meant to be. There were several characters that were clearly meant as "generic 'good' family guy" and there was a tendency for each character to really embody only one character trait, but movies get a free ride on this sort of thing.

Sooooo heard quite a bit about this movie ;) did it live up to the hype? Bit of yes and no, great animation the whole way through no doubt, story started off great imo, but then got a bit old/cliche'd and dragged on a little bit - plus there were quite a few irrelevant parts in it - e.g. i fail to see what part the baseball tv watching scenes played in almost the entire movie, they didnt necassarily effect anything or slow anything down but was more like what is this? why is this here? haha ;)

anyway on to criteria stuff....

Story - 7/10

Started off great, but then slowed down a lot, and then kinda dragged on a bit in parts i guess -  very familty oriented story, as well as trying to have fun at times - though events that happen early on kinda put a sad damper on the rest of the movie

Animation - 10/10

Like mentioned before, great animation the whole way through no doubt, OZ, the virtual world, while staying relatively simple at times just love the colour scheme, contrasted with the real life animations as well - almost like 2 different styles in one movie ;D

Sound - 7/10

As for music....1st time watching, nothing really grabbed me, though see about that 2nd time watching as well ;) - as for eng dub - done perfectly (apparently the japanese voices wern't as good as it was originally korean???? ) - also lots of eng dub actors from FMA ;) picked Ling out as soon as he spoke ;)

Charachters - 7/10

Ehhhh now that i think about it, likeable, but not really much to remember by/nothing of note/ no charachter development i guess :0

Overall - 8/10

Overall definately an enjoyable movie, great animation, but story comes a little short, unless youre a fan of huge family get togethers, random baseball game scenes, and virtual reality ( the 3rd not being a bad thing ;) )

I was impressed to find this film was on a par with several of Miyazaki's works, in both animation style and storyline.  I look forward to seeing more films from Hosoda in future.

The characters were enjoyable to watch and easy to empathise with, and there were plenty of comedy moments.  There were too many of the Jinnouchi clan to even remember all their names or understand their motivations, but I think that was the point - it's exactly how the protagonist felt being thrown into the midst of a huge family and not knowing who everyone was.  I was impressed with the portrayal of Sakae, the grandmother and elder of the clan, she was a strong and wise character similar to many of the elderly in Studio Ghibli films like Ponyo.

I found the action in Oz enjoyable, and despite being so disparate from the rest of the film the director managed to link the two worlds well.  However, some serious suspension of disbelief was required when "Love Machine" managed to wreak havoc in the real world though Oz; who in their right mind would connect municipal systems such as traffic control and water services to a "Second Life" social network?  The differing animation style in Oz was well done, it was just like how I'd imagine a Japanese virtual social space to look.

The real-world plot was better than Hosoda's other work I've seen, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.  I liked the comedy aspects such as the cringeworthy first kiss and the blushing starting at the hand and moving up to the face, and also the scenes of happy, gentle family life.

Overall a very good film, with action and a happy ending.  There was very little not to like!

Summer Wars looks like a decent story with good art/animation outside of the vr world but inside the tacky chibi-esque anime style is anything but good.  Graphically the so called vr game to beat all vr games is about Nintendo original console or between that and the Super NES.  It is a bit difficult to believe in the suspension of disbelief when the so called vr world looks so antiquated.  One avatar is even Atari 2600 level of quality.  The story is really not all that original either.  It is a bit Tron-esque (ya well the end game plan was something comparablly catastrophic or epic) or like Wargames. Natsuki is a likable character and probably the best one in the movie.  Shouta is probably the most dispicable despite all efforts to paint either Love Machine or Wasikabe as such.  Shouta more than anyone else constantly gets in the way of the 'heroes' resolving the crisis with his utter stupidity and incompetence.  Kenji is not that bad but he is kind of atypical too, though he has a bit more depth than most similar characters so that is a upside plus.  

Animation/art is divided between vr and real world where the vr art essentially sucks the life out of the movie and the real life art nearly revives it.  Honestly, the vr art would have been dated even 25 years ago.  The sound is slightly above average with alot of extraneous noise in the back drop due to how many people are in the area.  I will give props for one way above exceptional aspect of this movie, family.  This anime more than nearly every anime I ever saw focuses on and depicts family and a large one at that.  You will not see the atypical treatment of, no one has siblings or parents that you often get in most anime.  Few anime I have ever seen ever actually focused much on family or had more than maybe a sibling in it.  I have to say characters are slightly above average though Natsuki is clearly the most interesting and likable of all of them.  Her look is appealingly attractive but not similar to most other styles either which puts it in a unique position relative to character art.  This movie is almost like a really long anime episode of a tv series the way it starts out at school with Natsuki asking for help from one of two boys then it shifts to her out of town family home where most of the movie occurs.  Oddly, Takashi never seems to move from the room Natsuki saw them and asked for help through out the entire movie.  I do not know if this was an oversight or intentional.  But it could clearly be a possible mistake given neither Natsuki nor Shenji are in school while Takashi appears to be.  The story is about a entity taking control of the most important internet system in the world and creating havoc and stealing almost everyone's account.  Sakae aka grandma is perhaps the second most compelling and interesting character.  When she starts dictating to all her family and connections how to deal with a crisis better than your average Secretary of State, you know she may well be hiding a secret history of herself.  She displays keen nearly zen like insight into Shenji upon first meeting as if she can see through him.  She does not seem all that surprised with what happens later regarding what Natsuki told everyone about him but she is upset.  During her card game with Shinji, you may well almost get the feeling she senses what will happen the next day and utters another one of her zen buddha like words of wisdom when she tells Kenji something seem profoundly prophetic.  

There is a bit of a flaw with the flow of the story when the report hits the news that Shinji is the prime suspect for what happens to the internet service but later the movie seems to forget there was this alert and news bulletin about him.  Additionally, given the problems in traffic, you might have expected the police to use helicopters and been able to track him down.  It wouldn't have taken Sherlock Holmes to ask a few questions at school and figure out where he went.  I just find it odd in a negative way, how eerily quiet the movie gets about his fugitive at large status but never devulges how or when it apparently faded away.  Then again, it never really gave the viewers that chaotic sense of danger that such a fugitive status usually entails.

Why does Kazuma remind me of Lucifer from "The Devil is a Part Timer"?  

You will see a fairly decent movie with good characters while half the movie is good art but half is not and a cheesy ending.  Yes, the ending was a bit over the top cheesy.  If I were to meet Jehovah's witnesses or door to door vacuum cleaner salesmen, I would have seen less cheesiness than the ending of this movie.

Summer Wars is a perfect example of a story biting off more than it can chew.

The film opens with an introduction to ‘OZ’. An information network that controls and monitors electronic services all over the world: from shopping to competitive gaming to healthcare facilities. Think the current internet age, but even more extreme.

Then we’re introduced to Kenji, a math wiz who works as a moderator for Oz and has a crush on a girl named Natsuki. A few moments later we’re introduced to this crush of his who begs him to come with her to visit her family’s summer home. Thus kicking off the plot.

Well not quite. Turns out Natsuki has a huge family and the film takes its sweet time introducing them one by one thus establishing some characters and relationships. If you can’t quite tell who’s who by the end of all the introductions you needn’t worry. The characters who end up mattering can be counted on one hand.

All the setup eventually builds up to the following: Kenji, during his stay with Natsuki’s family, is tricked into giving a dangerous computer virus access to OZ. Said virus wrecks havoc over the entire digital world causing all sorts of trouble to pop up in the real one. Now Kenji must work together with Natsuki’s family (the 2 or 3 that matter at least) to save two worlds from imminent disaster (because the authorities don’t matter).

Thus the whole story unfolds in typical blockbuster fashion: (cyber)-battles will be fought, old grievances will be reconciled and boys will turn into men.

So the end result is a movie that wants to be a sci-fi action blockbuster AND a family drama AND a romance story. Problem is that none of the elements are particularly good in their own right.

To elaborate:

-          It fails as a romance story because the whole plotline is trite and forced. The lovebirds-to-be are complete anime-stereotypes (nerdy nice guy and cheerful nice girl) who lack any kind of believable chemistry. Initially the whole thing just feels like a plot-device to set the plot in motion. Then the middle act all but drops it. Finally, the end of the film also concludes the love story in the cheesiest way imaginable. That wouldn’t have been so bad in and of itself but it doesn’t feel believable. The 2 characters in question aren’t shown growing towards one another and learning to understand each other better. They just love each other when the plot needs them to.

-          It fails as a family drama because an overwhelming majority of the characters is painfully one-dimensional. They’re just caricatures who stand in the background and occasionally showcase their one personality quirk. The few who don’t fall victim to this aren’t particularly interesting either, and are often no more than devices to shove the aforementioned crappy love-story in certain directions. The only somewhat interesting element in this plot-thread is a subplot dealing with a bastard-child who was branded an outcast of the family; but this thread is ultimately resolved in a sentimental manner.

-          It fails as an action-packed blockbuster because most of the fights aren’t very interesting. The idea of having avatars do battle against a computer virus within Oz allowed for the makers to go crazy, and there are 2 or 3 spots where some creativity is showcased in regards to having fighters transform the arena to better suit their purposed. But as it goes on any semblance of choreography or creativity is thrown out of the window in favor or giant punches fuelled by the power of love and friendship. It’s sad that the best choreographed fight is a short demonstration early on in the film.  Summer Wars sadly fails to avoid the usual anime-cliché where fights get less creative when the power-levels are increased.

So there you have it: 3 poorly executed and fundamentally flawed storylines that merge into one to create an unfocused and ultimately unsatisfying viewing experience.

Summer Wars was directed by Mamoru Hosoda, who previously directed the acclaimed ‘The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’. The irony here is that the two movies are almost polar opposites from an artistic standpoint.

To elaborate:

-          One tries to be a blend of many different popular anime-trappings and ends up unfocused and messy. The other has a very focused and well-thought out narrative that fully explores all the possibilities of its scenario.

-          One features a huge cast of characters with no real standouts, the other features only a handful of characters most of which are (somewhat) realistic, well-developed and humanly flawed.

-          One has a gimmick that ultimately serves as either window-dressing or a cheap way to create tension in the plot. The other has a gimmick that contributes the narrative in a meaningful way as an interesting dynamic.

In the end ‘Summer Wars’ failed to impress me. It tried to combine all kinds of different flavors only to end up with a product that doesn’t have any kind of flavor to it. It’s not a bad movie. The animation, especially in OZ, is wonderful (though the designs of the human characters are a little basic), the soundtrack is adequate and there are a few entertaining moments but after all the hype I excepted much more.