Summer Wars
2010 ‘Samâ uôzu’ Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
Synopsis
Kenji is your typical teenage misfit. He’s good at math, bad with girls, and spends most of his time out hanging out in the all-powerful online community known as OZ. His second life is the only life he has – until the girl of his dreams, Natsuki, hijacks him for a starring role as a fake fiancé at her family reunion. Things only get stranger from there. A late-night email containing a cryptic mathematic riddle leads to the unleashing of a rogue AI intent on using the virtual world of OZ to destroy the real world. As Armageddon looms on the horizon, Kenji and his new “family” set aside their differences and band together to save the worlds they inhabit in this "near-perfect blend of social satire and science fiction."
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Yi Yi meets The Matrix.
Anybody have a better bit of movie mathematics to describe this wildly ambitious sci-fi film? What... Summer Hours meets Paprika?
The first half is enthralling in its confidence and originality, but the second half succumbs to showdown overload, and fascination gives way to fatigue.
Still, the movie has a human heart and a surprising number of poignant, observant scenes.
It's as if the storytellers are desperate to bribe game-obsessed, gadget-minded youth into watching the whole film in order to learn a lesson about respecting their ancestors, the integrity of "the old ways," and the value of family and community over avatar-based individualism. And yet, like The Matrix: Revolutions (of all things), it takes the admirable…
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There are two reasons why this movie is on my Top 100: 1) I have a lot of nostalgia towards the Digimon Movie; 2) I met my girlfriend because of this movie. These two factors jade my opinion of the film, but for this review I'm going to attempt to separate these factors so that I can assess it fairly. This won't be a problem though, because this is an objectively great animated film.
Summer Wars combines high-stakes techno-action with low-stakes melodrama, and the affect this has on the viewer is outstanding. By merging the family's relationship problems with the apocalyptic cyber-terrorism, the film maker exacerbates the small problems and gives the larger problems a greater bearing of personal stakes.…
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The thing that sets directors like Hosoda apart from most others is his ability to interweave a compelling story with heartfelt, well-rounded characters, and rich visuals of lavish colours and animation that truly feels 'alive'. There is a kinetic energy in his work that is extremely enjoyable because it does not come at the sacrifice of meaning.
Summer Wars proves Hosoda to be a great director as it is, while of course featuring the same style, completely different from his previous effort and really shows his range. In Summer Wars what we get is a big-scale fantasy adventure set in a modern age that is ruled by an Internet-like network called OZ, through which almost everything that makes the world…
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I think I was the only person on the planet to not be impressed by the director's previous film, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, but despite not going crazy for his last film there was enough signs to suggest he had talent and from the trailers, Summer Wars, certainly looked interesting. Unfortunately it felt like two competent films clumsily stitched together. The most interesting story strand is the real world family dynamic which felt a bit like something Studio Ghibli might have made in the '90s but it never sits neatly with the online hacker story which, whilst looking undoubtedly striking, is utterly hollow emotionally.
It is pretty hard to really care about the A.I. side of things despite…
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Bright, colourful and cutesy. Hosoda's Summer Wars is a fun romp in a not-too-unimaginable world where all our lives are connected to the technological second-life 'Oz' system.
Every scene that is set inside this virtual world is an absolute treat to watch and definitely accounts for most of the film's most memorable sequences, as our hero family fights to save the world from a destructive super-virus.
While most scenes set in the family house can be heartfelt and moving at times, there's just far too many of them and it drags the movie needlessly out to almost two hours in length.
Overall, a solid watch, and accessible to those who are not anime fans in the same way that Studio Ghibli films are.
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I'm a fan of director Mamoru Hosoda's films, which never fail to deliver the vibrant and whimsical worlds I've come to expect. Summer Wars once again delivers these visuals, in the comforting package of an all too familiar story. I first encountered Hosoda's work in Digimon: The Movie, way waaay back, in which the first two "acts" of the film were under his direction.
Summer Wars is a big ask with regards to audience suspension of disbelief. The virtual realm, much like that of Digimon, is a fantasy grounded in real world technological influences. While I still find myself curling up and losing myself in Hosoda's films, the writing does waver tentatively at times- simply put, I was more focused on the colours than I was gripped by the on-screen crisis. What I can't fault is the film's handling of its emotional core, which it never lost sight of.
A creative venture into escapist animation, very much a popcorn flick.
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Yi Yi meets The Matrix.
Anybody have a better bit of movie mathematics to describe this wildly ambitious sci-fi film? What... Summer Hours meets Paprika?
The first half is enthralling in its confidence and originality, but the second half succumbs to showdown overload, and fascination gives way to fatigue.
Still, the movie has a human heart and a surprising number of poignant, observant scenes.
It's as if the storytellers are desperate to bribe game-obsessed, gadget-minded youth into watching the whole film in order to learn a lesson about respecting their ancestors, the integrity of "the old ways," and the value of family and community over avatar-based individualism. And yet, like The Matrix: Revolutions (of all things), it takes the admirable…
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Visually rapturous and lively, but so damn manic that I had to watch it in sections, and cursed with narrative beats far too familiar to anyone who has seen a science-fiction movie in that last dozen years or so.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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A Huge fan of Our War Games (the Digimon Internet Movie), when I heard that the same director took the idea into an original movie it was a must see. While throughly enjoyable, it is a movie with a distinct list of pros and cons.
As I said, I'm a huge fan of the Director's artistic take on the internet. The distinction from the internet world (or the "World of OZ") and the real world in animation style certainly grounds the film and remains visually engaging. Story wise, I found my self laughing and feeling for many of the characters. The stakes and tone within the film are also engaging as well.
However, the movie definitely has a plethora of…
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I put this on my watchlist after seeing the director's last film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Like with that film Summer Wars takes a basic look at adolescence and family and puts a spin on it. Last time it was time travel, here he looks at the internet and the dangers of trusting technology. It's a smart film with beautiful animation that rivals Ghibli. As I mentioned during the 'Girl' review; I would quite happily watch anything Mamoru Hosoda was responsible for. I'm glad to have found Japanese animator that keeps me amused like Miyazaki or Satoshi Kon. He doesn't have the depth of either but his career is still young.
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Esto me ha dejado con una gran sonrisa. La película ha sido perfecta. Desde el desarrollo de personajes a la manera tan particular de cada uno de agrgar algo familiar a la historia y la complejidad de la misma, la musicalización y claro, el rítmo frenético que en momento me llevaba a la desesperación total. Esta es una joya de largometraje animado magistralmente orquestada por Mamoru Hosoda -director de Digimon: La película- que es un genio.
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I've seen some whacked-out romantic comedies, but this one tops them all. At once completely over-the-top and gently human, this movie raises personal stakes over even thermonuclear catastrophe.
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There are two reasons why this movie is on my Top 100: 1) I have a lot of nostalgia towards the Digimon Movie; 2) I met my girlfriend because of this movie. These two factors jade my opinion of the film, but for this review I'm going to attempt to separate these factors so that I can assess it fairly. This won't be a problem though, because this is an objectively great animated film.
Summer Wars combines high-stakes techno-action with low-stakes melodrama, and the affect this has on the viewer is outstanding. By merging the family's relationship problems with the apocalyptic cyber-terrorism, the film maker exacerbates the small problems and gives the larger problems a greater bearing of personal stakes.…
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My only complaint for this movie is that the protagonist, Kenji, could have been a little bit more protagonist-ish. He really didn't play a significant role until the very end. That's usually ok when the protagonist is just an observer and plays the part of narrator (i.e. The Great Gatsby), but that wasn't really the case with this one. It was clear that he was the main character, but he didn't do much to stand out from the others, and was often overshadowed by Kazuma and Natsuki. Despite that, the ending wrapped up pretty nicely, and I got a nice sense of nostalgia as it reminded me of the Digimon movie ("Our War Game!!") that I watched over and over as a kid. There were a lot of similarities, but I won't call it a rip-off.