Summer Wars

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, much less one to call its own. 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.




PS.:
- Want an interesting love-story with a cool twist? Check the aforementioned ‘’The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’’. Same director, much better movie.
- Want a good story that explores familiar relationships? ‘’Haibane Renmei’’ features a surrogate family of sorts. Wonderful drama filled with realistic, richly-drawn characters and a captivating atmosphere.
- Want a cool science fiction story where a bunch of kids use strange technology in all sorts of imaginative and fun ways? Check out ‘’Dennou Coil’’. Same studio, similar concepts but explored in much more detail and with better characters to boot.

Chalk this movie up as another anime title with an anime-style story. So what the hell is an anime style story? I'm glad you asked
- Everything happens to be conveniently placed around a small group of people.
- The story starts to take one direction, and then ends up being a completely different genre from how it started.
- It turns a semi serious idea and pretty much takes a dump on the whole idea. (much like how Kure-nai did)

Now I don't mind a Pokemon Anime but if its disguised as a slice of life drama where a boy is unexpectedly thrust in the ... middle of his love interest's family, this is bound to make someone other than myself rage. To be quite honest this story is literally one of the worst stories I've seen executed with such a high budget. First off, there is way to many things going on to actually care about any of them. There is a main story, and then about 4 different side stories running across the length of the movie. Now i don't want to spoil what they are but, there is absolutely no room for at least 3 of them or at the very least gone about it a completely different way. In the long run, you will realize that this anime was a shounen movie disguising itself as a sports/drama/school/comedy/supernatural/slice of life/military/sci-fi/family/action anime. This is a good example why many anime and movie titles stick to only a handful of genres.

Like I said before, the idea had great potential to become a serious movie. Take something like Second Life and incorporate it to every day life. Traffic, Weather Forecasts, Public Works, Political, Business, Real Estate, everything can be handled under one unit. It sounds like a good idea at first, until the whole system gets hacked. Serious busine.. no, hilarity ensues.

I have said many times, no matter how stupid a story is, if the characters build a good chemistry amongst each other, then the story can be forgiven because the viewers can build a good connection to the people on screen. Sadly, for me anyway, it was hard for me to enjoy the characters as well. since there is literally over a dozen characters vying for screen time. Even the family scenes where they are supposed to build a bond with the 'main' character felt half assed. I mean seriously, how many times do they need to talk about dumplings or baseball? I did however, like the grandma and the shiba inu over the rest of the crew.

Okay so the story and characters failed to impress me. But the one thing that did, would have to be the artwork. Its typical MADhouse movie quality. Relatively simple character designs over extravagant backgrounds. Its comparable to some of their other works like Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika. The set pieces are just gorgeous, although its mostly filmed around the Shinohara compound, you will see they spared no expense on the details of the house.

This is definitely comparable to a Disney or Dreamworks flick. It has action and adventure. Some suspense even though the whole movie was predictable from the start. I could see grade schoolers enjoying something of this magnitude. But as for those that are expecting something special from a "summer blockbuster" will be sorely disappointed just like most movies with that moniker.

Expect something entertaining but nothing new. I found this movie to be of fair quality (6/10), above average but not that high above average.

Rant, there are spoilers, feel free to disagree, no cry babying on my page, constructive criticism is accepted, opinions are also accepted, it is 3 am and I am tired, do not expect former writing.

Okay, I watched the movie thinking it would be a warm hearted romantic film with comedy and a bit of action but I didn't expect such a disaster.

First of all, the story takes place in two different worlds, real life and the virtual world. The main character(can't even remember his name) is "hired" by his friend(can't remember her name) to attend a birthday party for her grandma. By "hiring" it means ... for him to pretend to be her fiance. Now you may be thinking "what a twist, how would he react/her family react in this situation." Well... nobody seems to care except for the grandma. From this point the "romance" is demolished until the very end when she magically develops feelings toward him. She was in love with her uncle ever since she was little and then she falls in love with a weak main character in only a few days? There was no chemistry involved, no intimacy. In the beginning of the story, I expected some sort of event when she invited him but she was willing to pick any random guy, and the main character was the lucky one to win the lottery. "Here stay at my house, pretend to be my fiance, I LOVE YOU." I mean seriously?

From this point forward, the majority of the plot focuses on the disaster involving the internet/"the oz." The main character is actually useful and can do something, cracking an elaborate algorithm to hax the interwebz. He unintentionally does this, but doing so disrupts the entire system and society is completely screwed. With the oz(i'm just gonna call it internet) hacked the hacker can control traffic/ telephone calls/everything to screw up your day. Well, so much for an elaborate security system. The security is a long math algorithm that is possible to solve. After that, you can do whatever you want. I really want to ask... where is the security? Guy hacks internet, do NOTHING. No government, no police, no cyberpolice(oh noez), nada. Nothing tries to stop the hacker except for *gasp* the main character and the side characters. Like COME ON, someone disrupts society and no one does anything but rely on a few teenagers and adults. I''m all for "it's a movie it won't be real or else it would be boring." but seriously, the story is placed in the modern time period with no obstacles giving a confusing storyline.

The action, oh gawd. The "action" of the movie involves a little kid playing mortal kombat but as a rabbit. The only action there is, is fighting. And it isn't even the epic, amazing fights. It's very boring, repetitive unmemorable fighting.

Characters, ah good old characters. I don't know any of their names, not because i'm dumb but because NONE OF THEM ARE MEMORABLE. You have the main character. Useless but a math genius... cool. Then you have the girl. She is in love with her uncle for years, tricked a friend to pose as her fiance to deceive her grandmother, and is good at card games. Well, there is only one thing that she is useful at and it's near the end. I loved the grandma, she is the cool samurai grandma who isn't afraid to rip her child's head off. I was sad when she died. Other than that, you get a MASSIVE cast of side characters who you don't know anything. You get the portion of the side characters that are helpful in saving the world, then you get the useless ones who watch baseball all day not giving a flying f*** about anything in the real world.

Hey guys the world is ending, lets all sit and watch some random family in Japan save it! Way to go government, and security. Let's leave the fate of the world in the hands of this intellectual family who LOVES card games... Oh no a twist! There is a set back and all hope is lost. Wait what is that, OH ITS SOME MIRACULOUS EVENT THAT OBVIOUSLY SOLVES ANY PROBLEM AND SAVES THE WORLD. Freaking whole world is silent and does nothing until the last 30 minutes of their lives are at stake where they ALL decide to help the main character win against the opponent. WOO HOO WAY TO GO HERO FEMALE MAIN CHARACTER.

Now the world is saved and we now know that the government is useless. Finally lets celebrate the awesome grandma's birthday and WOAH the female main character actually falls in love with the main character???? I would have never expected that, especially since she loved her uncle since she was small, as well as if you put all the conversations they had with each other, it wouldn't even last over 10 minutes.

Well, this summarizes my rant. Feel free to disagree but please refrain from "Omg u sux man it was obvuslee the best movie EVAR and ur retorded for not realizing." I appreciate opinions though on why people feel this movie deserves an 8? Share any thoughts.

Let's start by getting all the obvious win of this movie in terms of art and sound and whatnot--it's amazing! But unfortuntely for Summer Wars, art and sound do not a movie make.

Going against the 9 and 10 grain of the common persuasion here, I have to say that this movie was a dud when it came to actual purpose. Like someone else mentioned everything is just too damn coincidental--oh hey math genius needs to meet old grandma whose grandson happens to be the best net fighter in the world and whose other grandson yadda yadda yadda connections all over Japan, birthday coming up ... soon, I think these people in their little rural home just so happen to rule Japan from the shadows of the countryside. Everything is just too convenient and contrived that its like something from M. Night Crapalan.

This could have been a good movie but it wore itself thin by trying to incorporate too much, think National Lampoons Summer Vacation X the beginning of Home Alone X everything's alright in the end. Boy gets girl and everyone lives happily ever after. Where was the true conflict? When you sort through everything that went on it wasn't more than 'oh shit rogue AI' and then that turns into the BS satellite and then everything is fine...

Ok its like 4 am and my mind is all over the place. Not a supreme movie but not a stinker. Give it a shot and then watch something like 5cm per second if you want a decent slice of life that's like whoa.

Mamoru Hosoda is a fairly prolific anime director I haven’t gotten much into yet, despite the fact that I enjoyed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time quite a bit. I chose to watch Summer Wars because the premise of it seemed a bit more unusual than his others. It’s also been compared several times to the Digimon movie, which I haven’t seen since it came out so I can’t comment on the similarities. Summer Wars came out in 2009 and opens with Kenji Koiso, a typical 17 year old virginal weirdo who’s never asked a girl out and has the physical sensitivity of an abuse ... victim etc., but naturally this also means he’s super good at Nerd Stuff like computers and especially math. Oh yeah, if you don’t want spoilers avoid reading on and skip to the final paragraph for my generalization.

Kenji codes for an online simulation called Oz, which is a massive worldwide sensation that pretty much everyone uses. In Oz people create grotesque avatars that look like… Digimon and then travel this exciting white space filled with other floating avatars and objects to do literally anything. They can even log into their avatars and do their taxes and shop. Why anyone would need or even want to do that is anyone’s guess because it sounds more inconvenient, but basically Oz is this omnipresent networked monstrosity that is hooked up to absolutely everything and runs everything in the entire world ever. Kenji has a girl who we’ve had no background run in on him coding and asks him to pretend to be her fiancé at a family reunion to make her grandma happy. Why is this girl, who’s Natsuki Shinohara and hinted to be extremely popular and asking literally anyone to do this job, picking the most unbelievable excuse for a sexhaver possible? Especially when he’s visibly having anxiety attacks just by being around her? His cover should’ve been blown instantly, but this is another anime more concerned with nerd wish fulfillment than reason. Also, why is this even necessary? Natsuki says it’s to not disappoint her grandmother who she told had a super cool boyfriend, but what kind of excuse is that? Not only is Kenji the exact opposite of that description which foils her plan, but why the hell did Natsuki lie to her grandmother in the first place? Shouldn’t she be apologizing? Was she really worried her grandmother would be heartbroken over realizing her 18 year old granddaughter is currently single? If that’s the issue, why does Natsuki immediately say that after her grandma’s birthday party is over that she’ll say they just broke up? Won’t it not even matter then? Why compound the lies and risk embarrassing yourself in front of your entire family? Why not just say you broke up before? This is the first plot device of the movie and you can already guess the tone of the rest of this review.

So for whatever reason Kenji is dragged along to this weekend family reunion. He meets Natsuki’s huge family with almost no notable personalities. They’re only eccentric because the family is big and in one place, and most of them will never do anything the entire movie. This is a shame, because 90% of Summer Wars doesn’t take place in the digital world but rather in this packed house with a bunch of stock personalities with no unique traits and a one or two shouting uncles. In the first night, Kenji gets a random text asking him to solve a cypher. Instead of sleeping, he instead spends hours in the night solving this cypher for no reason for a complete stranger. But oh dear, it turns out the cypher is the security code for the entirety of Oz, and a super hacking AI has used it to take over and wreak havoc on the entire world because again, everything completely relies on this computer game. This shows how implausible this set up is in the first place, because no one would ever, ever allow such a completely codependent network like this precisely because of the massive security problems. Which is especially important when the world and every individual person’s data can be compromised by solving a cypher that literally anyone can access at the damn log-in page. And if a math whiz who didn’t even place number one in his country can hack the biggest goldmine of information in the world, it’s a wonder how this is apparently the first time this has happened.

Stupid shit aside, the AI (named “Love Machine”?) begins hijacking accounts and is able to get whatever security clearance that account has. It keeps growing as it assimilates more accounts and everyone’s under a panic and failing to stop it. This is a good chance to talk about Oz, because like a lot of things in Summer Wars it falls apart because it’s portrayed as both a plausible device but just rolls however it wants to without any context to define how it’s meaningful. This isn’t Dot Hack, and players only have their computer screens and keyboards. Despite this the perspective inside the game shifts to some exact controlled movement which doesn’t make sense, and there basically are no rules from there. Combat is just whatever random arrays of moves someone’s avatar happens to have, and these realistically freeform Dragon Ball Z combat sequences are somehow controlled only by someone mashing on a keyboard.

The very few digital sequences in Summer Wars are little more than an excuse to show off some surreal art design and animation with the wide variety of stylistic character designs in the avatars. This can be fun to watch for all the variety in movements and animation with a lot of things moving around on screen at once, but without definitive plot or story context it’s just eye candy wank. And not even very good wank, since the Oz scenes are very, very infrequent and the environment of Oz itself is pretty dull to look at, just being a bunch of white space and flat projected screens even though it’s apparently a virtual world that everyone lives in. You’d think the technology would have higher standards, especially for something this popular on a worldwide scale. I’ve seen worlds and GUIs in decades old MMOs that have more going on in them. Outside of Oz, the art style and animation is nothing special. It’s all fairly realistic environments and character designs. Animation is fluid but nothing else. Not even the directing left much of an imprint on me. I think my favorite editing in the whole movie was a scene early on where someone tossed a helmet to the front of the viewer and just before it was caught the scene cuts with the sound of a baseball cracking and another family member is on TV playing baseball from the opposite angle the helmet was thrown. And that’s just a throwaway.

I literally just finished this movie and I’m not even quite sure what to talk about because so much of its time felt like fluff. Probably because most of it is this uninteresting family playing around and talking about shit we as strangers have no reason to care about how like generations ago they fought in wars and used to have a lot of money. So what? I don’t know any of you guys, and I don’t even like hearing my own family backstories at reunions. Natsuki’s uncle suddenly shows up despite not speaking to the family for ten years because he sold grandma’s property in order to fund his career and research in America. A pretty dick move honestly, and everyone’s reasonably upset at this “betrayal”. I don’t know why he didn’t just ask grandma if he could do that since she seems pretty supportive and I think he’d be a little concerned if he simply found out that she didn’t care about profit more than losing him. Anyway, Natsuki wants to screw her uncle because anime and it turns out that he created the Love Machine AI that’s destroying the world right now because between Kenji being an Oz admin, Kenji randomly being invited to this get together, uncle suddenly showing up at this tumultuous time, and another family member being the strongest player in Oz, the world is just full of coincidences. It turns out uncle gave the AI to the United States who wanted to test its hacking capabilities before buying it, and the United States dimwittedly sent it in on Oz.

Hold the phone. You mean to tell me that the goddamn United States made the decision to send a hacking program into a universal server that holds the entire world’s – include their – information to test out how good it would be at compromising their own security? This is why hacking programs are tested on isolated servers and the like, imagine if the US wanted to test out some new program and tested it on their actual live military defense systems. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Somehow none of the US’s top brass realized that if this was discovered, and no shit it would be because everyone in the world relies on Oz, the United States would have basically committed an act of worldwide terrorism and betrayed every nation on the entire planet. This would be a catastrophic geopolitical nightmare that dampens the entire inevitable success of beating the program if you actually think about it. I don’t think they should’ve been so happy about saving one nuclear base, I’d be worried about all of the other ones after this scandal has probably ruptured several economies, political processes, and national securities.

Where was I? Oh yeah, that kid I mentioned earlier is Kazuma. He’s the world’s first hope for defeating Love Machine, because the best way to defeat an AI that can control all functions of a game’s code is to reduce its HP to 0. He gets his ass beat by Love Machine because it’s absorbed so many AIs, though why Love Machine doesn’t simply absorb Kazuma is anyone’s guess because it looks pretty easy. They decide to try this again and Kazuma actually practices kung-fu in real life in preparation which is pretty hilarious, and I’d like to point out how apparently the precision of real life kung-fu can somehow be transferred perfectly in-game from keyboard. I can’t even imagine a game being made that allows that much control with a keyboard, at that. Kazuma loses again because this plan was stupid in the first place since Love Machine can basically “cheat”. Love Machine then says “fuck it” and fires Chekov’s Gun in the form of a satellite that’s been repeatedly mentioned and aims it at a nuclear plant with a countdown displayed until it lands. Grandma, who has died at this point, has her will read off to the family after conveniently being found at random by Natsuki. The will does nothing but talk about Wabisuke, who abandoned the family, but for some reason everyone sees that as reason to forgive rather than be incredibly pissed that they were completely unmentioned in their grandma’s will despite being more courteous as children. Grandma says that in times of stress, sometimes everyone just needs to kick back and chill y’know what I’m sayin’? Everyone takes that to heart and has a big meal while the satellite and the apocalypse draws ever closer. I have to say, I don’t think grandma had the end of the world in mind when she wrote that message, and everyone should really be getting off their ass and trying to stop this thing because everyone in the world who can is conveniently in one place right now.

Uncle Wabisuke says that this is all just a game to Love Machine and it can’t resist a game (even it’s just made for hacking so that sounds like an ass pull) so the gang come up with a plan to have Natsuki challenge it to some old card game, wagering all the accounts its stolen so they can access the account that has the GPS and redirect the satellite. Keep in mind Love Machine has no reason to abide by any of this because it controls the entire game. What follows is the card game match, pulled off with zero tension because like everything else about Oz we get zero context of the game. It’s rapidly plowed through, we rarely see the board or the actual progression of each match, and there’s no strategy. It’s literally just cycled images of everyone’s expressions and cards being played with no idea of what’s going on other than someone on our side remarking whether it’s going good or bad, so the game isn’t interesting or fun to watch. These two whales that are the guardian spirits of Oz and somehow haven’t been taken over by Love Machine apparently grant Natsuki a “rare item” that changes her appearance for no reason. The item does absolutely nothing. It doesn’t give her an advantage in the game, so the whales should’ve just minded their own business. If everything preceding this wasn’t pointless enough, Natsuki wins the game but it’s immediately rendered moot by the fact the countdown is still going. None of the gigantic, triumphant attempt at an emotionally charged scene that just happened mattered. Wabisuke begins to hack into Love Machine like he should’ve been doing in the first place, and Kenji is continuously trying to get into Oz by hacking cyphers in order to still redirect the GPS. What follows is some tech bullshit that doesn’t make sense, Wabisuke weakens Love Machine which allows Kazuma to punch it to death this time and Kenji alters the coordinates of the satellite and it crashes and everything’s okay except for the oncoming political chaos hooray. Oh and Kenji gets a kiss and nosebleeds. Anime.

In conclusion, Summer Wars? More like Summer Bores. I may have not been trying so hard to dismantle everything about this movie’s plot if at the very least the story it was telling wasn’t such a damn bore. Plot holes aside, Summer Wars is visually nondistinct sans the Oz scenes which are barely featured and have aesthetic laziness of their own. This huge family is pretty ordinary all things considered and lack backgrounds or strong personalities, and really just come across as faces bolstering the cast amount to have more shit going on in each scene even though so much of the conversations and events are meaningless on a plot-scale and not entertaining when isolated. Kenji has no attachment to this family whatsoever and we barely get Natsuki’s perspective, so the narrative focuses on these family drama elements we don’t get enough perspective on. Everything regarding the technology reeks of being written by someone who has no idea about tech or video games, and it contrasts very poorly with the plausible tone the rest of the movie tries to take, even as it’s lighthearted. Oz has no mechanics or rules to make it fun or be able to fully understand the scenes. Context is severely lacking making every part of this movie feel like it doesn’t matter, which creates unsatisfying contrived plot developments that are just made up as they go along, so every twist is not a twist. Countless scenes have nothing to do with anything or plot relevant scenes that end up being pointless in the end.

I've heard of people saying this movie has commentary on technology, but what commentary? Yes, the world of Summer Wars suffers for its reliance on the Oz system, but that's not a fault of technology as much as their own stupidity in designing it. And there's no discussion or talk anywhere in the movie about the problems of that system or reforming it, and acknowledging a theme exists isn't anywhere near as important as taking a stance on it. There's also a light theme regarding Japanese family values that's extremely generic sentimentality and buried under Kenji’s perspective because it has nothing to do with him. Kenji should’ve just stayed home that day. Every true weeb knows that summer sucks.

Summer Wars, and please don't attack me for saying this, is the most over-rated thing I've watched. My friends all talked about how great it was, sang it's praises. Why? I was baffled so when one of them offered to watch it with me on DVD I jumped on the opportunity. I would rather have jumped out the window, a trip to the A&E would have had more interesting people and the reason everything was happening would be clear.
I genuinely disliked most of the characters, why should we settle for complimenting these bland as bread people? Every refers to the aspects of family in this, ... the only one I feel that applies to is Granny and Shota (Good Lord Shota, I have never been so frustrated at a character and I watched several episodes of SAO). The others were forgettable, not because they were bland, but because they were all designed to be unique and quirky.
The romance sucks, by the way. I'm sorry, I have to say it. It's not well developed, I didn't feel chemistry and the whole set up was so painful forced that I sat there thinking, goodness this girls a tad pushy isn't she. I certainly wouldn't let myself get dragged along by such an obnoxious girl just because she was cute, like our mayonnaise protagonist does.
I just remember how angry I felt watching this, mainly because of those same friends. They recommended this over 'The Girl who Leapt Through Time'? Piss off, it feels a bit like an awful prank. I went into this expecting to feel like it was Kimi no na Wa but left wishing I'd watched the live action Dragon Ball.
Am I being a prick to a film I know other people like? Yes. Do I think the film deserves me ranting incomprehensively at it? No.
Problem is, I didn't get enjoyment out of it, I sat there passively watching, getting angry occasionally.

Ahh, Summer Wars, a family movie with a title that may have had viewers thinking it is centered around family fights, which it was in a way, yet when reading the synopsis it was quite different than expected. It is an sci-fi anime enriched with comedy and drama to a certain extent, which proposed an interesting theme: the effects of having a digital system that controls and stores personal data that is hacked and the effects of it. This anime was entertaining, yet when analysing the story and characters a bit closer, flaws could be found, in addition to some pacing issues.

The story of Summer ... Wars! focuses on the math genius Kenji Koiso who agrees on the summer job proposed by his secret crush Natsuki; but there is a gist to it as he soon discovers: he must act as her fiancé. Joining her family to celebrate the 90th birthday of Sakae, the matriarch of the family, it is soon apparent that it is tough deceiving the family. Amidst of this, he receives a math problem to solve which he successfully does without knowing the catastrophic consequences it has to OZ, the digital program that controls almost every aspect of people's life.

The premise looks interesting, which in addition seems to be packed with humor and with a little drama. This was indeed the case, in had a good introduction of the different characters, how society was structured technological-wise and the importance of the program of OZ. The humour may not be to everyone's liking, but there were some passages that were amusing; the present family affairs were interesting to observe, as these were relatable and realistic, albeit a bit exaggerated. However, although the first half of the movie was well paced, the second half was not; this was rushed, consequently leaving quite a lot of questions unanswered such as how the system of OZ worked, as well having quite some plot holes and plot conveniences that would leave viewers eye-rolling.

The concept of such a program is surely of high interest, as this may be a possibility in the near future of current society. It certainly displays the worst aspects of this program, although a bit lackluster when displaying its strengths. The interactions of people with this programme also seemed to give the impression that everyone was only concerned with this digital world, rather than the reality, which in turn through the animation seemed to suggest that these coexisted in harmony. This program also raises the question on why such a program has access to everything, including government data, without corresponding countering systems to avoid said issue.

Moving on to the characters, these are varied and unique on its own way, meaning representing different personalities from reality anyone could relate to. In fact, some were very well presented, as the case of Tanimura Mitsuki who is a 13-year-old game addict; others were amusing, such as Sakuraba Nanami who provides a balance to counter the character of Natsuki. Character development of these are nearly nihil, in addition to its fleshing out of its cast, which in understandable in a movie format anime with such a huge cast of characters. Nevertheless, the interactions with the family and its cast, strikingly similar to reality, easily identifying with some viewers. However, some questions may linger among audiences, such as why the family is so influential, or why certain things happened in this family.

The animation of Summer Wars was well done, having fluid movements, and a great variety in character design: be it the skin tone, hair style, facial structure, being all very distinctive from each other. The backgrounds are beautiful to watch at as well, brightly coloured and drawn. As for the virtual world, this is original and displayed with a mix of CG and drawings, which was surprisingly well done. Other positive aspect would be the character's avatars in this world, as these represented well the personality of the different characters of the cast.

In terms of soundtrack, the different compositions matched with the atmosphere of the movie, although no track in particular stood out. The voice actors performed their roles well. There was however a at times issues with the sounds: speech, music and back ground effects were sometimes overlapping each other too much, making it difficult for audiences to either understand or properly follow the story/different soundtracks used.

Overall Summer Wars! was an enjoyable anime, and certainly proved to work well as a family movie, although not anything outstanding. For more critical viewers there were quite some issues which impacted negatively on the experience of the show, as the story was rushed in the last part, consequently failing to explain properly the different workings of the program and the family. The characters and their interactions certainly stood out, in addition to its animation and the interesting theme it proposed, but was hindered by its own strength, being a family movie. So do I recommend Summers Wars? Yes, to a certain extent. If you are searching for a light movie to watch, then go ahead; otherwise maybe it is better to watch other ones.

Thank you for reading.

This is a children's movie, plain and simple. Not a family movie as advertised. What's the difference? Children's media is made to get kids to sit down and shut up, family media is made with the intention to have multiple age groups interested.

Overall 5/10 - Enjoyment 6/10: Let me put this one first and say I understand its a kid's film, made for kids, and I can't judge it by the same merits as a show aimed at my age group. As I watched the movie I tried to keep this in mind, but even 10 year old me would be bored. It was a ... bland film with some good but overall didn't really work. Had their focus been more on Oz, it would probably rank much higher.

Story 3/10: Its way worse than the synopsis had led me to believe. Coming from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo), I expected much better from Mamoru Hosoda. Instead I got something with a few interesting ideas but overall a very basic plot. The main problem with this movie is that it promises too much. The opening 20 minutes or so look very interesting but its not long before you realize you have to trudge on through the rest.

Character 3/10: There were SO MANY! How can I say I like the characters when all but three are up for two seconds? I suppose I can talk about the main characters, though, sort of. We have male lead 002, female lead/love interest 497, and skilled quiet fighter 033.

Art and Sound 7/10: I really don't have much to say about these. They got the job done, and the art/animation had a few nice touches. However, if you don't like product placement, run. Oz itself is very bright and colorful, rendered in CGI but somewhat stylized to fit in with the 2D animation.

As of writing this, Mamoru Hosoda has become incredibly well known amongst the anime community. His films The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and especially Wolf Children have regularly been talked up as the best anime films of the past decade. Summer Wars, however, usually does not make the cut; instead it is more often compared to the Digimon Adventure Movie directed by Hosoda in 1999. So what makes Summer Wars different?

To put it simply, Summer Wars lacks focus. The films begins with a description of Oz; an online system that seems to control everything that involves computing - from infrastructure to banking to gaming. ... This makes it seem like the film will be about how such a ridiculous system would change lives. However it cuts to the protagonist, Kenji, as he gets to go on a trip with Natsuki who he is clearly infatuated with. But, before this relationship can develop, Natsuki's huge family is introduced.

Here is where the film loses focus. With so many characters, not much time is spent developing the important characters or exploring themes in the plot. The film continues to introduce new ideas to its own detriment. There's romance, but it never develops and feels forced. There's plenty of family drama, but none of the problems are fleshed out. There's also the issue of Oz, seeming very unrealistic and gimmicky. The lack of direction in the film harms the opportunities it has to make an impact on the viewer.

However, Summer Wars does have some positive aspects. The interactions between the characters are enjoyable to watch and thereare plenty of comedic moments. Everything feels silly and extraordinary. The family actually feels like a giant family and the house is as chaotic as you'd expect a huge family reunion to be. The scenes in Oz are great to watch for the visual style, however the action scenes in Oz lack intensity due to how outlandish the plot can be. The soundtrack is satisfactory, while the voice acting is impressive for the variety of characters.

Summer Wars is a fairly enjoyable film overall, but there are flaws in its execution that make it a film that can only really be recommended to younger people (ages ~8-12). Hosoda has two films that are better for depicting romance and family; the aforementioned Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children. So if you haven't seen those, definitely watch those before watching Summer Wars.

I own this - I have heared the good reviews and upon picking up the DVD, the flattery continues; this is said to rival the works of Studio Ghibli (which I love) - my point being that I when into this wanting to enjoy it...
What a dissapointment. :(

Story...
A teen boy ends up getting roped into multipul conflicts that pretty much blow up at the same time upon accompanying a teen girl to her grandmothers countryside home; he must then work along side her family in order to save the world in a race against the clock.
This gives off the illusion of character progression, when the ... whole thing seemed rushed and convenient, though there is grounds for a decent discussion on the importance of technology in everyday life, so that boosts the story up to a 7/10.

Art...
Lovely, 10/10.

Sound...
The vioces are fine, the music threwout fits, no problems, 10/10

Characters...
The element that drags the entire movie down!
We have a set-up many of us have seen; nerdy, quiet, nice guy with no backbone putting himself out for the; pretty, popular, bossy girl 'many guys would dream of dating'.
He ends up amungst her family forced to go along with her lie.
The characters we get to know are her family; a tough self righteous gran, a stroppy young teen recluse cousin, an outcast, cool uncle and a range of mouthy individuals who aren't short of something to say.
There is an attempt to add some depth to the characters by giving the significant ones an interest, however, all interests are simply convenient for the plot inwhich said characters really don't need to be in the same place at the same time, but thankfully are.

Enjoyment...
Not too much really?
The plot is fine; it's actually quite clever and there where some pretty well though out moments in this story that proved a touching- the odd few scenes were enjoyable.

Overall...
This will be on my shelf for years - taking up space.
It's a shame the story is executed fairly well, but the really is evidence that characters make a movie, and within Summer Wars, they really aren't worth it.
I'll add that I'm an individual who has watched a lot of anime and find it easy to spot when many corners have been cut - this is a prime example - very lazy.
My pre-teen sister however loves this movie.

Maybe I should not have watched Summer Wars following Your Name 2016 and The garden of words 2013 as they are hard acts to follow but Mamoru Hosoda third film it is not like I imagined it to be from the trailers (I had seen over the years) and it is not the film I hoped it be or wanted.
But what it is...is a fine beautifully animated film with a good English dub. If you're not looking for more than this then this film is fine.

From the trailers I had seen I thought it was going to be a VR / ... AR / MR - ready player one type of film because it's about social media and a virtual net world almost identical to the oasis.
It looks like it or at least the metaverse from Snowcrash and the film seems to switch from hand drawn traditional style to clean cut CGI which I loved and would like to see again in an actual VR anime... but in 95 we had already seen this with Ghost in the Shell.

Sadly the story / script is very pedestrian and seemingly written by someone who doesn't know much about technology.
And even being a decade old in 2009 we had many books and films and even burgeoning tech which would have been more realistic and fun than the odd visual choices they made.

Its almost as if the 3d online world we are shown is how the characters imagine it to be, which would have been fine but that isnt the case as there is no transition between the worlds. What we the audience see seems to be what the characters see on a pc screen or a land line phone LED screen (!?). But the Oasis world isn't in first person or 3rd...its cinematic which is not how you would experience any online service beyond a streaming film etc.

This jarring vision can be seen at its most confusing when there is a a 3d fight game on a laptop screen (portrayed in 3d and in cgi) but rather than control avatars in the virtual world in first person or side on using a controller or with VR controls or screen gestures (all existing in 2009) or anything unique or similar to how we all play fighting games...the character types madly all the keys on the keyboard!?
It's like he's programming something at speed or writing a letter? Its exactly like terrible 90s films about hacking such as the film hackers (95). And if he is programming then that makes no sense as the character doesn't have admin access. It's just lazy and confusing and is a real missed opportunity for something special.

The film clearly is based on 1992 pioneering VR book snow crash which ready player one later took ideas from (and these all came from Neuromancer 1984). But considering how rich the source material available was in the 2000s what the writer Satoko Okuderase chose is extremely limited and a little more like the also confusing Wreck it Ralph 2 which had very similar issues when merging the real world with the virtual in a way which makes sense. And this from the writer who went on to write Wolf children and the amazing Kiki Delivery Service but then they're not exactly tech films.

In summer wars its almost like two films which don't belong together. And sadly neither is very good.
One is a family melodrama with all the cliches you've seen elsewhere and a very simple romance which is less than progressive. With all the usual caricature we've seen before including a female matriarch and a black sheep son alongside a virgin nerd and a beautiful popular girl who needs him to save her.
While the net / OZ is an amazon hub world but ends up being just for fighting.
I would have loved to have seen shopping and dating and all the cool stuff such a place offered in 3d and is hinted at in the intro but never followed up on.

It's all fine but its messy and makes as much sense as the virtual world. It all looks and sounds good and if you don’t think or know too much about anything then its all fun and summer ‘war games’ (which is also shamelessly ripped off). BUT if you know nothing about technology (or family) I’m sure this film is fantastic , as it’s exactly how your grandmother thinks about the internet (and your little brother thinks about relationships).

I think the most jarring issue is this was the follow up to the acclaimed The Girl Who Jumped through Time (2006) and was followed by the superior Wolf children (2012).
Summer Wars is more like The Boy and the Beast (2015) which starts off well but falls apart in the third act. Summer Wars isn't quite as bad but then its never quite as good.
Summer Wars is somewhere in between Mamoru Hosoda filmography and absolutely fine and fun but it failed resonate with me in the same emotional way as his other films. Give it a chance as there is much to like especially if you keep your expectations in check.

If I can describe this anime with one word, that word would be CRINGE. This is one of the cringiest anime I have ever seen, solely because of the ending. When the whole family, both young and old, were trying to save the world by playing with their gameboys, I cringed so hard that I dabbed to the other side of the universe. I know anime is not supposed to be realistic but it was too cringy for me to comprehend the elderly helping a few children save the world by playing with their gameboys. Don't get me wrong, I like video games but this ... was just way over the top. It was like watching my grandpa trying to do an insec during his stay at internet cafe. NOT HAPPENING. Anyways, besides the cringy part of this anime, the art and sound were good if not great. I don't recommend this anime unless you wanna dab with both your arms to the other side of the universe with a can of Mountain Dew in your hands. Amen.

Don't read this review





I would have liked it way more if they burned the grannie and then put her in a giant joint and then used the nuclear reaction to light the tip and smoke it

I've never written a review before, in fact: I haven't written anything before; however, despite this being the first time I have ever composed something in the english language-or any other: I hope this review will help some people who are considering watching this with my personal opinions on this film. This review will mostly focus on my opinion of my personal enjoyment and the story of this show since ... Madhouse has proven tim and tim again that they have the formula for making pretty sweet anime down-and this is no exception.


S t o r y : 5 / 1 0 MID FIVE
Alright, I don't know about you guys, but I HAte spoilers... Like a lot, so I won't spoil anything in this film that isn't already declared in the synopsis. Essentially, there are two or three stories that take place in this film. The primary one being the Sword Art Online one that revolves around the world of OZ and a conflict that occurs in it. The secondary story being an equally as cliché yet more enjoyable awkward comedy where the main character acts as his attractive senpai's fiancé in front of her entire family. The tertiary story being a bit more spoiler ridden in description-for people who've watched this film: its the Jinnouchi one. The other 'stories' are more or less themes of the film that interlace the three main stories.

Personally I like the premise of all three stories; however the execution of the main one was pretty trash tier and the others were more than just sidelined. I wouldn't mind the others being sidelined if not for the boring, repetitive, predictive main storyline. I'd go as far as to say I believe the two other storylines were good enough to be the basis of a film if they were expanded upon and taken more seriously.


C H A R A C T E R : 6/10 MID SIX
Yeah, the main character is pretty undeveloped, his senpai is though and the family in general is. That being said they didn't really get into it at all. eh?


A R T & S O U N D : 7 / 1 0 6 / 1 0 HIGH SEVEN AND LOW SIX RESPECTIVELY
The art and animation was pretty good, but I personally found the OZ world to look sorta bad (thats why I no ratie an 8ie. The sound was alright, I mean it wasn't bad like I didn't dislike any of the voice boys. The music is super forgettable though. .


E N J O Y M E N T : 6 / 10 LOW SIX
eh


O V E R A L L : 6 / 1 0 MID SIX
Yeah it was sorta bland, I'm not saying I could write anything half as good but I can definitely find something to watch twice as good pretty easily. wh did you read this anyways? writing reviews makes me feel super pretentious xD so this is mostly for my friends I guess. I was going to crack some intense jokes during the review so it wouldn't be as bad.. Anyways, if you're curious how I weigh anime rating its like my enjoyment = what I rate it.

the way i rate things is like low mid and high per each level. For instance: if I rate something a low seven that means its range is {6.5<=r<6.8} and if I were to rate something a mid eight it would be {6.8<=r<7.2}. and so on. THis is a cool way to rate stuff, but its just how I do it

Hosoda's second post-Digimon and One Piece film, Summer Wars, follows the chaotic style of its predecessor in a more down-to-earth and relaxed setting... however, things get crazy not only to story level, but also on a quality one.
While this is MADHOUSE's best work to date, with delightful animation, attention to detail and possibly some of the best backgrounds ever seen in an anime, it feels like the team blew all of their budget just over that, because nothing else really feels special.
There are lots of characters, a meaty runtime and an admirable concept behind it all, but barely any of that feels interesting. Nobody in ... the movie really develops, perhaps because of the "family" feeling they are supposed to give: there's the loud children, the cool uncle, the wise grandmother, and so on. The way we see all of the residence's rooms, but not all of the characters' minds, is quite disappointing. You feel overwhelmed with things you want to care about, but really can't.
But that's not all: at eighty minutes in, I was begging for this thing to end. With an incredibly average "Save the world" story premise that sounds like it's from a JRPG (which I guess is fitting?), the film feels overlong at a certain point, and becomes sloppy near the end.
The thing that really angers me about Summer Wars, though, is the soundtrack. It's not music, more like background electronical noise. And when you need it the most, there's no music at all. Oh, the mastering is also pretty bland, which is strange considering the usual care MADHOUSE puts into it.

If everything was as good as the animation, this could've been perfect. A pen can sometimes draw, but not write.

This is my first review, so please be lenient.
I just watched this movie yesterday since I felt like there's a big hype around it and I've had it on my PTW-list for years now. It ended up pretty disappointing.

Story 4/10
The movie started nice with a guy (whose name I already forgot) going with his friend Natsuki to her family on the countryside to help her with the birthday preparations for her grandma. How it turned out, she actually wanted him to play her boyfriend for her grandma. That could've been a nice and funny story but it ended as an near-disaster with a completely different ... genre than how it started.
Suddenly the guy and Natsuki's whole family end up being involved in an incident with the virtual world Oz that threatens the whole world and so they all do their best to prevent further damage. Conveniently all important people who are somehow involved in Oz and able to stop the disaster are part of the family - which is a big family but still seems really unrealistic. The whole movie there seems to be no government, no police, noone who is responsible for the security in Oz and the family has to save the world on their own. Which is not an easy task and so to me it's stupid to even consider that something like this might be possible, so the whole plot is just really unrealistic and not enjoyable at all in my opinion.
However, people who like gaming anime and who don't need a very deep and logic plot may enjoy this anime.

Art 6/10
The art, actually, is not that bad at all. I guess you could even say that it's pretty good but I'm personally not really into this kind of art style and that's why I only gave it a score of 6. It's just not my kind of taste.
The drawings seem very simple and not that detailed compared to other anime shows but not in a cheap way but more in an artsy way. Best would be to just go and look for a trailer to decide for yourself whether or not you like the style of this show.

Sound 5/10
Not much to say here, the soundtrack wasn't bad but not very recognizable all the same to me. Just literally the definition of mediocre, I'd say.

Characters 5/10
I think the character with the most personality was Natsuki's grandma. Her uncle and that gaming boy also had an own personality but the rest of the characters were just like every other character. Not very regocnizable, again. I wouldn't say that they've done a bad job here, at least we have the three persons I just stated and the MC isn't bad, either. I just wouldn't say that I especially liked him or Natsuki which usually is important to me because a show can't be very exciting if you don't care about the protagonists. Natsuki was okay, she is very outgoing, funny and you get to see her feelings too - I just didn't feel the usual connection between me and good protagonists, that's it.

Enjoyment 4/10
The first minutes were nice but when the gaming stuff started I started to get bored and I was until the end. I wanted to turn off my TV several times but then decided that I could sit through the remaining hour now that I've already started. Since there were some scenes that were somehow funny I wasn't bored all the time, just most of it. I've seen shows that were worse regarding boredom but this movie is not something I'd watch again or recommend to a friend.

CONCLUSION:
A rather bad story combined with not likeable characters, an artsy style and some (bad) gaming actions is what you get with this movie. No real emotions, no really exciting actions or deep characters. If you love anime about online games then you might enjoy it, if you can deal with all the disadvantages that is. If you prefer something deeper or just something with really good action then save your time and watch some other movie instead.

Overall I give this movie the rating 5/10.

You know when a movie is so glorified to the point where you feel motivated to watch it even though it looks pretty boring to you?

Summer wars is a leading example. It looked boring as far as the eye stretched but seeing as it got so many good reviews i decided to waste time on it.

Only to confirm my belief that it is utter shit and no one should bother watching it. It fails doing anything it tries to do.

It fails as a love story, it fails as a fighting movie and on top of it it fails to have characters to relate ... to. I don't even know what people watching it are even in for, aside from the animation and to see where it gets at, as all you're left with is the bitter feeling of having wasted time.

I want my two hours back.

Quite praised by critics and audiences, but for me it is a fairly bland work, very overrated.

Technically it is quite good, the character design is responsibility of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the same one of 'Neon Genesis Evangelion', and although it is not a style that I like too much, it seems to me that the characters have a good design. The best is undoubtedly the artistic direction in worlds such as OZ, which is very reminiscent of the works of the artist Takashi Murakami.

The problem that 'Summer Wars' has is quite common in the anime world, there is too much nonsense, everything is very silly and ... sweetened but above all it is nerdy to the core, panties, monsters, catastrophes, songs, stupid characters, etc.

This is an opinion review, not a professional review. It also contains ***minor spoilers*** for Summer Wars, PsychoPass, and Terror in Resonance (e.g. character names, how said characters act, and settings).
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This movie was a mixed bag for me. The characters and familial aspect were its great strengths. The characters were so diverse, and their interactions and relationships were all so intriguing. I was also fond of the dub, which had a voice cast that I liked. Natsuki in particular, though her lines were less spectacular here than elsewhere. In any case, they did a good job with the characters. However, they didn't make as much ... use of that success as they could have... because of how the whole "Oz" game world thing was done.

And that was it's greatest flaw. While the concept is not necessarily bad, I really disliked the way they approached it. There were all these amazing real-world connections in this beautifully constructed family. There was so much potential in the real world. And yet they forced it into this alternate reality setting that didn't suit the beautiful connections they created. There was a real sense of disconnect between the real and the virtual.

Unlike in an anime like PsychoPass, where the online avatar approach has precedent in the plot, Oz felt wholly out of place. People were "talking" to each other in Oz, but they weren't actually talking - they were writing, or voice chatting with pixel avatars on screens. In PsychoPass, the talking makes sense because it actually is high-tech - the protagonists are actually IN virtual reality (or at least we never see anyone sitting at a computer, hence no disconnect). But in Summer Wars, it's an overdone dramatization of what is happening on a screen. They just used the game world as a projection of what should have happened with realistic events. That made it awkward and consequently dulled the emotional impact, as well as character development.

I just feel like it would have been such a better anime if they had stuck to real life, the ties within the family, building on that, and then treating the virtual aspect in a way that was more realistic. Instead of fighting some ridiculous amalgamation of "avatars" in a virtual reality projection that isn't actually virtual reality, they should have been working to fight the virus as what it was: a virus. The virus can still have its traits - namely having a personality of a tacit, snarky game-lover; but it should have done that by interacting with the protagonists through a computer screen, rather than through dramatization of computer games. Similar to how Sphinx mocks the police in Terror in Resonance, etc. And by having the struggle play out like that in real life, there would have been so much opportunity to include impactful real life interactions and drama. Instead of having to constantly phase between real life and the game, it all would have been fluid. The tensions between family members would have been so much more pronounced, rather than as a comedic side note.

But then perhaps that's the movie's greatest flaw right there. It tries too hard to be a comedy with a bit of drama, when its cast of characters was clearly meant more for drama with a touch of comedy. If it had been written with a drama/comedy mix on par with something like Usagi Drop, I think it would have worked far better.

after watching it through the end all that leaves is:

well, at least the animation art is great.

for you who actually a digimon fan will found it as a total rip-off of war game movies, then I can't help the Digimon version seems more like.. better..

well, it's because 'it's the work of the same staff' thing, then why would they made a freakin similar theme just to make it fancier with unrealistic weird family drama.. I just.. disappointed.

but for you that haven't watched the digimon version might think it's pretty much interesting theme

i can't find the protagonist stand out that great except he's just ... being a math smartass and all. the heroine is just plain to the point that for the first half movie I just see her as a horrible girl.
the seiyuus sound unnatural or perhaps the drama itself is unnatural in the first place that makes the seiyuus sounds bad(?) i'm not sure..

in the end i totally can't help to be biased by digimon because every plot just too similar with different characters and visual..
well but if you bored and have some free time, it's pretty much alright

This is my first ever review on this site

This movie definitely had an intriguing idea, sadly it did not fulfill it's potential.

The art is lackluster and is unimpressive, the characters specifically are quite boring to look at.

The character's themselves are bland and are unamusing.

The sound isn't memorable, it has no impact.

... After finishing the movie I felt nothing had happened, the movie failed to leave an impression or leave me wanting more. This movie is good for passing the time and not much else, it does not have any elements that will make you think about it after viewing.

Overall I found it to be bland, my main issues were that the virtual world where the conflict takes place would not be as interactive or immersive as they show due to the use of flip phones and old pcs. Secondly, there are a few things added into the story that do not make sense or have much of an affect, they are there to be there it seems. Lastly, the ending is a typical everyone goes home and is happy sort of ending, the relations between the characters are not natural and feels forced simply to move the plot forward, this is worsened by the fact that the plot is dull and lacking.
All in all, I would not recommend this to anyone unless they have run out of things to watch or they need to pass some time.