Post #9: Summer Wars

March 30, 2010 in Uncategorized

I will be honest: I had unreasonably high expectations for Summer Wars.

Mamoru Hosoda‘s previous film, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, quickly became one of my favorite movies of all time with its interesting plot and extraordinarily endearing cast.  Naturally, I was looking forward to this film, but the chances that I would be disappointed by the Hosoda’s most recent effort were high considering the probably unreasonably high regard that I hold his previous film in.

A trailer for Summer Wars.

Fortunately, Hosoda has not lot his touch, and Summer Wars turned out to be a really good movie.  While I don’t like it as much as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, the way that Hosoda effortlessly blends a huge cast of universally charming characters, two disparate, but connected storylines, and some commentary on the connected nature of the world is absolutely staggering.  The fact that the film was also fun to watch for the entirety of its two hour run time is probably even more impressive.  The strongest part it, though, is undoubtedly the characters.  The cast for the movie is quite large, focusing primarily around the extended family of a woman celebrating her ninetieth birthday.  The family itself consists more than a dozen people, each with a distinct personality and character traits, and all likable and amazingly fun to watch.  The other characters are just as fun to watch, if not as well fleshed out, save for one, who also happens to be the main character.  If I had any complaints to make about the move it would be that the story involving the virtual world, called OZ (think a giant social network), is confusing at times and the film takes rather fantastic approach to computer software.  However, it is also very entertaining to watch, so I don’t think it’s worth complaining too much about.  Bottom line: this film made me smile when I was watching it and still had enough substance to make me want to watch it at least one more time.

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