Sunday, March 07, 2010

Summer Wars is really a great great movie! Was glad to have caught it before it stops showing in Cathay =D



[WARNING] Spoilers Ahead:

So the story starts which the introduction of a virtual world, known as the world of Oz, and it is like another form of the world, from reality to virtual. Everyone that has an Oz account would be given an Avatar and with that, they would also have the "power" and "authority" like in reality. Which means the Avatar of the traffic department in a certain country would have the power to affect the traffic and so on. As Oz was an efficient system, almost everyone in the world has an account, whether the individual is just a normal citizen or some high ranking authorities. One day, the main protagonist, Kenji, gets invited to his crush, Natsuki's house to stay for a few days and it was a job given to him. It was only after he reached his destination that he realises his job was to pretend to be Natsuki's boyfriend as Natsuki had promised her grandma that she'll bring back a boyfriend soon. So Kenji begins to stay with Natsuki's relatives as they were all gathered to celebrate Natsuki's grandmother's 90th birthday. Kenji also discovers that one of them was actually the legendary fighter Avatar, Kazuma. One night, Kenji receives a message on his phone where it shows 2000 over numbers which is some sort of code and he took almost the entire night to solve it and sends it back to the sender. It was later in the morning that he was being labelled as the culprit who had hacked into Oz and had deemed it unstable for usage, thus creating many problems internationally. The code that he was solving the whole night was incidentally the security code for access to Oz. Kenji suspects that someone had hacked into his Avatar and had used it to wreck havoc and tried to stop it but to no avail. He was later apprehended by one of the family member, who is a policeman but got caught in a very long jam since Oz is now unstable and is affecting many many systems worldwide by taking over the Avatars. Problems like the GPS not working properly, firemen getting dispatched to almost everywhere and ambulances receiving calls from almost every elderly. It seems that the thing behind the hacking of the Oz system was an AI and was not a human. That AI has the ability to absorb other Avatars and is capable of controlling everything worldwide with the stolen Avatars. Later in the day, one of the family members, Wabisuke, drops by but was not welcomed as he had once sold off Natsuki's grandmother property to get money to go to America but once he knows that the AI is screwing Oz up, he admits that it was an AI that he had created using the money he had obtained from selling away the property and it was a information-seeking AI and is always hungry for more information and loves games as well. Natsuki's grandmother flares up upon hearing that the money he had gotten from her was used to create this hacking AI, known as the Love Machine. Not long after, Natsuki's grandmother passed on as the warning system that was through Oz had not sounded when she had heart problems and it was due to the AI's doings as it had screwed the system up. The men in the family, with Kenji, then decides to get revenge for their grandmother and sets up a supercomputer with awesome specs, a radar and some other unique equipments to allow them to have a chance to defeat the Love Machine. Kazuma steps up to offer a challenge to the AI after being defeated by it once and lures the AI into a trap by thinking through the old strategies used but due to unforeseen circumstances, the AI gets insanely huge and wipes off Kazuma's Avatar and absorbs it in the end. It was then the others realised that it was not just a game and was of utmost importance. The AI has now taken over the controls of a satellite and is attempting to crash it down on a nuclear plant and a timer was already beginning to count down. The family now sticks together and with Natsuki leading, they challenge the AI to a Hanafuda challenge and the AI accepts it as it really love games. Things did not turn out well as they were betting Avatars and Natsuki was out of credits after one bad round. When all hopes seems to be lost, Natsuki obtains the Avatars of millions worldwide who have yet been absorbed by the AI and with it, Natsuki turns the table around and manages to defeat the AI and revert back the stolen Avatars. It all seems to be over when the timer stops but then it continues again, ONLY at their place, where they discover that the AI is now targeting the house they are staying at. Whilst everyone is trying to evacuate, Kenji attempts to rewrite the code for the crashing of the satellite and encounters yet another long-coded security but solves it faster that the 1st time. The AI however, changes it instantly again and again until Kenji had used his own brain to think of the code instead of decoding it on paper. With the immense concentration he had, till he had a nosebleed, supports from the others and Kazuma's help in destroying the AI completely, the course for the crash was diverted and everyone was safe and sound. It then ends with Natsuki and Kenji being cheered on as couples and Natsuki giving Kenji a kiss on the cheek where he nosebleeds once again and faints onto the ground.

The hilarious / serious / sad parts were well mixed in the entire movie and there was a time and place for each of the different portions of the movie. I really did felt sad after seeing Natsuki's grandma passed on and the will she had written after that on Wabisuke, who had rushed back after hearing about her death, was really touching. The plot was creative and it really does emphasize on the fact that virtual should be kept away from reality and these hacking AIs, when created and used, could cause a very serious cyber to reality attack. After Natsuki had won the Hanafuda challenge, i had thought that wad was the main protagonist there for? He was like only there cheering Natsuki on... it was the the main climax wasnt over and then he comes in to crack the code to save everyone. The climax after climax way of setting was great as i'll be like expecting one climax to end it all but it keeps coming which kept me entertained throughout the show. It was a truly wonderful film and should not be missed, (weekend tickets are expensive =X)... did not regret a slightest bit after watching this and would definitely regret if i did not watched this... THUMBS UP for a great movie!!! XDD

There was much scenes from the climax in this PV though O.o