Sunday, April 08, 2012
I watched Summer Wars last night and I really liked it.
It was an animated film, and i must say, the CG is very beautifully and painstakingly crafted.
The story starts of when Kenji, a high-school math genius and part-time moderator of OZ is persuaded by Natsuki, Kenji's crush, back to her hometown Nagano to celebrate her great grandmother; Sakae's 90th birthday.
OZ is an online virtual reality platform in this world which people use for much of their activities in their lives, imagine a Facebook with far more capabilities.
People create avatars to represent themselves in this virtual world and everyday activities are conducted through them, like conducting purchases, communication etc...
Natsuki has a really large extended family who gather to celebrate this special occasion each year. This part of the movie really relates to me because my family, including extended relatives and my grandmother's friends always gather each year during the 2nd day of Chinese New Year to celebrate her birthday.
Kenji has a mysterious email sent to him consisting of a numbered code, which he cracks. This lead to the hacking of his account by a rogue A.I. called love machine which uses his avatar to initiate a hostile takeover of OZ, as a result, disabling much of the world's electrical devices, information systems and infrastructure.
This part of the movie shows the dangers of unethical hacking as well as the disadvantage of allowing a single platform like OZ to shoulder that much of a responsibility. The hacking by love machine on OZ caused worldwide chaos and disruption of the daily lives of people as well as endangering them.
After a Hanafuda match, Sakae entrusts the care of Natsuki to Kenji which he accepts, abeit reluctantly. The next morning, Sakae is found dead in her bed. The hacking had caused her heart monitor to malfunction and she had died of a heart attack. The family vowed revenge upon Love machine and they initiate a plan to defeat it.
Using a supercomputer cooled by ice blocks and a fighter avatar called king kazma, they tried to trap love machine but failed as the ice blocks were later moved to Sakae's body by Shota; a member of the family, causing the supercomputer to overheat.
Love machine then defeats king kazma and assimilates him, becoming an gigantic abomination.
Kenji then suggests that they fight love machine in an online Hanafuda match, wagering their accounts. Natsuki wins a few matches but almost loses all her winnings when she gets distracted.
People around the world give her their support by wagering their accounts, allowing her to finish off her opponent.
Meanwhile, love machine has sent a satellite probe on collision course with their family's estate.
Kenji tries to decipher the passcode to allow him to alter the trajectory of the debris, but love machine alters the passcode each time he solves it. King kazma, now revived, defeats love machine and Kenji successfully cracks the code, resulting in the debris nearly missing the estate and saving the family.
Interesting story huh. My summary is really brief, but do watch the movie, you won't regret it.
The fight scenes in OZ are so visually appealing, with CG rendered in such detail.
Oh, i also finished watching Last Exile last week!
signing off.
Call Of The Wild at 1:52 PM