SUMMER WARS

The Green Lantern

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SUMMER WARS

September 3rd 2011 04:08

Category: Videos, Anime

Director: Mamoru Hoshoda
Screenplay by: Sakoto Okudera
Producers: Nozomu Takahashi, Takuya Ito, Takashi Watanabe & Yuichiro Saito
Starring: Michael Sinterniklaas (Kenji Koiso), Brina Palencia (Natsuki Shinohara), Maxey Whitehead (Kazuma Ikezawa), J Michael Tatum (Wabisuke Jinnouchi), Todd Haberkorn (Takashi Sakuma)
Produced by: Madhouse, NTV, Kadokawa Group Publishing Co, D N Dreamparnters, Warner Bros Pictures Japan, YTV & VAP
Released by: Madman Entertainment
Running Time: 114 minutes Rating: PG

The internet; modern marvel, fount of all wisdom or a veritable chain around the necks of the great collective mass of humanity who can afford internet services and connections? Artificial intelligence; a potential boon for all humanity and society in general or the potential genie unleashed from its bottle to wreak all kinds of havoc and chaos on an already fragile world? No doubt you’re sitting there reading this on your computer screen, iPad or iPhone or some other whizz bang techno toy and wondering just what the heck is the Green Lantern waffling on about now. All will become apparent as things progress…

So the time is now, the place is Japan and this land of the rising sun along with a great deal of the Asia Pacific region are all using a computer system known as OZ. Everything that is anything can be found or done on OZ in fact a great many things are linked into this mega system, possibly more than is necessary and without any real thought of whether or not the system is up to taking on so much. Still it all looks so cool and funky, kind of like Tron except anime style with some really funky features. What is there not to like about the whole thing…and when you consider how easy it seems to make life and allow interconeticivty it seems like OZ is truly a blessing, a miracle of modern innovation.

Whoever subscribes to that particular though obviously never heard the saying if something is too good to be true than chances are it isn’t… If we make comparisons between OZ and the current incarnation of the internet it’s interesting to note that there are some distinct similarities between the two. OZ allows you to do effectively anything just like the internet but who is that keeps it running, who is it that makes sure that regardless of what happens things keep ticking over? In Summer Wars it seems to be the work of freelance sys admins like Kenji Koiso and his friend Takashi. High school students using their skills at computers to make some money on the side this is what is effectively keeping the wheels of OZ turning over. Now no doubt you’re saying that this is nothing like the internet of the real world – but who keeps things ticking over in the real internet? Who makes sure that the electronic links of the world socio-political-economic system are running?
Summer Wars on the surface may be a feel good, slice of life, family values kind of film complete with a yuk yuk ending seem to be the stock in trade of certain western film studios (yes Warner Bros that means you…) but beneath it all there is a darker undercurrent that is running with its more ‘wholesome’ storyline. And this is why I’m harping on about the whole OZ/Internet comparison thing. Within the narrative of the film it is rapidly shown that OZ confers a great deal of benefits not only on Japanese society but that of the surrounding nations, but it is a rather fragile structure as is soon to be demonstrated.
And that leads me to my other point about artificial intelligence a boon or a genie unleashed after years of being stuck in a bottle and feeling decidedly tetchy to put it mildly. So far AI as artificial intelligence is often called is simply a thing of science fiction, no one has to my knowledge actually created a working viable AI system although there are a great many facilities, thinkers, laboratories and no doubt off the cuff geniuses all doing their darnndest to achieve this holy grail of information technology. In Summer Wars this is the main plot device that sees everything go to hell in a hand basket…the black sheep of the Juunoichi family; Wabisuke has managed to create a viable AI called Love Machine and has sold it to…the US Army.
So a major cog in the American military industrial complex now has its own viable working autonomous AI…what do you think they plan to do with this new item in their arsenal? Put it back in the bottle and bury said bottle covered with countless seals of Solomon out in the sands of the Nevada desert? Of course not, like any bunch of guys with a funky new toy they’re going to test it. And what better place to test it than the vast computer network of OZ. All it takes is a simple email sent out across the network and Love Machine manages to get its toe into the network and from that point on from a simple meek little intrusion program it steadily becomes a lethal juggernaut of computer carnage…
And thus the fragility of OZ is laid bare for all to see…it becomes a major struggle to win things back from the maniacal Love Machine, and whilst this struggle is being fought the potential for mass death and destruction in the real world is but a mere heartbeat away. Now you might think that such a thing could never happen in the real world…think again apparently a few years ago in New York computer systems went down, systems that were controlling essential systems such as transport, water and other utilities. Whether this was the result of a cyber attack or a virus is unknown but it demonstrates that perhaps there is far too much reliance on interconnected computer systems and not enough understanding of the risks involved in having such an interdependent infrastructure nor the means to do something if something goes wrong.
Sadly though this particular aspect of Summer Wars is not the aspect that is played up, instead as I remarked earlier it seems as if it’s the hyuk, hyuk, lets pull together as a family feel good shtick that is the focus. Winner of five major awards Summer Wars is a film that hides a potentially more intriguing story behind schlock. A shame really as it could have been a far better flick…certainly there is no doubting that its animation is at the top of the class, there are shots of the landscape and rural countryside that you’d swear were real shots of the Japanese countryside rather than animate scenes. If you’re looking for a feel good yuk yuk flick then this is definitely for you…if like me you were expecting something with a bit more meat to it look elsewhere Summer Wars will not satisfy you…

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