SUMMER WARS

Summer Wars is an oddball mix of science fiction, cyberpunk, teen romance and family comedy/drama, all rolled up into one beautiful, lavish-looking Anime. Also manages to throw in a chilling end-of-the-world scenario and some awkward Japanese teenage romance, just to cover all the bases. Somehow with all these threads scattered around the place it creates a well woven story that’s less confusing than the new transformer movie.


Like most gen y, I love the Internet.How else can I immediately download movies or get in touch with friends in other parts of the world. Having grown up with creepy msn chat friends and spam bots. I now have an irrational fear that the Internet could create the next apocalypse, like the one in Summer Wars. An animated feature from Japan directed by Mamoru Hosoda, whose other effort include The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children. Both of which you should watch.


The movie start of innocently enough, when high schooler Kenji Koiso a maths genius who like most high school geniuses, is shy, uncoordinated, and inarticulate in the area of girls and love. Things become even more complicated for him when Natsuki Shinohara "hires" him to be her fake fiancé to please her ailing great-grandmother at an upcoming family reunion. Because pretty and confident Natsuki doesn’t want her cantankerous great-granddaughter to believe she couldn't find a boyfriend. There, Kenji the meek math nerd is confronted by an overwhelming group of relatives, including a tai-chi-devoted computer genius; a hotheaded uncle with a penchant for revenge fantasies; and the prodigal if unapologetic son, who returns after 10 years in the United States to swill Sapporo and prove he's still a rebel.Cue the family dramatics.

 On one sleepless night, Kenji solves a digit riddle sent to his phone. In doing so, he inadvertently compromises Oz, a virtual world chock-full of rainbows and cutesy avatars. That’s protected by two whale guardians called John and Yoko.

It's also a treasure trove of information. Imagine if Facebook were also a destination for gift-buying, GPS usage, e-mailing, online banking, tax filing, top secret government information. Thus putting millions of people around the world and japan into casual chaos. Seriously felt like people were more annoyed that they could use the internet, then the possible of mass destruction. Probably because this all happens in the background for the first 45 mins. The movie was more keen on retelling The Proposal. But this is anime, so eventually there would be over the top fight scenes.

 The story waivers between a family drama, a romance and an action movie. Found the balance of cheesiness some what endearing. Yet at times ventures too much into the melodramatic and corny. Surprisingly Natsuki family members are alive and brimming with over the top personality, poise and humor, a rarity in most films these days. Especially given how many family member Natsuki has. Really you wait to be transported to Oz. This is where the film shine. Oz is a visual carnival, a brilliant world that spins in midair with all manner of swirly things.The enemy avatar, who goes by Love Machine, also proves to be an entertainingly worthy adversary, with a face like Donnie Darko's rabbit friend and a body like an extra from "300." The humdrum reality of the real world often takes precedence over the nail-biting possibility of imminent apocalypse. Least the time spent with Natsuki crazy family is enjoyable due to their ability to conjure up crazy items, its wacky yet grounded. All come together in the last 30mins and delivers a golden cheese pizza of computer game kung-fu power ups. They even put a magical girl transformation sequence.


I enjoyed Summer Wars it was like a kaleidoscope stuck in a gumball machine. Its pretty yet confusing but you’ll enjoy the time you spending trying to get the fancy toy.


3 out of 5 shiny rainbow waffle warrior

COMIC REVIEW- Superman: For Tomorrow

Superman: For Tomorrow is a comic that starts off so promising. However, the longer it goes on, the more it becomes a bloated mess, dropping the ball as it limps along to an ending. This review has spoilers throughout, so you have been warned.

To start with a positive, throughout the whole book, the artwork is strong. Superman is drawn in vivid colors and the battle scenes are always drawn interestingly. The only exceptions are the female characters: Wonder Woman and Lois Lane may as well be interchangeable models with abnormally large breasts. Despite this, the artwork does hold up well and maintains a good balance and really drives home the differences between the warzones, cityscapes and the paradise.

The story, however, doesn’t hold up nearly as well as the artwork. For Tomorrow follows Superman after the disappearance of millions of people worldwide. This includes Superman’s wife, Lois Lane. Superman seeks out a random priest, who is dying of cancer, to confess about his ‘sin’. The first part of the story is then told through flashbacks from when Superman first learned of the disappearances as he is telling the priest of his ‘sin’ in saving the world. For me, this had the best part of the book in it when Superman takes on 4 giant elementals (earth, fire, wind and water) summoned by an Amazonian witch to kill the alien ‘foreigner’. When the elementals threaten to destroy the world to get Superman to leave, he effectively beats them at a game of chicken.

From here, the book starts to become bloated and loses allot of its narrative momentum. Superman travels to a warzone in order to stop the fighting, which somehow leads to a coup by another group. We are introduced to a commando, Orr, who Superman, despite his superior senses, somehow continues to miss. There is also a genetically-engineered killing machine in the employ of the group who stage a coup. Although marginally effective in showing why Superman shouldn’t be a one-man peace force, there are allot of other books which have done this better. Superman’s visit to this warzone feels like a convenience just so that he can discover the device that caused the disappearances: A portal to a paradise in the phantom zone which he created and then meditated to get forget about. If that sounds confusing and unnecessary, it is probably because it is.

For me, when he travels to the phantom zone is where the story really went off track. Zod is the big surprise villain as they have a beat-down. The priest, the most interesting character in the book, is wasted and rushed out of the picture after he is transformed into a mindless killing machine who wants to die after accidentally killing some innocents, Aquaman and Superman have a stand-off for some reason that is built up then forgotten about, and Batman and Wonder Woman try to stop Superman trying to save the millions of people trapped in the phantom zone. Adding in frequent flashes to the Amazonian witch and Orr which feel pointless within the confines of the story and just makes the narrative more confusing and have no decent rhythm. It almost feels like the story is at odds with itself, alternating between being a thoughtful meditation on Superman’s role and then having a bunch of dumb action scenes.

For Tomorrow ends up being a bloated mess of a Superman story. It has one of my favorite Superman scenes I have read in it, and it does start off promising. The artwork throughout (except for the one complaint) is really well done. I think it really could’ve benefited from reducing in the scope of characters towards the end to keep up a narrative rhythm. There should also have been more time for the priest, built up to be such a big part of the story, to actually give his character arc a meaningful conclusion.

1.5 out of 5 waffles of tomorrow, today!

MOVIE REVIEW: Monument’s Men (2013)

The Monument’s Men is a film based on a true story which follows an extraordinary group of individuals. These individuals, collectively known as The Monument’s men, were an American team tasked with capturing and returning works of art originally stolen by Nazi Germany during World War 2. I can’t judge how historically accurate the film is (although I do want to go find out more about them), but it depicts them as being right on the frontlines in order to achieve this goal.

The leader of The Monument’s Men, George Clooney, manages to look as sexy as ever on the screen while sporting a very classy moustache. He also somehow manages to not look evil while he has it. Of course, George is joined by several other Monument’s Men including Matt Damon and John Goodman. Each member of his team has a specific specialty (such as an Architect or a Scupltor), but for the most part these never seem to affect anything as his team is thrown into the war.

This film seems very keen to involve the Monument’s Men in the war. However, it does this at the expense of character development. It spends precious little time at the beginning of the film establishing the characters or showing any of their background or occupations before being recruited. Instead, we are treated to George Clooney meeting each of them in turn in his typical suave fashion and them agreeing to be involved. This felt particularly jarring when you are told that a certain character has a dark past but it is never once explained until after his heroic sacrifice (and implied redemption).

The only reason this works is because it is set in World War 2 against the Nazis. This means that there is never any question of their motivations or who the bad guys are. These men want to be involved in the war effort but are not physically able (due to age or medical conditions) so it isn’t too big a leap to fill in the motivations myself.

Instead, The Monument’s Men seems to want to establish that they were real soldiers. This is from George Clooney’s expository voice-overs that tell us how heroic they were to showing them in battles or with the enemy whenever the situation presented itself. This is often despite their commanding officers thinking that there goals were not important or failing to support them, sometimes with disastrous results for The Monument’s Men. The Russians also provide a ticking clock as they are trying to grab as much art as they can for reparations as opposed to returning it, which in this case is presented as them stealing the art for themselves.

 And that is, in a nutshell, what makes this film compelling. It focuses on a small group that has to battle with the Nazi’s and (to some extent) their own forces for a goal that only they truly believe in. While they are battling, they continue to prove their worth. Although it could have spent some more time establishing the basic characters, it does a good enough job when they are all together to keep the action moving and a tight focus on them being involved in the war.

3.5 out of 5 Stolen Picasso-waffles.