Summer Wars is about a ‘virus’ – an AI released onto the internet of the near future wrecking havoc with the delicate systems that run the world. Summer Wars is about the budding romance between the hot girl in school and an adorkable nerd. Summer Wars also about a family coming together to celebrate the birthday of the beloved matriarch, and about the family’s secrets and conflicts.

It’s also more or less a remake of the Digimon movie Our War Game. But in a good way – trust me on this. Like the director’s previous work, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars transcends any description you could give it. It’s hard to get across in text the depth of emotion movie portrays visually. Energetic and colorful, fast paced and fun – Summer Wars has everything an anime fan should want.

The best non-Ghibli, non-Satoshi Kon, anime movie in years, what makes Summer Wars so special is its cast of characters. Natsuki’s family is vivid and familiar – from the strong personalities to the loners, from the outcast to the serene grandmother who is not to be underestimated. It might not be your family, but you probably know this family. The story’s drama arises naturally from these characters’ personalities[1. When it isn't America's fault...], building on the themes of family and cooperation.

I unfortunately, living in Alaska, I didn’t get a chance to see it on the big screen. While it’s not a movie that you have to see on a big screen, there are a couple of scenes that would have been really spectacular. The animation is fluid, clean and colorful, using an older style that that’s refreshing and undated in the current onslaught of moe. The whole movie is the most excellent example of visual storytelling I’ve seen in recent anime – there’s one long pan in particular that… oh curses. Spoilers. Well, you’ll just have to see it.

One difference that strikes me about Summer Wars and Our War Game is how the internet is portrayed – back when Our War Game came out such a unified internet was fanciful at best. In a world where Facebook and smartphones are everywhere the near-singularity OZ seems more frighteningly plausible, though I hope if such a technology comes to pass the governments have better sense.

Also, all the computers are made by Dell.

Summer Wars is an uplifting, heartbreaking, thrilling movie destined to be a classic ranked among the Ghibli movies, well worth a place in your collection.

(:

A story of owls on a hero’s journey, ala Redwall, it seems very self aware of its cliches, and embraces them wholeheartedly, to the point of having a character so Genre Savvy that he quotes Tv Tropes. This means that Your Mileage May Vary on our enjoyment of this movie. Personally I enjoyed a lot. It had it’s flaws – clunky dialogue, exposition at every opportunity, truly gratuitous slo-mo, and a few convenient plot happenstances in the middle, but it was so honest about it that I found myself forgiving most of them. I got wrapped up in the story, which in my opinion is the most important element.

I will give the gratuitous slo-mo this – you do see a lot more details, especially during the fights. It helps that it is very well done. The fights scenes are intense, the villains properly scary and decently characterize though a bit… flat and obvious in their villainy. The choreography is excellent, and the cg is gorgeous. I applaud the use of lesser known owl species, and the fairly realistic motion. There is also some tantalizing hints of the history of the world, which seems to indicate that this story takes place after an apocalypse that didn’t go so well for us humans.

A good movie that looks great, and a great movie for kids in the vein of the old Disney classics, sans princesses but not laking a decent collection of strong female characters. It gets my recommendation.

It was a really good year for movies. Going down my list of movies I find that they mostly fall into two categories – really great, and really awful. Paring the list down to five was truly difficult.
Top Five Movies I’ve
1. Tangled & Megamind & Inception – It’s my blog, I can have a three-way tie if I want to! But seriously, all three of these are fabulous movies. I couldn’t choose between them if I tried.
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – it’s an epic movie, and I’m not using that word lightly. It feels as natural to me as breathing, and portrays an accurate, if sometimes unflattering, picture of my generation.
3. Eclipse – When ever Edward and Bella weren’t on the screen it was a really awesome movie. When they were it was a fun movie to mock. Win-win.
4. Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva – This gem of a movie is a first rate adaptation of the games it is based on, staying true to the tone and intelligence with getting bogged down. It’s crazy-awesome climax is what lands it on my list.
5. Hamlet – One part Shakespeare, two parts David Tennant and Patrick Stewart – the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance is one that has stuck in my head.

Hey lookit that, I failed once again to watch enough television to put together a Top Five list. Maybe next year? I do have a lot of shows to catch up with.
Top Five Anime I’ve Seen
1. Spice and Wolf – Based solely off the character designs I went in expecting something action based and fanservicey. What I found was cheerful characters, easygoing pace, a dark plot, and a world rich in details. The explainations of economy that the plot revolves around make my inner RPG geek squee.
2. House of Five Leaves – With a unique style and somber, intricate storytelling, it won my heart with it’s unlikely hero and the mysterious man who draws him into a kidnapping ring.
3. Soul Eater – a series brimming with visual style and colorful characters, and has the heart to match.
4. Emma : A Victorian Romance – a highly detailed period piece and an elegant, touching love story the likes of which are far too rare in anime. Or any medium actually.
5. Escaflowne – Still a classic, still pissed at the ending.

Top Five Games I’ve Played
1. Plants Vs. Zombies – This game? This game ate my brain.
2. Professor Layton and The Curious Village / Professor Layton and The Diabolical Box – these games are made out of brilliance and TEA. Sherlock Holmes combined with James Bond in a top hat. The first game had the better story, but I think the second had better puzzles, or at least a better implementation of those puzzle.
3. Super Scribblenauts – everything Scribblenauts was supposed to be, only better. Review forthcoming.
4. Kirby’s Epic Yarn – Tastes like diabetes. And cotton. Too adorable, and too much fun.
5. Fable 3 – Not as good as it’s predecessors, but still a pretty well written game. Except for the ending. RAWR.

55 books this year. Not bad I guess, but not as many as I hoped to read.
Top Five Books I’ve Read
1. Feed, by Mira Grant – this book changed my life. A thrilling, heartbreaking, terrifying tale. Like zombies? Read it. Don’t like zombies? Read it anyway.
2. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin – With a vivid world and complex characters, fantasy gets turned on it’s head with anime tropes.
3. The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan – Greek mythology, DONE RIGHT. I’m still in shock.
4. The Replacement, by Brenna Yovanoff – another one of those stories that just stuck in my head and refused to leave.
5. The Queen’s Bastard, by C. E. Murphy – there’s really no way to describe what makes this book great without spoiling it. It starts off slow, but all that world building leads up to an OMGWTF ending.

Now I must return to keeping the dogs calm – the fireworks rile up them and people are out there celebrating up a storm.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is the epic of our generation. It’s a delightful romp in a world viewed through the filter of Peter Pan Generation. This is a movie with a near-laser focused audience - if you’re too old you’re not going to understand the language, and if you’re too young you’re not going to understand the language AND you won’t understand the fundamental conflicts. It’s a coming-of-age story about people who refuse to let go of childhood. The title character, Scott Pilgrim, is a self-centered jerk, but he is also an avatar of our generation.

A romantic-comedy told with the language and metaphor of video games, which is fitting because that is, in my experience, exactly how my generation tends to frame our world and experiences. I pretty much knew I was going to love this movie from the moment the 8-bit Universal music started up. The music and sound cues in this movie is pure genius – Ramona makes an appearance in one to scene to a track from A Link to the Past entitled ‘Enter Goddess’, and the Item Catch music is used several times. The music in general is badass, and I absolutely love it, it’s relative quality be damned.

The video game language is there visually as well, with sound effects and subtle hints and foreshadowing woven into the background. The sheer attention to detail is impressive. Overall the movie is colorful and vibrant, eschewing the popular washed out look of many recent movies.

The ‘moral’ of the story, as it were, is my favorite part of the movie. Instead of the usual Hollywood message of ‘Love Conquers All’ love is nothing compared to self respect, and even that it merely a decent level up – you still want to fight for what you want. It’s an important lesson for my age group, because we really don’t respect ourselves. We’ve grown up with the poisonous ‘Disney approved[1. Though Disney was hardly the source of the message, and it isn't really fair to blame them... But I seem to be wandering into a Deep Topic here.]‘ message that Love Triumphs, and that nothing is worth working for because it will either fall apart, or be delivered to us regardless of the effort we put into it.

The movie isn’t without it’s flaws – I rather liked the fast pace, but some of the scenes are off beat, and the resolution to the fight with Roxy was… odd. So far I’ve only read the first and half of the second volume of the comic, so I can’t really speak to the value of what was left out. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series, because as you know the book is always better then the movie.

Shoot entirely on green screen, The Warrior’s Way is a beautiful and highly stylistic movie – it is visually vibrant and colorful. The violence is particular is highly stylized, the blood spray relatively limited and downright artistic at times. I found the majority of the fight scenes to be a little lacking, their flaws more more evident by a handful of really excellent fight scenes – the hallway scene in particular being one of the best action scenes I’ve seen in a long while. My mom, a fellow martial arts movie addict, compared this movie to Kill Bill- I can’t comment on that because I’ve yet to see Kill Bill. The Conservation of Ninjutsu is in full effect, interestingly enough for both sides. I am willing to let this explain why the Big Bad was taken down so easily after being built up into such a imposing force[1. For my own sanity. In short - there were still too many ninja on the enemy side.]. In general the martial arts were pretty solid and entertaining, and they do some creative things with knives, and explosives.

The story is an interesting one – a powerful warrior has his heart melted by the innocence of a baby, and then goes on the run from his clan to protect the said. He ends up in the old west[2. Does that imply that the conflict between the warring ninja clans is the Bakumatsu/Meiji Restoration?], where he gets stuck with the job of laundry man and falls in with the circus. Naturally he develops a romance with the knife thrower, until her past comes back to haunt the town and the shit hits the fan. Where the movie let me down was, I think, mostly in the editing – some scenes go on far too long, and others repeat, bogging down the pacing. The other problem was that it felt like they director of the film was afraid of it, and kept reigning it back from really awesome and amazing scenes. There were a couple interesting scenes in the trailers that were cut, along with The Line. Once I learned that this was this director’s first movie[3. He is also the writer.] it seemed obvious – a lot of the things that would have been awesome in a more experienced director/writer’s hands end up being ham fisted. It all leads up to an Escaflowne Ending in which the main character breaks all of his character development to that point in order to poetically wander off into the sunset. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. At least the movie itself ends on a good note with the fantastic Arctic Ninja Epilogue.

This is a movie that had a lot of promise, but unfortunately that promise wrote a check that the movie did not cash. Even so it was fairly entertaining and pretty to look at. I recommend anyone whose interested in this sort of movie check it out when it hits dvd.

(Link)

On Thursday I got back from my eye exam just in time to walk in on the last half of Rankin/Bass’s Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town. There’s an interesting implication in stories that feature Santa Claus as a child or young man – they imply that ultimate he is mortal, and will someday die. That most of them also either ignore his mortality entirely or directly state he will die doesn’t help matters. The only Christmas movie I can think of off hand that both directly addresses Santa’s mortality and manages to avoid scaring children with it is The Santa Clause, which is one of my favorite Christmas movies.

The other thing that struck me about this particular Christmas special was the wedding scene, in which Jessica, now Mrs. Claus, is portrayed as The Virgin Mary. They could have gone with red to match Kris, or green, or gold, or even a different color blue or different cut of dress! I don’t think they set out to make the connection, but they certainly didn’t try to avoid it either. Make of it what you will.

The other special that caught my attention was The Year Without A Santa Claus, in which Mrs. Claus sends a pair of elves to ‘Southtown’ to search for people who still believe in Santa Claus. Replace ‘Southland’ with ‘Hell’ in the previous sentence and you see what interested me. They directly say it at one point! “A snowball’s chance in Southtown”? This special’s plot is a classic Journey to the Underworld story.

Speaking in archetypally – The elves are told that the people of the town will believe in Santa Claus if they can make it snow in Southtown Hell. Mrs. Claus goes to Jack Frost/Father Winter(Snow Miser), who agrees to let it snow if she can get permission from Satan/Lucifer(Heat Miser). Satan agrees, but only if Jack Frost surrenders a part of his territory. When they can’t agree Mrs. Claus goes above them to GOD(Mother Nature), who forces Jack Frost and Satan to compromise. It’s also worth noting that the main forces at work in the story are feminine – Mrs. Claus, Mother Nature, and the little girl at the end. The boys are there, but without the girls nothing would have gotten done. It’s an aspect which was, judging by the Wikipedia summary and the handful of clips of I’ve seen, utterly removed from the live action remake.

I’m probably reading a lot in to these simple Christmas specials, but the basis for it is there. I wonder how much of this I would have seen if I hadn’t become a writer?

I was apprehensive going in to Tangled. Disney claims it as it’s 50th animated movie, and it has had a… tangled history[1.Such as it's 'boys are the only audience that matters' name change.]. The trailers didn’t help either, featuring juvenile, pop culture-y jokes.

80% of what you see in the trailers is not in the movie. The remaining 20% is utterly out of context. This is the best Disney movie since The Emperor’s New Groove. Hands down. Yes, I’m putting it above The Princess and the Frog – TP&TF was a wonderful return to form, but here Disney takes a crack at a much needed update to that form.

Tangled is a gorgeous movie, and the longer you look at it the prettier it becomes. The clothes are insanely detailed, and the locations are lush, and the lantern scene alone ought to earn this movie a few awards(but probably won’t. *shakes fist a Pixar*) Stylistically the character designs are somewhere between Classic Disney, Modern CG, and straight up Anime. The music is excellent, but then it’s by Alan Menken so why wouldn’t it be? A few of the songs are a tad… bland. Excellent, but bland.

The writing is where the movie shines. It’s as sharp witted and comical as the best of XKCD, while maintaining a heartbreaking depth. I applaud the movie for not going for the easy jokes – they ignored a groin shot joke! I couldn’t believe my eyes. The script and story were both highly polished, and the actors deliver it near note-perfect. The dialogue flows so naturally that if you’re not paying attention you might miss the character’s names entirely except for Flynn’s, which is because it becomes a character-development plot point. My one complaint is of a pet peeve of mine – I’m really sick of stories opening with ‘this is the story of how I died’ or some such. Overdone, boring, and it bleeds the tension out of the last scene.

Speaking of the last scene – a lot of my friends scoffed at the apparent deus-ex-machina, but as this movie’s TV Tropes page reminded me it was actually a continuity nod to the original story. I can think of a dozen other things they could have done there, but in retrospect I like the continuity nod.

There was much talk about Tangled’s rebranding to be more ‘boy friendly’, and a lot of worry over the character of Flynn. I’m happy to report that the spotlight is solidly on Rapunzel and her journey to her journey to discovering her destiny, which she comes to nearly entirely by herself. She is a princess that rescues herself AND her prince! The dynamic between her and Flynn reminds me of Farah and The Prince from Prince of Persia : The Sands of Time(the video game, not the movie.) The animal sidekicks were hilarious – Maximus developing into an ensemble dark horse.

Is it worth seeing? Oh definitely. You’ll be doing yourself a favor by seeing this movie. Is it the best movie of 2010? Hard to say, because there were several great movies this year. Oh why not! I laughed harder then I did during Megamind. Best movie of 2010! Go see it.

Now, I know it’s the popular thing to rag on Dreamworks, but personally I love Dreamworks. With only a couple of exceptions(Cars, The Incredibles) I’ve enjoyed Pixar movies as art, but found them lacking. Dreamworks movies are fun, they take chances and don’t hold back. Well, when they aren’t being completely stupid that is. Well, even when they being stupid they still try to put out the extra effort.

Megamind is, at its heart, a movie about destiny. The movie starts off with the title character being sent off into the universe not knowing what his destiny is supposed to be, and ends up deciding that his destiny is to be a villain after repeatedly being ostracized at school. He clings to this destiny, until the movie’s events force him to reevaluate it. Pretty much every major character has a Screw Destiny moment. The movie also makes an interesting comment on nature verse nurture right at the beginning – Metroman ends up in the lap of luxury, but his parents are rather neglectful, while Megamind had a whole prison full of attentive caregivers[1. It's my own theory that he was adopted by the Warden, and then just ended up spending all his time at the prison because the Warden didn't know what else to do.].

I also appreciated how the ending does not compromise Megamind’s character. He’s still himself when the credits roll, when it would have been so easy for Dreamworks to take a more Hollywood-accepted way out. He wins on his own merits – being smart, resourceful, and adorkable.

Visually the movie has Dreamswork’s signature style. It’s also impressively detailed, especially in the background water and explosion effects. I saw it in 3D because there were no other available showings, and while the 3D was fairly well done it did give me a headache in places because my eyes couldn’t focus on all the little things floating about the screen. I absolutely love the soundtrack, which go figure – Hans Zimmer! I should start basing which movies I go to see on which ones he’s worked on. Another jawdropper from the credits(and why it is always a good idea to watch all the credits) – apparently Guillermo del Toro was a creative consultant for this movie! Knowing that I can see his influence.

Funny, sharp, and thoroughly entertaining. This movie was exactly what I’d hoped it would be[2. Doctor Horrible envisioned by Dreamworks.]. It’s the first movie in awhile that I’d be happy to see multiple times, back to back. It’s become a sort of movie version of an ear worm for me, capturing my imagination and making me want to play with its action figures. If that’s not a recommendation, then I don’t know what is.

Kick it.

The Karate Kid is one darn good movie. It’s only major flaw is that it is so in love with it’s shakey cam during the first hour or so of the movie that I actually had to leave the theater because I got too motion sick. After the half way point, and Dre (Jaden Smith) starts to train, the shakey cam smooths out. I suppose because you really can’t show the smooth motions of kung fu while the camera is bouncing around like there’s a 7.0 earthquake going on. For that first half the plot mores at a leisurely pace, with just enough action that I wouldn’t have noticed how how it was taking to get to the heart of the story if I hadn’t been feeling ill. It didn’t manage to hold any of the younger kids in the audience. It could have been trimmed down and reworked a lot in places to speed things up, but at the same time I can’t think of a scene I’d complete cut.

Though it is called The Karate Kid it is set in China and Dre learns Kung Fu instead of Karate. On one hand it annoys me because it encourages the confusion, but on the other I see why they went that route – they lisenced for a remake, but during writing they wanted to do something new and modern and ended up in China. At least they lampshaded the difference, so all is forgiven. I can’t blame them because China has some beautiful locations – Wudang Mountain was particularly impressive to see on the big screen – and the cultural bits were wonderful.

The one thing that really stands out about this movie for me is Jackie Chan’s performance. It was wonderful to see, for once, him being used as an actor and not as Jackie Chan, proving that he is a truly talented actor – Mr. Han is tired and beaten, and the reveal of his Dark And Troubled Past had a heartbreaking intensity. It was such a change from his usual roles that I didn’t even recognize him, and it is a welcome change – I want to see him in more roles like this.

The Karate Kid is a movie that stands on its own two feet even as it nails its modernization. Well worth going to see, though not one that is a must-see-in-theaters.