Summer Wars is part family drama, part sci-fi adventure. It tells the story of a family birthday reunion alongside a hacking debacle in a virtual reality world used by everyone.

Kenji Koiso is hired by Natsuki Jinnouchi to pretend to be her fiancé in front of her large family and formidable grandmother. While there Kenji integrates into the family in a rather strange way by working alongside them to put an end to a problem in Oz, the virtual reality they all participate in, that is currently wrecking havoc in the world.

I went into this completely blind and came out of it pleasantly surprised. It was definitely not the movie I was expecting, and not the “wars” I was imagining. As the summary above mentions, it combines two story elements that you wouldn’t think to normally combine, and the resulting experience is an interesting one. Though I mostly enjoyed it, I have mixed feelings about the unlikely pairing.

On one hand, adding the sci-fi aspect to the family drama, infuses the latter with a certain level of energy and freshness and adds a touch of lightheartedness to it that precludes too much melodrama. It also serves to move the story forward. In line with this, adding some family drama to the sci-fi escapade, gives the sci-fi element more weight, contextualizes it, and raises its emotional stakes.

On the other hand, however, placing the two together is incongruous enough that it can sometimes feel like watching two separate movies at once. Plus because of the split in narratives, the movie is unable to focus on just one, resulting in a lack of depth to each to the storylines.

Personally, I would have preferred to see more of the family drama. I love how the movie portrays it as both charming and chaotic, and it makes me almost regret not going to more reunions. Every shot is filled with vitality, and my eyes always manage to land on some kind of activity happening in the background. A little bit of romance is added at end, and though it feels rushed and unearned, I’m not that bothered by it because I see it as just peripheral to the main story. The sci-fi half of it is beautiful and presents an interesting premise of worldwide virtual involvement and dependence, but that’s about it. It mainly follows a generic hacking plot line and doesn’t introduce the virtual world to us beyond its basic appearance and functions.

It’s a bizarre, wacky film that has some flair and heart to it, but it could have benefited from a deeper and longer exploration of many of its elements. There is some emotional resonance, but not enough to leave a lasting impression. And while I enjoy the off-kilter sense to it, it does not fully succeed in completely showcasing its two storylines.