SUMMER WARS

Like a particularly emo WarGames, the anime Summer Wars follows Kenji, a naive young math nerd with two semi-interesting problems. First, he finds himself on an intense vacation with the extended family of Natsuki, the girl he's got a huge crush on; second, somebody's framed him as the hacker who's attacking "Oz," an all-encompassing, all-important social network. Part YA romance, part family drama, and part sci-fi techno-mystery, it's occasionally gorgeous to look at-at times Summer Wars' visuals recall the surreal, vivid fun of Takashi Murakami, at others the detailed, confident grace of Hayao Miyazaki. But looks aside (and despite a runtime of nearly two hours), director Mamoru Hosada fails to nail down even a single engaging plot thread or character. (ERIK HENRIKSEN)