Movie Review: Ender's Game (2013)
Written by Anthony Sargon
It's always tricky adapting a popular novel; taking any sort of creative liberty with the material can alienate the fan-base, but being too faithful to the source material can also push more casual viewers away. As a person who has never read the seminal "Ender's Game", I can say that the movie stood pretty well on its own, although there was definitely room for improvement.
After planet Earth is attacked by an alien race called the Formics in the year 2086, the International Fleet begins to prepare for the next invasion by training young children in the hopes of finding the next leader who can end the war for good. Our protagonist, Ender Wiggin, is chosen to join the International Fleet and attend battle school, and maybe one day lead the humans to victory against the Formics.
The first thing that surprised me about "Ender's Game" was Asa Butterfield's performance as Ender; it was great. Butterfield is clearly a very talented and promising actor, and I'm sure this is going to lead to even bigger and better things. Another thing that surprised me was the fact that the movie was directed by Gavin Hood. For those of you who don't know who that is, let me give you a clue: "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." Yeah, that guy. But he actually manages to do a really good job here; he gets great performances out of the cast, and also knows how to stage impressive action sequences.
The rest of the cast does a good job as well, and it's especially great to see Harrison Ford in a science fiction flick again. Ford plays Colonel Graff, a character who has a lot of faith in Ender, but who sometimes pushes the character too far. Viola Davis is very solid as Major Anderson, but Ben Kingsley is a tiny bit over the top as Mazer Rackham, and his ridiculous face tattoos don't help matters much either.
Like I mentioned earlier, the film's action can be really cool, especially all the zero gravity stuff. The battle simulations are also very visually arresting and pretty intense to sit through.
What was a little disappointing is the fact that the movie didn't fully capitalize on its themes. For a movie about kids essentially becoming our military, there was very little reflection as to whether or not that's a good idea. There are other under-explored themes as well, but I can't get into those without spoiling the plot.
Anthony's Verdict:
I honestly walked into "Ender's Game" with considerably low expectations, but left the theater feeling pretty satisfied. It's a solidly directed and acted science fiction flick that poses some big questions, and while the answers we get aren't all that fulfilling, it's a good time nonetheless.
Numerical Score: 7/10
Read the Original post on A Geek's Blog
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