"Ender's Game" Review

Having never read the book, I came into “Ender’s Game” without any expectations, and I came out wanting more.

The film starts out with some important exposition: fifty-years ago a race of aliens threatened the existence of humans. This was until a man named Mazer Rackham sacrificed his life to destroy the mother ship.

Now, the government is doing what it can to ensure these aliens do not make as much of an impact has they had previously. In order to do this, teenagers are trained to be war strategists. Their skill is monitored by how well they do in video games.

Fifteen-year-old Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield, “Hugo”) is extremely intelligent when it comes to the games. Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford*) sees this and recruits him to combat school--located in a space station just above Earth--to learn to become a great warrior.

There Ender and some other youth learn basic combat strategies through classes and a futuristic sport in an anti-gravity room. In the game, they are given specialized guns that react to the material in their suits, rendering them immovable. The team wins by either getting the most points by shooting each other or crossing the other team’s gate. If even one person accomplishes the latter, the entire team wins.

Graff knows of Ender’s full potential, and he singles him out as a leader. This is partly a test to see how he is going to react to animosity. Some of the other children are jealous of him at first. However, his understanding of strategy helps him in his social life. Eventually, he becomes popular, and a lot of the youth like him.

Ender gets promoted several times throughout the film. In one of the promotions he has to play on a team led by a vicious, prideful boy named Bonzo (Moises Arias, “Hannah Montana”). Bonzo is jealous of Ender’s intelligence and does not want him to progress. He forbids him from doing certain things, which includes learning basic strategies from a girl named Petra (Hailee Steinfeld, “True Grit”).

Ender eventually gets promoted a few more times. He ends up in command school, where he learns to lead an entire fleet. What Commander Graff has not been telling Ender is that there is an imminent threat: the alien race that was defeated previously is regrouping to attack earth. Ender needs to be trained quickly. In the end, something about the way the military is run is revealed.

One of the things that works in this movie is the performances. I heard a rumor that Ender is eleven years old in the novel. In the film, he is fifteen. This is actually a good choice on the part of the filmmakers. There is a vast difference in experience between an eleven-year-old and a fifteen-year-old that affects performance.

It is interesting to note that the quality in performances among the child actors differs across scenes. The beginning has a lot of exposition that we as an audience need to understand. During this time, the acting seems slightly stiff as they try to tell us about the state of our world in the future.

However, what works is the chemistry between them. Steinfeld and Butterfield as Petra and Ender have great scenes together. There is definite sexual tension between them. What is nice is they never have an actual romance. They do not kiss or become boyfriend and girlfriend. They never say “I love you,” or confess any kind of liking. The only reason we know they might be interested in each other is because of the way they act around one another. The film does a good job at showing, not telling.

There are also some excellent scenes between Arias and Butterfield. Arias does a great job at playing the cocky Bonzo. He and Ender are rivals, and this is never explicitly said. It is shown through some well-crafted scenes. I look forward to every time they are on-screen together. There is so much tension between them that keeps the audience involved. Something eventually happens with this relationship that is both shocking and satisfying.

Harrison Ford, as usual, nails it! In terms of acting ability, he has aged like fine wine. He has gotten better as the years have gone by. He does a great job playing a high-ranked military official who is intimidating, yet warm and sometimes humorous.

The visual effects are very well done. Like Harry Potter, this movie introduces an audience into a different world. In this one, teenagers are trained to be leaders in space combat. The filmmakers take advantage of this by giving us interesting shots of the space station, the planets, and space wars. This gives the audience yet another reason to keep watching.

The main problem this movie has is that some of some of the supporting characters are not given full exposure. As it was adapted from a novel, I could tell several of them are supposed to be more involved than they actually are. One example is Ender’s sister, Valentine (Abigail Breslin, “Zombieland”). My roommate, who had read the book, said she is supposed to have a much bigger role. While she is still important in the movie, she is in only two scenes, and we do not understand the entire significance of the relationship between her and Ender.

Another example is Ender’s brother, Peter (Jimmy “Jax” Pinchak, “The Polar Express”). He is in only one scene, yet he is mentioned throughout the movie. We know about his nature through exposition, and he is obviously important. However, like Valentine, he is not exposed to where we fully understand his and Ender’s relationship.

Despite these few flaws, I give this film 4.5 out of 5 stars. It is a very well-done, engaging film. Though some of the acting is stiff at times, the chemistry between some of the characters is excellent. There are also some surprises that left me in shock and wanting more.

Content: Rated PG-13. While there is no blood, there are some brutal fights where teenagers hit each other. There are air-combat scenes where planes and spacecraft are shot down. Very mild language.

*If you haven’t seen anything with him yet, stop what you are doing right now and watch “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and/or “Star Wars!”