Directed by:
Gavin HoodScreenplay:
Gavin HoodCinematography:
Donald McAlpineComposer:
Steve JablonskyCast:
Asa Butterfield, Abigail Breslin, Hailee Steinfeld, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Moises Arias, Aramis Knight, Nonso Anozie, Andrea Powell (more)VOD (1)
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The near future. A hostile alien race have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young minds to find the future Mazer. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy but strategically brilliant boy, is recruited to join the elite. Once there, he's trained by Rackham himself to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race. (eOne Films International)
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Reviews (10)
I had been avoiding Ender's Game for years, knowing it was a pure young adult film. I finally gave it a chance, and I wasn't far off in my assumption. It is young adult, but it's also so intense at times that even I found some moments hard to watch. The strength of the story lies in how the young protagonists are treated as adults. The supposed game blurs with reality, all wrapped in the defense of Earth against an impending alien attack. I struggled to reconcile the youthful faces with their mature dialogue. But the finale completely floored me and ultimately made me add that fourth star. This film made me realize when boys become men, and it's not a pleasant realization.
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Ender’s Game is very good as an illustration of its source material. The film retains the full range of motifs from Card’s phenomenal book. In spite of that, however, the conversion from one medium to another still doesn’t work nearly as well as it does in, for example, Watchmen. The weakness of Ender’s Game in this case lies in the fact that, unlike Watchmen, it doesn’t involve a narrative in which the characters are symbols or, more precisely, different facets of a central theme, but rather that the title character is at its centre. Throughout the book, Ender undergoes complex development and the narrative carefully constructs the different facets and aspects of his personality. All of this is left out of the film and, in an effort to preserve all of the key plot points, the film simply rushes from one scene to the next instead of engaging in the deeper depiction and psychologising of the character. It is necessary to acknowledge that when the viewer analyses the film, it’s possible to find fragments of a rather complex character. However, when actually watching the film, one finds that Ender inevitably remains only a puppet dragged from one twist to another. If the filmmakers had used the interludes between sequences to focus on the protagonist and his loneliness and inner feelings instead of on gratuitous money shots of space, Ender’s Game might have turned out even better.
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Smart and intelligent sci-fi, thematically quite original and rather dark. Occasionally it reminded me of some non-action passages from Minority Report with its gloominess and detachment. But it is extremely unfriendly towards the audience. Some will admire this film, while the majority will see it once and give a nod of agreement. It is not pleasant sci-fi, it is a probe into the mind of a killer. Excellent psychology, rather iconic action.
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I wanted it, but I didn't believe. I was waiting for the soft version of Carda for teenagers, but Hood pleasantly surprised me. He preserved all the main thematic elements of the original, just compressed it, trimmed it and significantly simplified it (most of the earth storyline is missing and a number of episodes from the cadet storyline are missing). For me, the film was lacking a bit of the more precise rebirth of the main character, but Butterfield was able to capture Ender's inner dilemma well, even in a small area. The cool, mechanical direction sometimes perfectly preserves the atmosphere of the original, and despite the other half losing a bit of tempo (also due to the fact that Ender's relationship with his sister / brother is more of a purposeful explanatory tool than a functional part of the narrative), the conclusion is just as uncomfortable and hard as it should be. The only unfortunate adaptation decision can be considered the compression of the time frame. After all, the point stands out better when it is spread out over a horizon of years, not days (the film, of course, chooses a more dramatic and tight framework, which does not necessarily help the urgency of the message). The twisted visual aspect is more so a bonus, thanks to which the film could not start working. The interplay between the characters (Ford's great return!) and the disturbing emotional withdrawal are essential. There is no need to fall in love with Ender and his world - one should either respect him or hate him, in full accordance with the strictly rational original. Thanks to this, Ender's Game is more of a film endemic. I have no idea where the film will actually be spread outside the territory of lovers of old school sci-fi (it has more ideas than fun and gloss). This is a full-blooded, dark and unusually ambitious sci-fi, which fails to penetrate the minds of the genius warlord / assassin as deeply as in the book, but at least it stands as an attractive addition to it. This is also because it is easy to write into it the missing and indicated context. Hood simply remained exceptionally reverent... and uniqueness is rewarded by loneliness, even Ender knows this well... [75%]
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I don't know the source material, so I might have been surprised... And there was definitely something to be surprised by. The film is unexpectedly serious, conversational and simply acted, with neither special effects nor action playing a major role, and I was very pleased with that. Just like the protagonist, who is not the classic whiny poor guy nobody trusts, but a confident young man who goes after what he wants - or rather, what others want him to go after. Harrison Ford got a lot of space, which is also fine, Ben Kingsley was more of an ornament, but an important one. I didn't expect the ending, and its idea - and therefore the idea of the whole film - is commendable. It's a pity that the music is bland and unimaginative and there are a few illogical things - why none of the adults came up with the final strategy, for example (the book might explain it). Despite the fact that I liked Ender's Game quite a bit, I could do without a second part. For as we know Hollywood, it might not be so sympathetically "un-movie-like" anymore. Three and a half.
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