Ender's Game

There has been a film I have wanted to see for a long time, long before I knew it was being made.  My first encounter with this story was with the printed word.  That's right reader, I read books as well...sometimes.  In fact, this story belongs to a series of books, which were then turned into comic books, and most recently transformed into a big screen movie.  The story I am referring to is Ender's Game, but I'm sure you already knew that (look up).  The moment I heard this was becoming a film I got all geared up and ready to go.  I discussed the idea with friends, studied the IMDB to learn who was who, and made sure that I got to see it opening weekend (which I did, then I spent the next week plus writing this review).  Now if only Ender's Game the movie was as excited to be brought off the pages as I was to watch it.

Ender's Game has a very complicated story line, one which was probably too complicated to depict in a 2 hour film.  Think Lord of The Rings complicated, only Ender's Game wasn't spread between 3 x 3 hour films; this was both good and bad.  Good because the story may have seemed awkward if it were split, and parts maybe would have been too drawn out.  Not everything in the book was pertinent to the film.  Also, unlike LotR, EG was a less popular story, and not nearly as old, so this film really had to hit home or nothing.  Science fiction all though popular, is still a tough act to sell.  Now on the reverse of this, having one film was bad because the story is so complex that the 114 minutes (I rounded up before, sue me) of film time made the story too disjointed and condensed; there's a reason there's more than one book.  What took days, weeks and years in the book took one scene in the film or a hand full of minutes, making it seem as though the time frame was 10 weeks, not 10 years. Also, key elements to the character development in the book seemed to barely be touched upon.  One example to this, is that in the book, Ender was 6 years old when he began battle school, and graduated at 10 years old.  Upon graduating, he then moved onto command school.  In the film, Ender appeared to be around 12 years old, and the 4 years at battle school seemed to be a few weeks.  This kind of discrepancy in the story is subtle enough to move along the story, yet makes that same story difficult to follow properly, especially if you had read the book.

Say what?!!!!

When I was leaving the theater I overheard multiple people as they expressed negative feelings towards what they saw.  Now I don't know if these people had been around this story before or not, but I can assume that for people experiencing Ender's Game for the first time, this film seemed a little wacky.  I'm sure there were a few elements which made little to no sense to them, yet if they had read the book, then they would understand what was briefly shown.

What was shown was grandiose, beautiful, while being shockingly terrifying.  The look of Ender's Game was everything I wanted it to be and more.  Sean Haworth and Ben Procter, the film's Production Design team, took the words straight off the page and created a very accurate and beautiful look to the film.  AWESOME!!!!  I mean just the way the battle room functioned and appeared was what my brain screen depicted when I read this tale.

To infinity and beyond!

As mentioned above, the length of the film was problematic with a lot of these cool scenes and situations.  What wasn't problematic was the acting.  This film utilized actors whose faces you may not know, as well as some faces you'd know by the sound of their voice.  Starring as the main battle school kids were: Asa Butterfield as Andrew Ender Wiggin, Haillee Steinfeld as Petra Arkanian, Aramis Knight as Bean.  These names make up what I would consider the least known of the bunch, yet the most important to the story.  The actors whose names you would know include: Viola Davis as Major Gwen Anderson (Anderson was male in the book, pre-op of course), Sir Ben Kingsley as Mazer Rackham, and Harrison Ford as Han So...oh wait wrong film, I mean Colonel Graff.

Ender my boy, please come in.

Question: What do you get when you take a very successful yet somewhat crazy sci-fi story and throw in good acting, and the likes of that guy above?
Answer: Ender's Game the film.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anything about Oscars or awards for this film, but I am saying that the acting and presentation of the characters was beyond my expectations.  Most of this brilliant acting came not from the above pictured man, nor the other Academy Award recognized names mentioned in the previous paragraph, rather, Asa Butterfield.  This kid blew me away with his talent.  What you have to know about Ender Wiggin is that he is pushed through the paces at an extremely accelerated rate.  In the film I believe it is supposed to be around a month's time, but in the book, it is over the course of some years.  However, in both cases of this story short and long, it is quite a bit faster than all of the other children in the same program.  Ender is graduating the schools and positions years before he should.  So, one can imagine the amount of tension and pressure and emotion Ender would be under/go through, and this was conveyed very realistically through the acting abilities of Asa Butterfield.  



  

Final Words: Medium Popcorn 
Even though I had been waiting for years to see the Big Screen version of Ender's Game, that had little sway over what I had seen.  This was a good thing, since the bias wasn't there.  I think this film was a fine showing of the story, but not a great version.  I do think that the big screen lended itself to the grandness of battle school and the bugger invasion, but probably the early-bird time slot, not the bank-breaking slot.

Until next time, happy viewing!

Review Rating based on popcorn sizes: small, medium, large, extra-large; 

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