Ender’s Game is set in the future after an alien race almost exterminated the human race. The alien race, known as the Formecs, was thwarted by a brave pilot named Mazer Rackham, played by Ben Kingsly.
The Formecs retreated from Earth, but they were far from defeated. Ever since the Formecs retreated from Earth, the military began recruiting the most intelligent children to go to Battle School and learn how to become perfect military leaders.
Ender Wiggin played by Asa Butterfield, is chosen to go through this training and is considered to be the most promising of all the recruits.
The first half of the movie is focused around Ender as a character and his experiences with the other children. The strong performance of Asa Butterfield allows director Gavin Hood to easily illustrate the character’s development of Ender as he attends Battle School. To Colonel Graff, played by Harrison Ford, Ender is his star pupil.
Ender doesn’t just win, he proves that he is the best, and no one comes close to him. Ender dominates every challenge given to him. Although the second half of the movie is focused more on narrative, there are still many moral dilemmas that help Ender’s character develop even more.
Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley give stellar performances in the movie; however, the rest of the cast is not so convincing. For the most part, the supporting characters are not on screen enough to properly develop.
Many relationships are simply glossed over and not given the attention they need. Major Anderson, played by Viola Davis, is not given enough time to be Colonel Graff’s moral antithesis, even though she is clearly meant to be. Many of the characters suffer from this problem while others were simply not cast in the right role.
The special effects in the movie are fantastic. Hood does an excellent job of giving the movie a dark feel from beginning to end. The sleek, futuristic designs of the space stations and star ships also complement the movie’s setting. Every scene is beautiful and gives the movie the sci-fi feeling that it needs.
Overall, Ender’s Game is an entertaining movie. Even with its low points, Ender’s Game is an exciting, thought-provoking story of adversity, coming of age and manipulation that will have audiences asking questions long after the movie is over.
