Ender's Game (2013) review

When it was released in 1985, ‘Ender’s Game’ was a huge success, so much so that the United States Marine Corps, along with many other military organizations, have it listed on their recommended reading lists. But as far as getting a film adaptation for the story off the ground, that took a while because author Orson Scott Card believed that it was ‘unfilmable’. Something must have changed his mind over the last few years because now, in 2013, nearly 3 decades since the book was released, the film adaptation has finally hit theaters under the direction of Gavin Hood. I will admit that I went into this movie flying rather blind because I had not read the book. Also, I guess you can say I was rather nervous seeing how Hood’s last film was the god awful ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’. But as a whole, the film turned out quite good. Not only does Hood manage to redeem himself from his previous film, but it’s well-acted and while I can’t officially say whether it did a good job at representing its source material, the themes explored in the story are pretty thought-provoking.

In the year 2086, an alien race known as the Formics attempt to invade Earth. It was only through the efforts of commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley) that the invasion was thwarted, preventing the invaders from taking over the planet. But, with another invasion likely, the International Fleet begins to train young children in the hopes of finding the next candidate to lead the Fleet against the Formics. Andrew ‘Ender’ Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), the youngest of three children in his family, is chosen by Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Anderson (Viola Davis) to join the cadets who are currently training at the elite ‘Battle School’. There, he is put to the test in a series of war-games and begins to not only gain the respect of his peers but prove to his superiors that he is the perfect candidate to lead the fight to save humanity.

From the perspective of someone who hasn’t read the book, it seems like this movie did a solid-enough job of staying faithful to the book. According to Scott Card, the main reason why he thought the book was ‘unfilmable’ was because ‘everything takes place in Ender’s head’. In that regard, some emotional resonance might be lost, but as a whole, the key themes of the book are still pretty relevant. The ideas that Card explores in this story are very interesting, like the effects of war not just on a whole society, but certain individuals as well. The ending in particular puts the main character of Ender in a situation that he doesn’t want to be in. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t give it away but it raises the question of whether or not one may view their actions as being the right thing to do. It’s quite a bold route that Card took and this translates well on the big screen.

As far as the film goes, Hood manages to move away from some of the problems that plagued his last film ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’. For the record, that film wasn’t entirely his fault (the material was sort of uninspired in the first place) but that film lacked proper direction. With this film, it has much better direction and the action scenes/visual effects are much better. The film also benefits from solid performances by the entire cast. In the lead role of Ender, Asa Butterfield carries the whole movie on his back and he does a great job at conveying Ender’s emotions. This kid is certainly up there amongst the better child actors working in Hollywood today. Harrison Ford is equally terrific in the role of Colonel Graff, giving a far more subdued performance than expected. As for the rest of the cast, they are excellent as well, but most of them (Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, etc.) don’t exactly play big roles in the film.

I went into this film having not read the book, but now I’m very much intrigued to do so. Was this story ‘unfilmable’ like Orson Scott Card said? Well, that depends on how you look at it. Card mentioned that the main reason why the story would be hard to adapt because it mainly took place inside Ender’s head, so the writing may have lost some emotional resonance in the transition to film. But, compared to a film like ‘Cloud Atlas’, which went all over the place because of its multiple storylines, it seems like this story was rather easier to adapt to the big screen. The key ideas that are explored in this story are still there, and the ending in particular will leave you thinking. Casting is also quite excellent, with terrific performances all around, especially from Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford. I’m not certain if this will lead the way for a new film series, mainly because the next entry in the series, ‘Speaker of the Dead’, takes place 3000 years after the events of ‘Ender’s Game’ with Ender being about 35 years old at that point. Will they try and do it right away and change it so that Butterfield can still play the role? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Rating: 4/5