Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is one of the classics of science fiction. Much like Frank Herbert's Dune, the sequels become less and less satisfying, but the first novel is perfection. The movie is an example of how difficult it is to make a film out of such a great novel.
Asa Butterfield plays the titular character, Ender Wiggin. Ender lives on a near-future Earth facing an alien menace. Insectoid creatures from space have already invaded Earth once, and their superior firepower almost overwhelmed us. Only the brilliant heroics of a pilot named Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley) saved the day. Now, Earth's energies are focused on producing the next generation of space fighters, hoping to find the next Mazer Rackham before the bugs attack again.
Ender Wiggin represents that hope. His older brother and sister were promising students, but his brother Peter is a cruel bully, and his sister Valentine lacked the killer instinct to be a soldier. Ender's parents were allowed to do something very few couples in this future Earth are allowed, which is to have a third child. The payoff is Ender, a brilliant kid with the right balance of empathy and aggression to be a future commander.
Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Anderson (Viola Davis) recruit Ender for Battle School. They take him to a space training station in orbit, where he and other child recruits engage in increasingly complex war games in preparation for the real battle ahead. Ender is an ace at the games, but navigating the social scene as the youngest, and smartest, kid there, is his real challenge.
Orson Scott Card's novel is a beautifully-written story, full of empathy for even its most hate-able characters. Much of the action takes place in the characters' heads, which was bound to make it difficult to translate the story onto screen. Screenwriter/director Gavin Hood does not have what it takes to pull it off. This is a book that probably should have either been a mini-series or been split into two films, as Denis Villeneuve did with "Dune." For a fan of the novel, this film feels superficial, with a hurried pace, as Hood ticks off major plot points and skips a few entirely. For someone who hasn't read the book, I imagine this just looks like a star-studded dud, without much of a point.
2 stars out of 5
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