Review of Ender's Game (2013) by James W — 25 Apr 2014

In Ender's Game, an alien race known as the Formics swarm our planet, and the only way to fight back is with super intelligent beings, young cadets are trained to fight back as an upcoming invasion beckons. Ender is the smartest, aiming to lead his army into war.

To me that sounds like a solid premise, yet the execution and overall production flops, leaving this story floating going nowhere. What went wrong? Well I'll state why I think it turned into a poor movie, the lack of quality and thought here is astounding to the point I questioned how can this quality as a movie?

First off, the actors, aside from Abigail Breslin, feel un-charismatic, Ass Butterfield looks lifeless and emotionless, cold and stern, a performance that is you could easily call a career lowlight. Harrison Ford is just bad, flat-out bad, phoning it in like he's been doing lately, there's no enthusiasm and he's no different to his personality you see on chat shows and other recent flicks: Bored. With Viola Davis criminally underused and Ben Kingsley feeling out of place, this is poorly performed which comes as a big shock.

As for the visuals they are middling and inconsistent, the zero gravity test field looks good but the space set scenes and Formics feel undone and TV FX in quality. The HUD displays, panels and computer screens look cool, but nothing truly feels up to scratch, and the basic camerawork and dull cinematography makes the whole feature feel incomplete. Ender's Game truly feels like a TV movie, a good story is wasted as mediocre performances, cheap visuals, a lack of adventure and decent characters overwhelm, a disappointing film.