Review of Ender's Game (2013) by Samir N — 20 Apr 2016

Ender's Game is directed and written by Gavin Hood who directed X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and it stars Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, and Ben Kingsley in a science fiction film about a kid named Ender (Asa Butterfeld) who is a genius that got Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis) noticing him who Hyrum believes that Ender is the one.

So they invite him to the space station to get trained to be the best with other kids. With the same director of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I didn't have that much expectations of it, but I saw that it has better reviews than his previous film, which got me curious to see it, and to my surprise, I really like the film.

The acting is terrific from Asa Butterfeld, Harrison Ford, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley, and some great actors. The premise is something that had been done multiple times, but what they put in it is something that I've not quite seen before, making it by itself and it definitely doesn't feel like a young adult movie adaptation like Hunger Games or Maze Runner.

The characters are good, especially the main character who has a lot of depth into him and is not like your typical child prodigy thanks to a surprisingly well written script by Gavin Hood. The ship that they created looks really cool, and the special effects are really polished and nice to look at.

The strategic scenes look really good and smart that I feel like the characters actually know what to do. The space fight scenes are exciting to watch, even if they are simulators. The score by Steve Jablonsky sounds really good as it fits to the film and make it more interesting.

There were some parts that I thought were going to a route, but it surprised me and it goes through a different route which makes me wonder about where the movie is going. While Ender's Game wasn't fantastic, it was very entertaining for me and I wished that there was a sequel.