Review of Ender's Game (2013) by Adam F — 30 Jun 2014

"Ender's Game" is a thought-provoking, tense film that's incredibly well acting and exciting all the way through. The film is set in the far future, where humanity is preparing itself for war. Back in 2086, Earth was attacked by an alien species called the Formics. Only through the efforts of Earth's greatest hero, Mazer Rackham were we able to survive the assault. Years later, with the threat of a new invasion looming, Earth decides that this time, it needs to be the aggressor. Not only that, but it needs to attack the Formics with such ferocity and force that they will forever regret attacking humanity and never, ever try to attack us again. It was discovered that children, because of their limited real-world experiences and capacity to quickly absorb new information are our best hopes. Promising youngsters are sent to special school where they are rigorously tested in the field of astrophysics, military strategy, hand-to-hand combat and problem solving. Our main character is seemingly, the perfect candidate to lead Earth's armada. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) displays just the right amount of compassion and aggressive behavior to do what it takes and make the necessary sacrifices to go to war. Or so Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) thinks. Ender is summoned to Battle School, where he is really put to the test. Meanwhile, it appears that the Formics are assembling their forces once again, a fleet far larger than the previous one before it.

It's been a long time since such an intelligent film about war and children has been made. In most movies, the training is the dullest part of the movie because you know that everything that is happening is merely foreshadowing for the big action sequence that is going to come and the characters introduced around the main character are inevitably going to be either bullies, friends who will lose their lives in a tragic/heroic fashion, or love interests. That is not the case at all here. Hailee Steinfeld plays Petra Arkanian, a girl who befriends and helps train Ender but their relationship is never more than platonic. Ender is far too young and far too stressed out with his homework to be worried about a girlfriend or anything like that. She becomes one of Ender's closest friends and you can see why. As one of the only girls in the school you know she's been picked on and has had to prove to everyone that she can be just as tough as the boys in her class. She naturally befriends Ender (who is transferred to her class by Graff) because of his small stature and the fact that he's ostracized from the very first day.

When it comes to the other characters in the film, they're all quite well developed. Ender's a master strategist so he understands that to truly defeat an enemy, you must get to know them. We get numerous moments where Ender confronts the people who bully him and tries to reason with them or come up with a situation where they can both be happy. His compassion makes him a leader that cares about the team and the people around him respond to it well. At first, people are jealous of him because he's top of the class but he never lets that go to his head. As the characters are put through gruelling tests, you can understand why so many of them appear on edge and pick on Ender. It's that much more satisfying when he outmaneuvers them and also believable when eventually they come around and befriend or respect him. This is the top-ranking military school where the star student will become admiral of the entire Earth army so you can expect a certain level of competitiveness and yet the students are children. That last fact means that even the bullies that don't quite redeem themselves are sympathetic in a way. It might not strike you until a character points it out, but these are child soldiers, training to go to war and carrying all of humanity on their shoulders.

When it comes to the training itself, it's just as exciting as any battle. Ender is an incredible strategist and a very intelligent young man so it's a real treat to see him in his day-to-day activities. Whether he's figuring out a way to outwit a bully that's significantly larger than he is, looking around in his classroom and trying to figure out who he should ask for help in order to break the ice or using creative thinking to solve "games", it stays fresh throughout and you can't wait to see what he will do next. Most exciting are the zero-gravity shootouts. Ender and his classmates are pitted against each other in a large battle room, where they are equipped with paralyzing pistols and they are put into teams. In zero gravity, the teams must take each other down using the soldiers at their disposal and the terrain supplied to them by their teachers without taking down too many losses. Seeing the young man as he comes up with strategies to defeat his opponents in combat is incredible. It's so exciting to see the training sequences, who actually have real stakes in them because of the drama it generates between the team members and the rival students that you never want it to end. That's where the tragic element comes in. This film is about war; the burden that rests on the shoulders of soldiers and generals, the implications of taking another person's life, the justification of attacking an opponent who has provoked you. All of these ideas are present here and the film really plays on the morality of the situation. As mentioned before, we've got child soldiers here. These a children, forced into combat. You've got higher ups manipulating the students in order to test them, trials that cannot be won just to see how the people will react, higher-ups tampering with people's privacy and governments lying to civilians in order to protect them. There is so much going on beneath the surface that you won't be able to catch it all the first time. This is a film that will stay strong even on multiple viewings because every time you will be able to focus your attention on a different aspect.

When the final exam comes around, it really is an exciting climax. It's all in a training room with holograms depicting what a real battle would be like, meaning you won't have that lame cliché you're used to in these war movies, where the guy looks at the photo of his wife and is about to tell his buddy about how much he loves when suddenly he gets shot down. Don't think that doesn't mean we aren't treated to some incredible special effects and moments of drama and heroism though. This climax is about emotion, all of the training, meant to turn these children into savage killers who will stop at nothing to avenge Earth are in front of their teachers and you don't know if you want them to win or not. But from a visual standpoint it's also very exciting. Not only in the final climax, but throughout the film we've got elaborate sets, genuinely convincing practical effects (particularly in the zero-G combat room) and CGI that's so exciting you'll forget the fact that it isn't real and the fact that even in the context of the film there aren't any actual ships flying around. We've also got excellent performances from everyone. Asa Butterfield is really proving himself to be a force to be reckoned with on the screen. He's perfectly cast as Ender and the supporting people around him create memorable world that you really get invested in.

The best science fiction is the type that contains real-world applications and reflects our reality. The facts and technology might be exaggerated, but that's the power of this style of storytelling and "Ender's Game" does it in spades. On the big screen it's an incredible experience, particularly the combat. I saw the movie in 2-D but wished I had seen it in 3-D. If you have been having mixed feelings about seeing "Ender's Game" because of the original author's attitude towards homosexual marriage, let me say this: I was blown away by the film. If anything, the attitude of Orson Scott Card is not reflective at all in the story. The movie calls for tolerance and compassion, particularly towards people (or species) we do not understand. On top of that, the author really has a small part in the whole film when you think about it. This production of $100 million + is a culmination of hundreds of people's work. The efforts of all of the actors, extras, special effects people, musicians, concept artists, caterers, gaffers etc., are far more than just the opinion of one person and everyone involved has distanced themselves from the man's opinion. Is this really even an issue, considering the book was written a quarter of a century ago, particularly considering the author's attitude would come as a shock to everyone considering the complex themes in the film? I really have to press on this point here. I could not believe that the man who wrote the book (which I read after seeing the film) had an attitude that was anything but completely accepting of all of the cultures on Earth, it left me scratching my head because there is absolutely no hint of it whatsoever.

As a film, I struggled to find flaws in "Ender's Game". It's the first part in a series of books but even if no sequels were produced this would be an incredibly captivating story. The characters are rich, the special effects top-notch and what would be the dullest, most predictable sequences in any other movie turn out to be so exciting you'll never want them to end. I can't recommend it enough. (2-D Theatrical version on Blu-ray, November 24, 2013).