Redux Month - Ender's Game

We continue redux month with another book-based failed franchise starter and one of my earliest reviews, Ender’s Game.

I’m not attempting to distance myself from previous review, I do still stand by a lot of what I said, I just thought that bringing in the book would add some more perspective this one. Orson Scott Card is not a great human being. Anti-gay activist, equating homosexuality to paedophilia, you can guess where this is going. I did not know all of this when I originally bought the DVD, it just looked interesting to me, so I decided to pick it up.

I have since got rid of it, but thankfully it was up on Netflix so I didn’t need to order another copy. The critical result is just above the margin for Fresh ratings (with 61% with critics and 65 with audiences) but the box office doomed this film and the franchise that could’ve followed.

Enders Game is the story of Andrew Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), the third child in a time where having a third child is rarely allowed. His brother and sister both failed in getting into a Battle School, one for being too nice, and the other for being a psychopath. Ender is selected to join there since and we see that he does have strategic brilliance if still having a violent streak about him.

The world is training commanders for a battle against an alien race called the Formics, who had invaded Earth once before and only defeated thanks to a brave pilot named Mazer Rackam. Now it’s believed Ender may be the last hope for the human race but to save humanity, they may end up breaking him.

OK, one thing I said in my review that I don’t stand by is the performances. Some of them are really phoned in, none more so than Harrison Ford as Colonel Graff. Asa Butterfield is decent for such a young actor, sadly his career would veer more towards the lower end when it comes to quality. He almost became Spider-man so there’s that. Sean Bean also phones it in.

The battle sports in the Battle School look really good, making clever use of the placement of obstacles and the 0g environment, the action scenes tend to look a little more scattershot though, it’s not always easy to tell what’s happening. This is much more problematic in the invasion battles later on where I have no idea what’s happening at any time.

I like the realisation of the Mind Game, and the way it’s animated is pretty clever, the low budget it was given actually enhances its depiction and makes it different enough from reality that the motion capture isn’t as jarring.

Having read the book, it’s a fairly loyal adaptation. There are 2 components to what they cut out, a lot of the fluff with Ender had been cut, as he spent 5 years in Battle School in the book, his time doing constant games as a commander lasted for nearly a month. A few things had been switched around to accommodate but to me the largest and most interesting bit that was cut out was the subplot with Valentine and Peter.

Peter had grown upset with the state of the world and concocted a plan to change it in which he enlisted a slightly reluctant Valentine. They basically utilised fake news and outrage culture which I think is hilarious given the state of the world today. I’ll give Orson Scott Card this, he practically predicted the future.

But back to the film. I feel I may have missed the mark in my previous review by making everyone being an asshole a running gag when that’s the entire point of both the Novel and the film. I don’t feel it always makes it fun to watch, and I really don’t get what the deal was with Dap, but the intention is the same as the book. Never let Ender have to rely on anyone but himself.

Ender’s Game is solid if unremarkable with some notable half-assed performances.

Rating 55/100