Ender's Game

Like its hero, Ender’s Game relies on brains more than brute force. An absorbing portrait of Lord Of The Flies-style morality housed in imaginative sci-fi casing.

Straightforward, a bit literal-minded, very faithful to the book and largely compelling.

A bit of a tweener, neither triumph nor disaster, a war-games fantasy with a use-by date of Nov. 22, when the new "Hunger Games" movie comes out.

It falters once the actual war begins: Ben Kingsley shows up as a Maori warrior with the weirdest imaginable accent, the final battle is uninvolving, and there’s an unconvincing upbeat coda. Ender’s Game ends up being fitfully engaging and endearingly odd.

Ender’s Game’s only lyrical presence is Breslin’s. The actress has a gentle soul. In the end, she’s the movie’s mascot, and its mournful spirit.

Sure, it’s good-looking, cautionary and clever enough. But there’s not much in this “Game” that you’d call thrilling or fun.

Ender’s Game, the book, may have a special place in pop-lit. The movie, however, is as special as a migraine.

I didn't read the book but the movie is really good. Here we have this fantastical future where children are treated like they have brains (and hormones), and prepared for adulthood from a young age. The main character is a bit hard to believe, as he is a 13-year-old genius, hacker, laser marksman, master of space-battle tactics, who learned judo in about 5 days. I would discuss the parallels with American nationalistic imperialism, but it obviously went over most people's heads anyways. Great acting all around. Harrison Ford should retire now and end on a good note before he does something stupid like another movie with Shaih Bluff. 

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Poor adaptation of the book and misses a lot of the main points. Acting is quite terrible, particularly from Ford and Butterfield. Special effects are good but don't watch this movie if you have read the book or you will hate it.

I finally watched this movie because there was nothing else to watch on TV. To be honest I had been avoiding it. My antipathy to the book's author had kept me from watching it. I had read the Ender series a long time ago. I had actually liked it. It was based on an original idea. The key was Ender himself. I have nothing against Asa but he did not embody Ender. Primarily this failure should be blamed on the script--which was too mechanical and relied too much on dialogues with his commander. Interactions between Ender and his squad were almost non-existent. I also found the ending annoying. The writer/director/someone decided that Ender could not be the bad guy. The clumsy attempt to salvage Ender's humanity failed miserably.