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How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ This article is a review of ENDER'S GAME.
24 October 2013
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“The way we win matters,” Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield)
It is a rare for a generic film to be elevated by its ending. The key to any cinematic experience is how the narrative winds up, and even engrossing tales are more often than not finished with an obvious or bland conclusion. So with a derivative work, and ENDER’S GAME feels such through much of its runtime, an even more unusual occurrence is for a climax to cause re-assessment of what one has just been watching.
Fifty years before ENDER’S GAME is set, Earth was attacked by an alien species, the Formics. Millions died. Thanks to the kamikaze self-sacrifice of the greatest commander, Mazer Rackham, destroying an alien mother ship, in an INDEPENDENCE DAY-stylee, our world was saved. The opening is groan-inducing. The convenience of destroying not only one spaceship, but just one alien, to rescue the day reeks of laziness. The explanation is that the aliens are akin to ants with a hive mind – kill the queen, kill them all. Interstellar travel surely requires a more sophisticated societal set-up?
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The Earth’s international fleet has been created to be ready for a future invasion. The leaders have realised that children are the best fighters, having been weaned on computer games. So a command school has been created to sift out the brightest strategists and fiercest combatants. Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis) have spotted greatness in 12-year-old Ender, and see him as potentially the planet’s best hope. They have spotted. We told stuff about him, but it is unsatisfyingly demonstrated on the screen. We are also not really shown why children are better tacticians than adults. ENDER’S GAME turns into HARRY POTTER, where there is pseudo-Quidditch, adolescent rivalry, and one-upmanship against the titular maybe-saviour.
The enemy is faceless and there is no talk of diplomatic solutions. The warmongering is disturbing, especially among children. The attention to detail is not here. What year is this? Where in relation to Earth do the Formics live? A spaceship is seen travelling to their world, does it get there through travelling at/faster than light speed? Why are there not Formic captives being questioned? We are not in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (remake) intelligence/creativity territory.
As a slice of entertainment for kids, ENDER’S GAME is likely to sate, but teenagers and above will be constantly waiting for something interesting to happen. Eventually it does. Less than 10 minutes from the end. It is not enough.
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