Ender's Game (2013)

Directed by: Gavin Hood
Country: USA

Movie Review: “Ender’s Game” is a flat sci-fi adventure written and directed by Gavin Hood (“Tsotsi”, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”), based on the novel of the same name by Orson Scott Card. Asa Butterfly plays the hero, Ender Wiggin, a bullied teen student who unexpectedly brings to light all the requirements to become the protégé of Colonel Graff, performed by a discreet Harrison Ford. He will join his Battle School’s training program destined to protect the Earth from Alien creatures called formics. Once there, internal issues arise involving another leader called Bonzo, but eventually Ender ends up leading is own team. Defying gravity, Ender’s training battles are nothing more than boring, floating movements and random rays traveling the air, while the computer games turned into dreams seemed too stupid to deserve some credit. Even with its (minor) twists, the story remained uninteresting and especially non-thrilling till the end. Strategies’ definition along with simulations of war continues to be presented in a dragging pace, even after the former war-hero Mazer Rackham pulls Ender to its limits with the most difficult tests. Most of the time I had the sensation that the film was deceiving me somehow, with its pointless simulated scenes and confusing, patterned, and loaded special effects that seemed more fireworks in the sky. The generally well-accepted book from 1984 simply didn’t work on film, though a probable sequel relying on these production values just doesn’t excite me.