"I Watched It So You Don't Have To" - ENDER'S GAME

ENDER'S GAME 
2013 - 114 minutes - Sci-Fi/Action
Director: Gavin Hood
Country: United States
IMDB: 6.8
Metacritic: 51
RT: 62%

CinemaChagrin's Rating: D

Watch this movie if you enjoy:

• Science-fiction movies
• Asa Butterfield
• Harrison Ford
• Hailee Steinfeld

Avoid this movie if you dislike:

• Sloppy writing
• Seeing a beloved book butchered on the big screen
• More cheese than Wisconsin

[minor spoilers below]

Okay, so I should have seen that one coming.

Seriously, read the book!

Despite mostly mediocre reviews, some pretty underwhelming trailers, and questionable casting choices (who decided Viola Davis would be a good fit for a military-science fiction action film anyway?), I convinced myself to go see Ender's Game for a few reasons. One, no theaters in Greenville are playing 12 Years A Slave (a travesty!). Two, because the majority of the cast looked amazing (seriously, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, and Abigail Breslin? That's a lot of talent for one movie!). And most importantly, three, I am a HUGE fan of the book. I first read it in the 4th grade, and have probably reread/listened to it 4 or 5 times since then. It's an incredible work of fiction, with wonderful characters and a thoroughly gripping story.

Since it's publication in 1985, the book has had a well-deserved reputation of being nigh-unfilmable. And for good reason too: it features a six-year old protagonist, takes place over the span of several years, and features brutal murders and mass genocide on a galactic scale. Sounds like the perfect book for kids, eh? Well it actually is, in a manner of speaking. It's really a rare kind of book - one that can appeal to readers of all ages.

But enough about the book, I'll get to the point and talk about the movie. (And no, I will not talk about author Orson Scott Card's virulently homophobic views. Anyone who boycotts this movie because Card hates the gays needs to get off of their high horse. IT'S A MOVIE!) 

No seriously, I'll talk about the movie now. First things first: it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Yes, I know that is quite a low standard. But we've all seen how bad book-movie adaptations can go (Eragon still gives me nightmares). Sometimes they go remarkably well (Lord of the Rings, Fight Club, Apocalypse Now), but for the most part, they usually miss the mark. In a way, Ender's Game reminds me of last year's Hunger Games, in that they both are not terrible, but really not good either. Although the former's source material is of a much higher quality, and the movie turned out a little worse.

Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford), and Ender (Asa Butterfield) in Ender's Game

The gist of the plot is this: Earth was attacked by an alien race called the Formics (and pejoratively "the Buggers" in the book, after their bug-like appearance, but for some reason that term is NEVER used in the movie, which is puzzling) about 50 years ago. Tens of millions of people were killed. Humanity vowed never again to be caught off guard. The unified world government established a "Battle School" space station and drafted all of the world's child geniuses to become the next generation of brilliant military commanders in preparation for an impending Formic invasion. Our protagonist, Ender Wiggin, is of course the smartest of them all, destined to save the human race from annihilation. But not is all as it seems, of course.

Let me start with what I liked about the film. Don't worry, this won't take long: 

1. The acting all around was pretty strong for what the actors had to work with (which admittedly wasn't much). Asa Butterfield gave a solid performance as Ender, as did Hailee Steinfeld as Petra Arkanian. Newcomer Aramis Knight actually captured most of Bean's spunk pretty well. Harrison Ford was probably my favorite, as he did his gruff and tough guy role quite convincingly.

2. The visuals were pretty good overall (although for a budget rumored to be around $100 million, I was slightly underwhelmed - then again I just saw Gravity, which makes everything else look bad. But that was only made for a budget of $90 million! Hey, what gives??). Director Gavin Hood did a good job of visualizing many aspects of the book. The Battle Room looked really cool, as did the battle sequences between the Battle School armies. Apparently much of the Battle Room was a practical set, not all computer generated, which is impressive. I also thought the animated rendition of Ender's "mind game" was very creative and well done. Quite disturbing, as it should be.

Petra Arkanian (Hailee Steinfeld) and Ender (Butterfield) share a tender moment

...and now for what sucked. First of all, when I see book-movie adaptations, I like to view them in two ways: 1) as a movie and 2) as an adaptation. Ender's Game isn't necessarily a terrible movie, but it is an ineffective adaptation. I won't delve into the nitty-gritty, but key subplots are completely obliterated, the roles of Peter and Valentine are essentially non-existent (what a waste of Abigail Breslin!), and many character relationships are altered or compressed to save time. 

Which leads me to my next point of contention: the pacing. The first 4/5's of the film move incredibly fast - to a point where things become incoherent at times. If I hadn't read the book, I may have had difficulty understanding what was happening. Characters feel paper-thin and extremely underdeveloped. However, during the closing act of the film, the pace slows to a crawl. With the plot essentially wrapped up and very little emotional depth to carry it, the film becomes uber-boring for the last 10 minutes or so. 

Ender gets a stern talking-to from Colonel Graff

As I mentioned previously, some of the casting decisions are somewhat puzzling. Viola Davis was horribly miscast as Major Anderson, and Game of Thrones actor Nonso Anozie did not seem to fit the bill for Sergeant Dap at all. And while I appreciated that Ben Kingsley appropriately voiced his dialogue in Mazer Rackham's Kiwi accent, it was very inconsistent and jarring at times. All of these are somewhat minor details though. 

I must say the writing was the single weakest aspect of Ender's Game. The dialogue was hokey (and not in a good way) and not fluid at all. It's always frustrating to see otherwise spectacular actors hamstrung by a poor script. One particularly irritating aspect of the writing involved the use of the word "game". There were several instances during the movie when characters would shout "It's just a game!" or "This isn't a game!" or something else about playing a "game". Stop trying to shoehorn the title of the movie into the movie so much!

A lackluster musical score didn't help buoy the film's prospects either. Seriously, 90% of Hollywood film music nowadays sounds exactly the same. Oh what I would give to go back to the glory days of Bernard Hermann, Miklos Rocza, and Franz Waxman. But I digress...

In the Battle Room

To wrap up, Ender's Game is not a complete failure, but it hardly lives up to its source material. A talented cast was largely wasted on a weak script and hurried plot. The movie looked and even felt like one giant video game (albeit one where you can't participate!), as so much of it involved digitally-generated action sequences. There is nothing wrong with a visual-centric film (see, Gravity) if the special effects serve a clear purpose. Ender's Game  just feels like an empty shell with a pretty coat of paint, despite all of the familiar characters and lines from the book that were awkwardly shoehorned in with little context ("Remember, the enemy's gate is down!"). Interestingly enough, though a lot of the CGI in the film looked good, most of the actual costumes looked pretty cheap. The Battle School jumpsuits alternated between janitorial garb and snorkeling wetsuits, while high-ranking officers wore uniforms that looked like something employees at a theme park would wear.

Overall, it's decent popcorn entertainment. Fans of the book probably will be let down in a big way, but those of you who have not read the book may enjoy it somewhat. I wouldn't recommend going out and paying to see it in theaters, but you could do far worse with $9. 

-CC

(One minor implausible wish: that the movie had been rated R. It would have been really cool for the filmmakers to have gone all out and made the hand-to-hand combat and "mind-game" scenes just as unrelentingly brutal and gruesome as they are in the book. But alas, a PG-13 rating sells more tickets for this kind of movie.)