Ender's Game

10/24/2014

Some kind of space Harry Potter in a dull story about doing a genocide US style as if it would be a video game. Boring and with the stupid "we are not so bad" ending to make everybody happy. Still wondering what Harrision Ford and Ben Kingsley are doing in this movie ...

6/6/2024

I doubt "Ender Wiggin" (Asa Butterfield) would be anyone's idea of a soldier but "Col. Graff" (Harrison Ford) reckons his reaction to some bullies might suggest he has more mettle than his weedy physique indicates. His bootcamp experiences are much the same with loads of muscle-bound bullies making his life difficult but "Graff" isn't interested in making his life any easier, despite the occasional protests of his sidekick "Anderson" (Voila Davis). Indeed he actually ups the ante considerably when the young man is introduced to the eccentric "Mazer" (Sir Ben Kingsley). A veteran of the ongoing deadlocked war with the "Formics" that everyone hopes can train the the young "Ender" to break. Butterfield does quite well here as the youngster but both Ford and Kingsley underwhelm with the latter

3/26/2026

**Score: 6/10 - A Technically Proficient, Emotionally Hollow Adaptation** There are certain books that lodge themselves in your psyche so deeply that decades later, scenes, lines, and questions still surface unbidden. Orson Scott Card's *Ender's Game* is one such novel. Published in 1985, it was a seismic work of speculative fiction, a brilliant, brutal, and morally devastating exploration of childhood, manipulation, and the terrible cost of victory. For those of us who read it forty years ago and still think about it, the 2013 film adaptation arrives with impossible baggage. Judged purely as a movie, it is competent, visually striking, and well acted. Judged as an adaptation of a foundational text, it is a profound disappointment. **What Works (On Its Own Terms):** **Visual Spect