The makers of “Ender’s Game” were faced with a gargantuan task: take a book about a group of young children saving the human race — a book that its author called “unfilmable”— and make it seem believable onscreen, all in less than two hours. While the film succeeds in keeping most of the plot intact, it loses much of the magic of the original book in the process.
“Ender’s Game” tells the story of Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield, “Hugo”), a young boy living in the distant-but-not-too-distant future. Several decades ago, Earth and its colonies were attacked by aliens known as “formics.” Just when it appeared all was lost for humanity, a general named Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley, “Iron Man 3”) miraculously turned back the invasion — although no one’s sure exactly how.
The story picks up with Ender being plucked from his home by Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford, “Paranoia”) and his sidekick Major Anderson (Viola Davis, “Beautiful Creatures”) to attend Battle School, an orbital space station where Earth’s next great commanders are trained to repel any future formic invasions. The film follows Ender’s adventures through his training and beyond.
The first thing you’ll notice about “Ender’s Game” is the spectacular visuals, and there are plenty of opportunities for them to shine. Of particular note are the scenes in the battle room, a giant, glass-walled room in which Battle School students hone their combat skills in a zero-gravity environment. Slowly rotating camera shots go a long way toward capturing the disorientation of weightlessness. In general, the film’s visual direction is excellent and helps distract from some of the less-praiseworthy aspects of the movie.
“Ender” also manages to tackle many of the ethical and moral dilemmas posed by the book head-on. Without giving too much away, the book is about much more than a boy on a space station. While other writers and directors might have shied away from some of these thorny issues to make a more “approachable” movie, “Ender’s Game” gives them the discussion they deserve and is a better movie because of it.
While it’s common for a movie adaptation of a book to struggle where the book excels, it’s very rare for a movie to do something better than the book. “Ender” is no exception. Regardless of how enjoyable the book may be, the story itself is an absurd one, and no amount of fanciful writing (or filming) can change that. There simply isn’t a way to make a bunch of super-genius, pre-pubescent children training to lead Earth’s armies seem realistic.
This is especially apparent in the movie’s dialogue, which is often awkward and artificial. The dialogue was less than perfect in the book, and putting it onscreen only amplifies those problems.
On the other hand, one of the most enjoyable parts of the book is the substory of Ender’s rise through the ranks of the Battle School commanders. It served to familiarize the reader with a new cast of characters at the school who become very important later on in the story. In attempting to fit all the major plot points into a single feature film, however, the script misses a good chunk of Ender’s life at Battle School. While this part of the story isn’t strictly necessary for the plot, removing it makes the friendships formed later on seem unrealistic, and ultimately cheapens the emotional payoff of the story.
Even with its flaws, “Ender’s Game” makes for an extremely enjoyable movie — especially in IMAX. Given time constraints, it holds reasonably true to the book, which makes it hard to go too wrong. If you’ve already read the book, seeing the characters and story brought to life makes seeing the movie worth it on its own. If not, the movie’s visuals and interesting (if not totally complete) plot makes it worth the watch.
3 out of 5 stars
